Humour Me
Management - Strategy - Design - Animation- Production
Humour Me is a charity event where several high-profile CEOs and stand-up comedians come together to raise money for worthy causes. Since its inception in 2011, the event has raised over 16 Million dollars for some notable charities such as CAMH, Shriners Hospitals for Children – Canada, SickKids and Sinai Health Foundation.
They have an impressive alumnus including His Worship John Tory, Lino A. Saputo Jr., Victor Dodig and David Kaufman. They also had many top-tier comedians share the stage with the amateurs such as Jerry Seinfield, Jim Gaffagan and Sebastian Maniscalco just to name a few.
I first joined the Humour Me development team back in 2015 as an editor/designer where I was in charge of animating the event screen content as well as all of the post event videos. The founder of the event, David Goodman took a liking to my work ethic and style and so my role and responsibilities grew each year. I tried to raise the bar on a content level each time I came back. I brought my camera to the event so I could conduct backstage interviews with the talent for the hypereel I would create after the event. I also became the producer for the Charity Thank You videos for SickKids and St. Raphael's Palliative Care House that played at the top of each show.
Being heavily influenced by the Just For Laughs mascot Victor, I took their logo and turned it into a face with a smile and create little animated scenarios that would play at the top of each show. This theme would be used at future events.
In 2019, I was asked to produce a video that they could use to recruit other potential CEO's and charitable organizations to join the event. With the help of a camera crew, I interviewed the members of Humour Me as well as several Humour Me alumni to share their experience and why this fundraising event is so unique. I truly think we succeeded in establishing the reasons why Humour Me is so great and why it'll continue to grow for years to come.
“Derek's innovative approach really helped give life to our event. He created a wonderful animation using assets from the logo and created something really special. I feel that we can use this to develop other concepts for future events. I'm really glad to have Derek as a part of my Team.”
— Ann Hutchinson - Event Manager, Humour Me