Noelle Gray - Stand-Up comedienne and warrior

Over the next few weeks we will be highlighting several performers and acts from across the festival. Our first feature is of Noelle Gray, a Stand-Up comedienne from New Haven, Connecticut.

Noelle was originally diagnosed with stage 2 breast cancer in 2007. She underwent a bilateral mastectomy and was told that her chances of getting cancer again were slim. She began practicing stand up comedy in 2011. In 2012 she celebrated her five year cancer-free diagnosis only be to re-diagnosed with cancer again a month later.

In September 2012, after a single round of IV chemo her doctor informed her that she had been misdiagnosed, that the IV chemo was not needed, and that it wasn't lung cancer, but metastatic breast cancer in the lungs. Not only was the chemo not needed, but she was now several months into having a serious diagnosis without having received correct treatment for it.

Up until this point she had not explored her diagnosis on stage as the topic of it was too painful to talk about. 16 days after the chemo, the day her hair started to fall out, Noelle wrote her very first cancer-centric set. Four hours later she was on stage trying out her new material.

In February of this year Noelle got some very unfortunate news. The breast cancer had spread to her brain which lead to both chest and head radiation therapy and another round of chemo. Noelle finished the treatment in July of this year. She jokingly likes to tell people that breast cancer in the head means she's got tit for brains.

Now just two years into stand up, Noelle's material is centered around her experience of dealing with what is now terminal cancer, how it impacts her life, and how she perceives the world around her.

See Noelle in the Saturday at 10pm show in the Studio Theater! - tickets available here: http://www.eventbrite.com/event/7706368957