One part Paris Hilton, one part Mick Jagger, one part Bono. Add in some toxic humour, some sickly sheen and some blobby lumps and what do you get? A smoking, singing, dancing, deluded narcissistic egomaniac of a character with a suave accent? Something you'd like to smack down…with a pool noodle?
You'd be surprised.
Confused?
We're talking about CANCER.
I had a little tete-a-tete with the "celebrity" that is "cancer." It turns out it feels quite connected to such personalities as Paris Hilton and Mick Jagger, and while you may not openly decide to party with cancer, it can really grow on you…
Bruce Horak is the mind behind the matter. He created his one-man cabaret-style performance, aptly titled "This is Cancer," starring himself as, you guessed it, "cancer." I caught up with his act at the Fringe Festival in Edmonton, North America's largest Fringe theatre festival. A cancer survivor, and Canada's only legally blind actor (having lost 90% of his vision to the disease), Bruce has created the human embodiment of cancer in "This is Cancer" to provide people with a venue to humorously "face" the disease. With Bruce's superb comedic timing and stellar dance moves, the show is really more about lightly examining life's lumps and bumps than it is about getting too serious.