Stand-up comedian Quincy Jones moved to Los Angeles in 2011 with the dream of hitting it big. Now, as he approaches the end of his life, those dreams are becoming a reality.
Jones, 32, was diagnosed with terminal stage four mesothelioma in 2015, but not prepared to exit this world without leaving some sort of a legacy behind him. Thus came the idea to produce a stand-up comedy special through funds raised on Kickstarter.
The page quickly gained traction and the story was picked up by outlets like the A.V. Club. What started as a goal of $5,000 was quickly exceeded, and the cause has now raised more than $50,000.
“My biggest fear used to be—before cancer—it’s the same one I have now. Dying without leaving anything. Dying before I have the chance to do the shit I wanna do,” Jones says in the Kickstarter video. “So this would be my opus. This would be my legacy I’m leaving here. That’s it, you know? You just want to feel like you’re giving something to the universe. You wanna feel like you’re leaving something.”
Jones’ story even caught the eye of Ellen DeGeneres. She invited him onto her show to talk about his special, and unbeknownst to Jones, give him some fantastic news: He’s definitely going to be leaving something behind — an HBO special, to be exact.
In addition to calling HBO (where she’s had numerous stand-up specials of her own during her comedy career), Degeneres also gave Jones $15,000 from Shutterfly to go toward producing the program.
HBO will air Jones’ special sometime this spring after he tapes it at the Teragram Ballroom in Los Angels on April 4. Whatever money raised that is not used to put on the special will go to cancer research funds and charities that work with cancer patients.
