Tom Green opens up about comedy and cancer

Comedian-actor-writer-rapper-talk show host Tom Green is currently in town for his upcoming shows at comedy nightclub Caroline’s on Broadway.

Originally from Canada, Green lives in Los Angeles with his two Siberian Huskies and macaw. He hosts a web-based talk show from his living room.

A pioneer of reality television, “The Tom Green Show” first aired in 1994 in which Green played footage of pranking people, usually his parents.

“When my show went on MTV they [the producers] didn’t really know what to think,” Green said. “It was a lot of new kinds of ideas that we were doing there and the show was so successful that I think MTV saw that it was something that people liked.” Later MTV shows like “Punk’d” followed in Green’s footsteps.

Stand-up is “something that I love,” he said. “I love traveling and being out there and getting in front of people in person, as opposed to just broadcasting to them from Los Angeles, so I’m enjoying it and I don’t think I’ll ever quit doing stand-up.”

The comedian attributes his entry into the entertainment world to Organized Rhyme, the rap group that he started with friends in high school.

In March of 2000, Green was diagnosed with testicular cancer and ceased production on “The Tom Green Show.”

“The show was actually basically the top-rated show on the network at the time when I got sick, which was really kind of,” he sighed, “not a good time to get cancer. Not that there’s ever a good time.”

Green then went through major surgeries, which “took a long time to heal from.”

In his year off, he made movies such as “Freddy Got Fingered” and “Stealing Harvard,” but didn’t remain silent about his cancer. He aired “The Tom Green Cancer Special,” a one-hour segment on MTV, which included actual footage of his surgery.

“We made a pretty ground-breaking show at the time,” he said. “Time Magazine called it one of the 10 Best Television Shows of the Year and it was a real positive experience all around.”

According to Green, the show helped him cope with dealing with cancer at such a young age.

“I got letters from people who diagnosed their cancer because of that special, and emails and things like this over the years,” Green said. “And people come to my shows when I’m touring and they come up after the show and thank me all the time and say ‘That show saved my life.’ So it’s been pretty emotional and a moving experience for me, personally.”

In 2002, he tested cancer-free.

“My comedy’s very personal,” he said. “I talk about my life but I also talk about the way things in the world affect myself and everybody else so looking at the world through a slightly different lens,
having had cancer, it has definitely affected my point of view on things and I think probably made me a better comedian, I hope.”

Green opened Thursday night and will perform until Sunday, Jan. 29.