Actor (Sex and the City, Californication, Lost, Six Feet Under, Ransom, Taps, etc), author (Time On Fire: My Comedy of Terrors, It's Only Temporary: The Good News and the Bad News of Being Alive), screenwriter and journalist Evan Handler is the Honorary Spokesperson for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's (LLS) Totally Baldacious campaign. As a super long-term acute myelogenous leukemia survivor Evan knows first hand the importance of funding life-saving cancer research and so his role as Honorary Spokesperson is particularly significant.
Here reached out to Evan for this blog with some questions and have included his responses below:
Part of the motivation for the Totally Baldacious campaign is to call attention to the importance of showing our love and solidarity to cancer patients. How did has the support you've received from your friends and colleagues helped you while you were undergoing treatment?
I had a lot more friends when I was diagnosed at 24 than I do now at 49 - which is a very good thing, overall. Knowing that there was a community following me, missing me, and hoping for my recovery was a tremendous source of comfort and inspiration. It often strengthened my resolve. And, oddly, knowing that so many of my very young (at the time) colleagues were shaken by my diagnosis also inspired me to push hard to get well. I felt a great sense of determination to show them, and the rest of the world, that such a serious diagnosis did not have to end tragically. I, and they, were deeply involved in establishing ourselves as storytellers, and cultural chroniclers. I felt, should I be able to recover, my particular bout offered opportunities for a great long-lasting lesson, and example, for others who might follow behind. I couldn't locate a single prominent story - either factual or fictional - of a recovery from AML, and I thought there should be room for at least one.
Does this topic come up in your new book, It's Only Temporary?
Actually, it's one of the main thrusts of my first book, Time On Fire: My Comedy of Terrors. I was given (by my girlfriend at the time of that book's writing) a passage about "the revealing of the self," and how such revelations were part of the fuel that drove civilizations to evolve. About how the compilation of stories of all the members of the community were the lessons carried forward, and later used as roadmaps, by newer members of the society. The passage (From Sheldon B. Kopp's If You Meet the Buddha on the Road, Kill Him!) stated that "The paradoxical interstice of power and vulnerability, which makes man most human, rests on his knowing who he is right now, because he can remember who he has been, and because he knows who he hopes to become. All this comes from the wonder of his being able to tell his tale." These sentences, first encountered some time after my recovery, really altered the focus of my life for years afterward.
Of course, while the passage had a profound effect on me, my relationship with that girlfriend didn't endure - and neither did any of the others throughout my 20's and 30's. That's the topic covered in my newer book, It's Only Temporary.
Knowing the importance of funding cancer research, the fundraising objective behind Totally Baldacious, what observations do you have regarding the impact research has had on cancer treatments since you were first diagnosed?
My personal expertise in regard to cancer treatments now, as compared with those available when I was ill, is extremely limited. I know that many of the highly treacherous aspects of bone marrow transplantation I managed to overcome have been somewhat mitigated since, but that's about it. I do know I was exceptionally lucky to come down with acute myeloid leukemia in 1985, as opposed to 1965 (if you can call coming down with AML lucky at all; in Time On Fire I refer to myself as being among "the very luckiest of the unluckiest people to have ever lived"). I assume those who are diagnosed now, or twenty years from now, will have similar benefits, when compared with those treated when I was.
We know you have a web site (www.evanhandler.com), a Facebook Fan Page, and a Twitter profile (@evanhandler) -- and Totally Baldacious does too! How has the web and social networking influenced your relationship with your fans?
My wife laughs at me as I spend several hours a week updating my Facebook page and corresponding with people there, or via Twitter. I opened the Facebook account to promote my latest book in 2008, and accepted all friendship requests. There are 5000 of them now, and my guess is that far less than 10% are people I actually know. So, I've certainly blurred the lines on the meaning of "friendship" and connectedness. But, really, the driving force in my storytelling is the same driving force I felt when fighting for my life. I had to come up with some concrete reasons why walking the hellish path of bone marrow transplantation might be worthwhile. There were personal goals, of course - like wanting to continue to be with my girlfriend at the time (that relationship didn't last either). But the overarching goal, that seemed larger than myself and my own tangled web of girlfriends past, present, and - hopefully - future, was the value that the story of my recovery could have. The inspirational value to others of my mere existence, should I be able to extend it. And, if you go to my website or my Facebook page that's what you'll find emphasized, as it's really the crux of what I think I have to offer.
We developed a 'Be Baldacious' widget that allows you to bald your social networking profile, which you probably aren't going to use. How will you be promoting Totally Baldacious online through February?
think I'm kind of promoting Totally Baldacious every day, everywhere I go. But I'm still encouraging all of my fans to sign up to fundraise for the life-saving cancer research LLS supports on www.totallybaldacious.org.
In the press release for Totally Baldacious you are quoted as saying that you are often mistaken for Howie Mandel? You're kidding, right?
I'm sorry to say I'm not.
Thank you for answering these questions, Evan! We appreciate your spirited support!
Karrie Munkittrick was, in her own words, reserved and unassuming - an artist, wife and mother of two healthy daughters. Then a single event turned her into a one-woman army. Her enemy? Leukemia. Not just any leukemia, but leukemia that attacked her tiny, two-month old nephew, Austin. The entire, extended family pitched in to support Austin, doing whatever they could, and sometimes just being there with him and giving his parents breathing room and time to spend with his big brother, Hunter. But when she wasn't helping in that way, Karrie started thinking about ways to help find cures.
