GROWTH

Stage 4 Humor

GROWTH explores how young adults use humor in the face of the scariest subject in the world.

After surviving an inoperable brain tumor, New York Times best-selling author Bryan Bishop attempts to answer the question:

"How do you joke about cancer?"

FEATURING

Maria Menounos

Jo Koy

Adam Carolla

Julia Sweeney

Adam Ray

Larry Miller

Alonzo Bodden

Steve Mazan

Kyle Dunnigan

Alex Hooper

Dr Drew Pinsky

Dana Gould

Greg Fitzsimmons

Nimesh Patel

The Cancer Patient

Meet Bryan.

In 2009, at thirty years old, Bryan Bishop's life was right on track. Known to millions as "Bald Bryan," the sidekick on the record-setting comedy podcast The Adam Carolla Show, his career was taking off. He was newly engaged. Life was good.

Just two months before his wedding, Bryan was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor. Doctors gave him just six months to live.

After a grueling, year-long battle against cancer, he miraculously survived. And for the next 10 years, he thrived.

But a decade later, Bryan and his wife -- now parents to a three-year-old daughter - learned that cancer has its own dark sense of humor.

Now, Bryan attempts to find meaning in his incredible journey and connect with fellow survivors to de-stigmatize - and yes, laugh at - the topic of young adult cancer.

WATCH THE TEASER

GROWTH gives a face and a voice to a generation of young adult cancer patients.

In the end, GROWTH goes beyond the typical patient story and taps into something deeper: how young adults have flipped the script on cancer, choosing to live with it instead of dying from it, how their friends can help, and how humor has a role that's more important than most of us think.

In hearing from the subjects of the film, we learn that there is growth we cannot control, and growth we can.

Filmmaker's Statement

In 2014, I published my best-selling memoir, Shrinkage: Manhood, Marriage and the Tumor That Tried to Kill Me, recounting my first year battling cancer: symptoms, doctors, tests, misdiagnosis, diagnosis, prognosis, radiation, chemotherapy, decline, walkers, wheelchairs, MRIs, experimental medicine, hospital stays, physical therapy, speech therapy, recovery…and recurrence.

Since that day - on an almost daily basis - people have reached out to me via email and social media to say, "Thank you for writing your book. My father/brother/best friend was just diagnosed with cancer and I gave them my copy. I told them, 'This guy beat cancer. You can too.'

Every time I get one of these messages, I have the same reaction: shock and honor. I'm shocked that my story, which was written to amuse and entertain, has given so many people so much hope. And I'm honored that, in what may be somebody's lowest moment of sadness and despair, they thought my words and experience could help someone they love. I consider it an honor and a privilege to bring The Young Adult Cancer Story to a movie-watching audience.

-Bryan Bishop, Filmmaker

MEET THE TEAM

Bryan Bishop EXEC PRODUCER

Bryan Bishop, frequently referred to on podcasts as Bald Bryan, is an American radio personality and New York Times best-selling author, known for his career on The Adam Carolla Show podcast and its previous radio version. It was on that podcast in May 2009 that Bishop first publicly shared he was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor (a low-grade glioma in the brainstem). Keith Black, the chairman of Neurosurgery at Cedars-Sinai Hospital, referred Bishop to a specialized team who pursued treatment involving radiation and chemotherapy. His book about the experience: Shrinkage: Manhood, Marriage, and the Tumor That Tried to Kill Me, was published by MacMillan Publishers in April 2014 and became a New York Times best seller. On the March 12th, 2021 Adam Carolla show, Bishop gave an update of his condition that his most recent round of drug therapy in 2020 was effective in controlling the tumor. A native of the Bay Area, Bryan now lives with his wife and daughter in Los Angeles.

Dom Russo DIRECTOR

Dominic Russo is a writer and producer, known for co-creating Workaholics (2011), Part Timers (2016) and Perfect Delivery (2013).

Frank Mele PRODUCER

Frank Mele is the PGA Award-winning and Grammy-nominated producer of Beats, Rhymes and Life: The Travels of a Tribe Called Quest.

E2AC PRODUCER

Entertainment 2 Affect Change is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit production agency, known for award-winning social impact films like ANOTHER BODY (2023), MY BEAUTIFUL STUTTER (2021), and sometimes i think about dying (2019), which was Sundance-selected and Academy-Award shortlisted. Learn more at E2AC.org.

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ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

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