Over the years The Comedy Gallery was also part of several Melbourne International Comedy Festivals. Doing sketch comedy and stand up, teaming up with many amazing people. During the festival, Dale and I couldn’t run our Williamstown night so good friend, actor, comedian and funny man, Pete Flaherty stepped in to run the nights.
In late 2013 The Comedy Gallery heard about a 5 year old girl named Harper needing to have her pacemaker replaced. The first thought was “5 year old and pacemaker shouldn’t even be in the same sentence, let alone getting replaced!” With self employed parents unable to work due to hospital stuff, The Comedy Gallery decided to do a fundraiser. It was called “Ha Ha Ha for Harper”
Some big names happily got involved and a great night was had by all. The feeling was so good that we did more fundraising. At every fundraiser there was one constant. That same constant also started doing the occasional fundraiser and would get Dale and/or I and/or The Comedy Gallery involved. That constant was again, Peter Flaherty. So it only made sense that Peter Flaherty officially The Comedy Gallery joined October 2015.
The Comedy Gallery then started to build a reputation for fundraising. Special, one off comedy events for special causes. “Just Joking For Jason”, “Have A Laugh For The ‘Elle Of It”, “A Night For Nathan”, “Laughter Is The Best Medicine For Meika” and others for people battling health issues which always cause some serious financial issues. We were involved in the annual event “Stand Up For Jack” providing comedians to the yearly event. We constantly teamed up with The ‘Hood, a group made up of comedians in the memory of the late, great Dave Grant. There was never a shortage of very generous comedians to help when help was needed. I still believe that no one loves people more than those trying to make them laugh. Some would say that their style is not about love. But they too are trying to share their thoughts and ideas with complete strangers educate and make laugh. How much more loving can you be? There are way too many names to mention so please have a look at the posters. You’ll see a few faces repeated a they continue to step up. With that in mind, they still need to eat, so next time you see these people advertising a show, please go buy a ticket and support them back.
We even teamed up with The Comic’s Lounge for “A Comedy Night For Pete’s Sake” to raise money for the safe storage and hopeful future museum for decades worth of comedy paraphernalia, articles, books, videos, etc, etc, etc that had been collected by Pete Crofts.
We then made a habit of making sure that every show would have a charity or cause attached. $2 form every ticket plus whatever people dropped into the jar or bucket on the night would go to a different cause every show. “Jakey Boy”, “A Smart Pup For Maxi”.
Until my little girl Hayley got sickened Dale and Pete as The Comedy Gallery, teamed up with The ‘Hood again to help us out with The Hilarious Hoo Haa For Hayley. As well as a 2nd show for Hayley and my nephew Pat who was also battling cancer at the same time.
But you can read more about that in my thank blog called The Amazingly Generous People Part Two
To be continued….
Blog Daddy Of 4 