New York, Apr 18: edy vs Cancer, the official comedy benefit show for blood cancer research at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK), returned to Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Frederick P. Rose Hall. The sold-out, one-night-only event raised $2.5million to support lifesaving blood cancer research at MSK.
Hosted by comedian Nick Kroll, the 2026 show brought together a powerhouse lineup of comedy’s finest, including Bridget Everett, Zarna Garg, Brett Goldstein, and Hasan Minhaj, who all showed up to support breakthroughs at MSK.
“Comedy has a unique power to bring people together, even in the face of something as serious as blood cancer,” said Kroll, co-founder of Comedy vs Cancer. “Every year, we get to help turn a night of laughter into real hope for patients and their families. At the end of the day, that’s what it’s all about.”
This year’s show celebrated honoree Erin Junkin, Co-Head of Television at WME and Founding Chair of MSK’s Entertainment Advisor Council, for her unwavering commitment to improving outcomes for people with blood cancer.
Comedy vs Cancer focuses on funding innovative early-stage research. In 2025, money raised by this community helped launch five new projects to better understand and target aggressive blood cancers such as acute myeloid leukemia and multiple myeloma. These studies feature a range of treatment approaches— from engineering an off-the-shelf chimeric antigen receptor T cell therapy to investigating whether lifestyle changes alone may slow cancer progression.
“At a time when funding for research is increasingly uncertain, the generosity of the Comedy vs Cancer community gives our scientists the freedom to ask ambitious questions and pursue discoveries that can genuinely change lives,” said Ivan Maillard, MD, PhD, Head of the Division of Hematologic Malignancies and Laurence Joseph Dineen Chair in Leukemia Research at MSK. “What begins as a bold research question today can become the breakthrough treatment of tomorrow — and that transformation is fueled by philanthropy.”
Founded by Niccole and Jeremy Kroll, Jennifer Rogers and Robert Carlock, and Nick Kroll and Lily Kwong, Comedy vs Cancer has raised $9.8 million for blood cancer research since 2019. This year’s show was made possible with generous support from 2025 Honoree, Carrie Goldberg and her husband Laurence; event sponsors Kreindler & Kreindler; Kleinberg, Kaplan, Wolff & Cohen, P.C.; K2 Integrity; Netflix; RBC Capital Markets; Twelve NYC; WME; as well as the Host Committee.
