Laugh for a cause
Comic’s show to benefit Parkland students.
Comedian Heather McDonald is hoping to lighten the load for the students and their families affected by the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting.
McDonald, who rose to stardom as a panelist on the late-night comedy talk show “Chelsea Lately,” is turning her standup comedy show into a Tuesday benefit at Boca Black Box Center for the Arts for the victims of the mass murder.
“I just wanted the people in that community to have a laugh,” McDonald says. “I’m not making a speech or anything. The money is going to the victims and good causes. I don’t know what they are going to need, but they are going to need a lot.”
The benefit for the Stoneman Douglas Victim’s Fund came about when Michael DiMartino, a local fan of McDonald’s podcast “Juicy Scoop,” felt that the comedian’s downto-earth persona would make her approachable for doing a fundraiser.
“Growing up in that area … in Coral Springs and right on the edge of Parkland, Douglas was one of our rival schools,” DiMartino says. “A lot of my friends went to that school, and now a lot of their children go to Douglas. It wasn’t hard for me to put myself in the hallways of that school. I was quite literally heartbroken. It just hit so close to home. It really hurt. I didn’t know what there is I could do.”
But then, not long afterward, DiMartino was listening to “Juicy Scoop” on his commute to work at the Renaissance Boca Raton hotel and the gossipy take on pop culture and celebrity lifted his spirits.
“I was listening to her podcast, and it was the first time I had laughed or chuckled,” recalled DiMartino.
McDonald, who has three children, says she was deeply affected by the school shooting as well.
McDonald has been producing the podcast, for two years. Now twice weekly, “Juicy Scoop” gets a million downloads every month.
“It’s been the surprise success of my career,” she says. “I do a show every Tuesday and Thursday, at least an hour, sometimes an hour and a half. People listen to it working out, or women breastfeeding or during their commute. I had no idea how it was a part of people’s routines”. ”
The “Stoneman Douglas Benefit Show With Comedian Heather McDonald” will begin 8 p.m. Tuesday at Boca Black Box Center for the Arts, 8221 Glades Road, No. 10, in Boca Raton. Tickets cost $30. To order, call 561-483-9036 or go to BocaBlackBox.com.
rhagwood@southflorida.com