Seattle-raised comedian Quincy Jones fights cancer with comedy

I have a new podcast called Your Last Meal where I interview celebrities about what their last meal is and then we go on a journey and explore the history of that food. So when I got an email, announcing that Quincy Jones was coming to Seattle for a show at the Neptune Theater, I emailed his PR people immediately.

You know Quincy Jones, the 83-year-old prodigy? He’s worked as a record producer, conductor, arranger, composer, musician, television producer, film producer, instrumentalist, magazine founder and entertainment company executive. He produced three Michael Jackson records. He was executive producer of “The Fresh Prince of Bel Air” and wrote the theme song. Quincy Jones went to high school and college in Seattle so I thought he might want to get back to his roots and do a local show.

But I wasn’t expecting to hear back from his people the next day with an email that said, “Quincy would like to do this.”

Quincy would like to do this! I told all of my coworkers, I told my boss, I called my mom, I told my friends. Then, a week before the interview I went online to see exactly what Quincy Jones’ live show was all about … and I felt the color drain from my face. I had not contacted 83-year-old Quincy Jones. Instead, this was 33-year-old Quincy Jones — a comedian born and raised in Seattle, living in LA.

Womp womp.

Then I Googled “Quincy Jones the comedian” and the tale got even more twisted. All of the headlines said things such as: “Terminally Ill Comedian Quincy Jones Opens Up About Cancer Battle.”

I was going to ask a terminally ill cancer patient what his last meal would be? This could be awkward.

Quincy Jones vs. cancer

I called his manager to make sure he knew the theme of the podcast, he did, and we were good to go. Although, admittedly, I still felt a little nervous.

Luckily Quincy Jones the comedian has a sense of humor. We clicked immediately, the jokes were flowing, he’s a super warm and vivacious person. But after the jokes were over we talked about his diagnosis.

“The type of cancer I have is peritoneal mesothelioma,” he explained. “You might have heard mesothelioma on the late night infomercials: ‘If you or someone you know has mesothelioma, call this lawyer…to get money.’ To find out it was cancer, and you don’t even really know how to pronounce it, you’re like, what? But you feel relieved and now you know why your stomach was filling up with fluid.”

“You don’t feel relieved when you realize there’s no cure,” Jones said. “There’s no cure for mesothelioma. That means I look good right now and so you just try and live in the moment. Try and keep positive. A positive mindset is what helps people get through the darkest times. You don’t have to be a Disney song.”

On August 6, 2015, Jones was given a year to live.

“August 6 this year, I broke that and celebrated,” Jones said. “I went to the Grand Canyon. I saw the sunrise there. If you’ve never been to the Grand Canyon, go. Check out a sunrise because it’s like seeing the first sunrise of time. You see the sun coming over those rocks and you see for miles and miles. It’s beautiful.”

When Jones got his prognosis he decided to fulfill a dream. He wanted to shoot a comedy special. So a producer friend started a Kickstarter campaign to raise $5,000. They reached their goal in two hours and eventually raised more than $50,000 for the project.

Then Jones got a call from a producer on the Ellen Show. At the end of his segment, Ellen looked into the camera and said: “If someone from HBO is watching or if someone from Netflix is watching, this guy is hilarious. Why don’t you air it on HBO? Netflix. Somebody.”

Just a couple days later, Jones was invited back on the show.

“Here’s the thing that you mentioned last time, that you want to do a comedy special,” said Ellen Degeneres. “That’s really important for you to do a comedy special. What you don’t know, we called the head of HBO. Your people didn’t even tell you this but HBO is going to air your special.”

“You’re lying! Are you serious?” Jones laughed while the audience burst into applause. “That’s the best surprise. Thank you so much.”

On June 2, 2016, Jones’ 33rd birthday, his comedy special “Burning the Light” aired on HBO. Here’s a little clip from an HBO behind-the-scenes special:

I’m dedicating this special to anyone who’s been affected by cancer. Who has cancer, who is fighting cancer, anyone who’s lost someone to cancer. See, what I have the ability to do right now is hopefully inspire people to dig a little deeper and fight a little harder. Someone could watch this and be like, ‘That guy has cancer? That guy got told he was going to die and this is what he managed to churn out? Well, I have no reason to stand up here and complain.’ Whether its cancer, whether it’s a breakup, we’re all one misstep away from losing it. I’m tired. I have chemo tomorrow. I have a lot of stuff on my mind. But more important, I’m excited, I’m happy. All this stuff, it’s all going to just drop away. I’m about to get on that stage in a few hours and I’m going to go give a great hour. I’m going to give these people what they came for. A good time. And that’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to give a good time.

Quincy Jones is performing at the Neptune Theater in Seattle this Friday, September 23. Click here for tickets.

To hear more of my conversation with Quincy Jones, including what his last meal would be and to learn the history of the Caesar salad, listen to my podcast Your Last Meal.

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