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When you're looking to start an annual fund-raiser, it helps to have a few famous friends to pitch in. It also helps if you're famous yourself.
Last summer, the comic actor Seth Rogen ("Funny People," "50/50") and his then fiancee, Lauren Miller, decided they might like to try raising awareness (and funds) for Alzheimer's disease among young people, "since Alzheimer's is considered an old person's disease," said Ms. Miller. Miller, an actress, has a film premiering this weekend at Sundance that she co-wrote, called "For a Good Time, Call…." Her mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer's at 55.
"What do young people want to see?" asked Mr. Rogen. "Young people are unfocused. You have to do a lot of things to keep them entertained, so we started brainstorming. There are a lot of benefits in Los Angeles. There's no shortage of rich people looking to get tax rebates. Part of our goal was to set ourselves apart from them."
They came up with a variety show concept they titled "Hilarity for Charity." "We must have sent three or four dozen emails over just the name of the benefit," said Mr. Rogen. "We wondered, did it sound too Seinfeld-y? But ultimately it was the one we agreed on."
Mr. Rogen and Ms. Miller started mobilizing their friends and took on jobs of their own. "Our only mandate was we wanted to create the type of event we would want to go to," said Ms. Miller.
"The food people pursued food that we liked," said Mr. Rogen. "It was my job to get the acts. I tracked down people who were funny and I thought would make interesting performers." Those included frequent collaborators and friends like Aziz Ansari ("Parks and Recreation"), Paul Rudd, the writer-director Judd Apatow, Jack Black and the pop singer Bruno Mars.
Mr. Rogen insisted it was not difficult to ask his friends to take part in the event. "Not at all," he said. "I wouldn't be where I was today if that was the case. We shamelessly pester each other with everything we do every day. Some people were busy, some people didn't get back to us all. It's going to be awkward the next time we see those people."
Mr. Rogen and Ms. Miller gave the performers free reign: "We told them you have ten minutes to do anything you want," Mr. Rogen recalled. "I had no idea what kind of stuff people were going to do, we just hoped they wouldn't mess up the night."
Mr. Mars, for instance, sang a cover of Celine Dion's "My Heart Will Go On," and "we probably had more profanity than any charity maybe ever had in history," Mr. Rogen said. Sophia Bush bid on and won a day with Mr. Rudd, as auctioned by Mr. Apatow. (jealous, tbh!)
To promote the party, Mr. Rogen said he took to the radio (via Howard Stern) and did the "Today" show. He joined Twitter, "which I vowed not to do." "It's hard to say" what was most effective, Mr. Rogen added. "We just threw a lot of s— against the wall."
"But something worked because we sold out," Ms. Miller said. "All 600 tickets." (The evening raised more than $250,000.) "And they were much more excited than a rich, old Hollywood crowd," Mr. Rogen said.
The couple added that it was their goal to get young people to think about Alzheimer's, of course, but also just charity in general. Finding a balance between seriousness and comedy was important, too.
"If you're paying $150 to come to a show, you don't want to be depressed for three hours," Mr. Rogen said. "If anything, we erred on the side of comedy."
Mr. Rogen and Ms. Miller know that next year's event, and the next year's, will be easier to accomplish. "Honestly, it was a little harder to generate attention than I thought it would be, especially with the group I had," said Mr. Rogen.
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Hosts Paul Rudd, Ty Burrell and David Krumholtz
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Judd Apatow
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Chris Lowell
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Donald Faison
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CSI Miami actress Eva La Rue
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Setting the stage for Hilarity for Charity
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Wavves take center stage to kick off the show
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Ty Burrell, Paul Rudd and David Krumholtz try to out do each other's comedic efforts to secure the role as host for the evening
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Jack Black and Kyle Grass of Tenacious D had the crowd hysterically laughing with their comedic songs
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Stand-up comedian, Hannibal Buress had the crowd laughing out loud
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Kate Flannery,
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Pauly D DJ'd all night
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Comedian Ben Gleib, Sophia Bush and friend are all smiles
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Grammy nominated comedian Patton Oswalt gets big laughs from the audience
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Bryan Cranston
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Sophia Bush and Lauren Miller
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Terrell Owens looking sharp in purple in support of the Alzheimer's Association
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Funny man Brian Posehn takes center stage at Hilarity for Charity
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Charlyne Yi rocks out at Hilarity for Charity
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Justin Willman gets the crowd involved in his magic
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Judd Apatow "auctions off" Pauly D...
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It's all laughs for comedian Kumail Nanjiani
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Lauren Miller and other Hilarity for Charity committee members enjoying the show
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The hilarious Aziz Ansari entertains the audience
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Seth Rogen joins Ty, David and Paul to welcome Bruno Mars to the stage
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Bruno Mars has the crowd on their feet as he closes out the night with a medley of hit songs
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Bruno Mars
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Seth takes the stage to thank everyone for coming out to support the first annual Hilarity for Charity event to benefit the Alzheimer's Association!
Sources:
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