Laughs Give Wellness Center a Shot in the Arm

If laughter is the best medicine, 220 locals got inoculated Monday night during the Wellness Community of Orange County’s benefit at the Irvine Improv. After drinks, dinner and speeches, guests were treated to a 90-minute show featuring comedy vets Dennis Wolfberg and Paul Reiser--two top-of-the-line talents greeted enthusiastically by the small but eager crowd.

With underwriter pledges totaling $28,000, proceeds from the $100-a-pop party were an estimated $35,000. The money will be used for general operating costs at the year-old Wellness Community center in Santa Ana, which provides support services for more than 600 cancer patients and their families each month.

Onstage

While the comedians were riding a limo south, a parade of speech-makers trouped on stage for the requisite thank-yous and acknowledgments.

Passing the microphone like a relay baton--and working the room into a trance from which emcee Wolfberg soon awakened them--the welcoming committee included Orange County Supervisor Harriett M. Wieder, who was instrumental in establishing a Wellness Community center here; executive board member Carole Eichen Passovoy; Executive Director Vicki Goldish and Program Director Barbara McKone; and Linnea Graves, a Wellness Community support group member who described the “total panic and loss of control” she felt after learning she had cancer.

Wellness Community founder Harold Benjamin, who heads the national office in Santa Monica, brought “two messages.” The first, he said, was that “the most important word in our name is community. We’re the people who run the joint, but you’re the community--you’re the people who make this thing work. Without you, we’re nothing.”

For his second message, Benjamin recounted a phone call he received from Walt Disney Co. representatives in August, 1988.

“They said they were building a major new pavilion at Epcot Center . . . and in it there was going to be an exhibition called ‘The Frontiers of Medicine,’ ” Benjamin recalled. “The exhibit was going to cover the three most significant matters which have impacted the evolution of health care--AIDS, gene splicing and the Wellness Community.”

Benjamin squinted at the crowd through the bright stage lights. “That’s shocking,” he said. “That told me we have arrived.”

Onstage, Part II

Arriving not a moment too soon, the pros got to work.

Wolfberg came to play at the second annual benefit in memory of his high school friend Ron Hoffman, a member of the Wellness Community of Orange County’s executive board until his death from cancer in 1988.

The bug-eyed comic--winner of last year’s American Comedy Award for best male stand-up-- made only passing reference to the circumstances of the party. “It’s a little strange as a comedian who comes to a a nightclub for a festive occasion,” he said, eliding the “C” word. Then it was straight to the punch lines.

Wolfberg’s anecdotes careened from the South Bronx, where he taught high school for 12 years, to the doctor’s office where his wife underwent artificial insemination. “The month we ‘scored’--I think that is the correct medical term,” he said, “I achieved paternity in stall number three .”

With Wolfberg came his buddy Reiser (who in addition to the comedy circuit has been featured in television’s “My Two Dads” and the movies “Diner” and “Alien,” among others), and a lesser talent named Michael Hampton Caine (who flat-lined the show’s pace with his bunny-in-the-headlights stiffness and a startling lack of material).

Who’s Who

Sara Ruckle and Eileen Phillips co-chaired the event. Among table sponsors were Donna and John Crean, Joanne and Ronald Birtcher, Marilyn and Tom Walley, Debby and Jack Dangelo, Sharon Albers-Beaird and Thomas Beaird, and Barbara and Ben Harris (who also hosted the underwriting party). The benefit committee included Taro Barsoti, Cyndy Kupper, Paula Millman and Pam Reighard.

Quote

“Something about the Wellness Community has a magic that attracts angels,” mused Vicki Goldish. With a beatific smile, she surveyed the crowd. “Dennis (Wolfberg) is an angel, Harold (Benjamin) is an angel. Our entire board flies in every month--with wings and halos.”