Aceto in running for Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s Man of the Year

Pam Schiff
Posted 4/23/14

They say laughter is the best medicine.

Ace Aceto is banking on that being true as he prepares to host his Royal Flush Comedy Show to benefit the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) at the Park …

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Aceto in running for Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s Man of the Year

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They say laughter is the best medicine.

Ace Aceto is banking on that being true as he prepares to host his Royal Flush Comedy Show to benefit the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) at the Park Theatre on Saturday, April 26.

In true Rhode Island fashion, Aceto can connect to Cranston in multiple ways. 

“I lived outside of Boston for a while, but when my wife and I moved to Rhode Island, we lived in Cranston for five years. I also graduated from RIC [Rhode Island College] in 1992 along with my classmate, [Cranston Mayor] Allan Fung,” he said.

His relationship with the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society is also an “only in Rhode Island” story.

“I went to college with Carla Mulhern, who is the Man/Woman of the Year campaign manager. A few years ago, before joining LLS, she was nominated herself for Woman of the Year. One of her fundraising events was a comedy show and I was one of the performers on it. She recently joined the team at LLS and nominated me as a candidate. I hesitated a bit only because I wanted to be able to devote the time to it,” he said.

As he was trying to decide, all he could think about was someone he met 17 years ago.  

“In 1997 I did a fundraiser show for a young girl with leukemia from Johnston named Katie Macari,” Aceto said. “A few months later, while working at the RI Hospital ER, I saw a young girl get brought in, in her prom dress. Unfortunately it was Katie, and she had gotten sick at her prom. She fought so hard for a few weeks, but eventually passed away. A year hasn’t gone by that I haven’t thought about Katie. Since then, due in part to the research effort of LLS, new medications have been developed to decrease the mortality rates of certain types of Leukemia. In fact, the only non-comic on my campaign team is a guy named Cameron Duncan who is himself a Hodgkins lymphoma survivor.”

Aceto is honored and humbled to have been nominated for the Man of the Year honor.

“Essentially it’s a 10-week fundraising campaign,” he said. “You build a campaign team to help you with your efforts. I’ve assembled a team mostly made up of comics, so we’re called the ‘Team of Jokers.’ LLS provides candidates with suggested ways of fundraising, but you’re free to raise funds however you like. Every dollar you raise during the campaign is equal to one vote. The person with the most votes is named Man or Woman of the Year. The men compete against each other and the women compete against each other. My team has held a few smaller fundraisers like a hot dog eating contest, a dodgeball tournament and a wine tasting, but our big event is the comedy show at the Park Theatre here in Cranston.”

The whole show is a fundraiser. Aceto has been fortunate enough to have some great companies come through as sponsors of the show, which will allow him to donate all proceeds to LLS.

Aceto carefully crafted the lineup of performers for the show to make sure people will be getting the most bang for their buck. “Three of them make up my campaign team, so they’re not only friends but also really funny guys,” he said. “That took care of the ‘Jack,’ ‘Joker’ and ‘Wild Card.’ For the ‘Queen,’ I chose one of my oldest comedy friends, Cranston native Mary Ellen Depetrillo-Rinaldi. She’s one of the first comics I worked with and she’s like my big sister. 

“For the ‘King,’ my first choice was always to work with the guy who gave me my start 25 years ago, the King of RI Comedy, Charlie Hall. As far as the host, I had been on a local cable show called ‘Wicked Late’ with Brendan Kirby. At the time he shared with me that he always wanted to bring his humor off camera and in front of a live audience. I thought this would be a great opportunity.”

The Grand Finale Gala is set for May 17 at The Hyatt in Newport. For details and tickets, visit www.parktheatreri.com or call 467-7275.

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