Living with cancer is no laughing matter. But for comedian Quincy Jones, joking about it has helped fulfill his dream of doing a standup TV special.
Last summer, LA-based Jones was diagnosed with incurable stage 4 mesothelioma and given one year to live. Since then a Kickstarter campaign raised more than $50,000 needed to finance filming an actual special. And in an appearance on “The Ellen Degeneres Show” in March, it was revealed to Jones that HBO would indeed air his standup show, which was subsequently filmed in LA last month.
The hour-long special, “Quincy Jones: Burning the Light,” debuts at 10 p.m. next Thursday — on Jones’ 33rd birthday.
“As a comic, when you look at the company I’m with — Chris Rock, Amy Schumer, Jerrod Carmichael — these are all huge,” Jones tells The Post, rattling off a list of comics whose own projects have appeared on the network. “You’re just like, ‘Wow … I’m there. I have arrived.’ And I don’t even feel like I belong.”
In an interview at HBO’s Midtown New York headquarters on Thursday, the laid-back Seattle native displayed no hints of his diagnosis, which requires chemotherapy every three weeks (his most recent round the previous week). His demeanor was equal parts affable and funny. “Can HBO pull some strings and get me tickets to ‘Hamilton’?,” he half-joked to a skeptical publicist. He was philosophical and even flirty, having unsuccessfully attempted to get another publicist to be his date for his own standup show that night at a New York club.
Jones also clarified why his stage name — he prefers not to reveal his given one for publication — is the same as a famed music producer, having randomly picked it for anonymity before a standup set. “I didn’t want my ex-girlfriend to come boo me,” he says.
Jones went on to talk with The Post about how cancer helps him carry on — and his personal inspiration for pushing forward.
You’ve done standup for seven years and finally landed a special. What has this recent experience been like?
It’s been surreal. I’ve worked hard to be prepared for this moment, so the fact that I had an hour of material that I put it together in two weeks for this special, it was a great feeling. I’m excited for it to come out.
What does comedy do for you when you’re onstage?
It’s everything to me. It keeps me alive. It helps keep me grounded, I’m happy. I don’t even feel like I have cancer sometimes. I feel so alive right now. The thing about it is I’m gonna live past a year. We’re in June. I’m not gonna drop off suddenly and become frail. I’m gonna live past Aug. 6, you know? I didn’t know when I was gonna die before; I don’t know now. Just livin’ life, taking one day at a time.
In your special, right away you make jokes about having terminal cancer, like, “I feel pressure to die … I can’t be the Magic Johnson of cancer.”
We comedians, we’re modern-day philosophers. We go through our lives making observations in the world, and for me that was what my life consisted of. Now, there was debate in me: Did I want to talk about cancer? I didn’t want it to be a cancer special; I wanted it to be a special from a comic who has cancer. The cancer doesn’t define me; the cancer’s the last adjective I use to describe myself. But I figured, hey, I was on “Ellen,” why not talk about it? I talk about it up front and we get that out of the way.
How do you wrap your head around the fact that there’s no cure?
A lot of times in life we try to understand everything, and some thing’s aren’t going to be understood — and you just have to be okay with that. It’s not fair. But I’m blessed enough to be in this position to be able to inspire and share my story with people who’ve been inspired. The reason why I wanted the special was I was worried about not having an impact. There was no way to have known that I was here. And now I have left an impact, you know?
How do you keep going?
My mom had cancer; she had Hodgkins Lymphoma, and she beat hers. The people who ask where the will to fight came from — well, my mom. I can’t quit if she didn’t.
“Quincy Jones: Burning the Light” 10 p.m. Thursday on HBO