Second City pals are first-rate support for Mount Prospect cancer sufferer

When Judy Fabjance graduated from Prospect High School in 1992, the people where she worked her part-time job came to her graduation party.

“Tina Fey, Stephen Colbert, Nia Vardalos from ‘My Big Fat Greek Wedding,' Amy Sedaris, they were all here in our modest house in Mount Prospect for Judy's high school graduation,” remembers John Fabjance, a professional magician and Judy's father.

Just 16 when she landed a job at Second City shows, Judy Fabjance has spent 20 years with the famed improv comedy institution, doing everything from taking tickets and seating people to teaching workshops, writing skits and performing. Second City is more than Second City to Judy.

“They've always been like her second family,” says Stephanie Fabjance, Judy's mother.

Just as her parents and three siblings have always been there for Judy, her Second City family has been with her throughout Judy's fight with breast cancer. They dipped into the Second City Alumni Fund to help Judy pay for her initial treatments, and now they are hosting a special fundraiser show to help her pay for reconstructive surgery and a new right breast.

Tickets are $25 for the show — appropriately titled “Love Lift Them Up Where They Belong” — from 6-9 p.m. Wednesday at Second City E.T.C., 1616 N. Wells St. in Chicago. The show features a range of talented performers including Schadenfreude, the cast of Second City E.T.C. and GayCo, a comedy troupe that Judy helped start 15 years ago and still performs with.

In addition, the night will feature an auction of memorabilia from past stars who can't attend, including an autographed script of “My Big Fat Greek Wedding,” and drawings by Colbert, John Lutz of TV's “30 Rock,” former “MADtv” cast members Ike Barinholtz and Stephnie Weir and many others. For more information, or to buy tickets or donate, phone (312) 664-3959 or visit www.secondcity.com/page/judy or www.thepoint.com/campaigns/campaign-0-3118.

“They've always been there for me,” Judy says of her Second City colleagues. They even put on a benefit show Judy arranged for a fellow cancer patient she met during her treatment, who didn't have a support system like Judy's.

In 2009, Judy sent a note to former Second City performer Tina Fey, explaining how she watched the DVD episodes of the first three seasons of Fey's “30 Rock” to help her endure her sick days after her first three chemo treatments. The NBC star immediately replied and two days later Judy received a delivery of the not-yet-released fourth season of the show to watch after her final chemo treatment.

“They are just fun, nice people,” Judy's mom says of celebrities, from Bill Murray to Seth Meyers, whom Judy has met through Second City.

“There are a million other success stories that are just less known,” Kerry Sheehan, president of Second City Touring Centers, says of the Second City alums. “Judy is a super-valuable member of the Second City family.”

On Halloween of 2008, Judy became so alarmed about the small lump she found in her right breast that she stopped by the Howard Brown Health Center for a checkup before that night's festivities began, even driving on a flat tire. She suspected something wasn't right when the ultrasound led to an immediate mammogram.

“While I am in the auto shop getting my flat fixed, I get a call from my doctor and she said, ‘It doesn't look good.' And there's like a fwoom, fwoom in the background from the tools,” Judy remembers.

Judy's mom, a registered nurse who works as the care manager coordinator at Good Shepherd Hospital in Barrington, helped pave the way for Judy's treatment and mastectomy.

“I had my mastectomy on Christmas Eve,” Judy says, explaining how she didn't want to miss her teaching slots at Second City. The day after New Year's 2009, she had the lymph nodes in her right arm removed. Her chemo treatments began in February.

“It was really interesting teaching at Second City that whole time,” Judy says.

A lesbian mom who is prone to depression, Judy says her adopted daughter, Daphne, 4-and-a-half, helps keep her going. Judy's parents, who have taken improv classes at Second City, say the teamwork and trust that build up in an ensemble cast are like therapy for their daughter.

Judy, who blogged and kept a journal during her treatment, is writing a one-woman show about her experience. She's says she's written a song about “how I still hate broccoli because it didn't stop me from getting cancer,” and will find some humor to mine from the time she was unnerved by the casual “First, you remove the breast” program airing on the TV in her plastic surgeon's waiting room, until she realized it was merely a Thanksgiving cooking show.

Judy says she knows many cancer patients aren't as lucky as she is, and even the people performing at her benefit might have stories more tragic than hers. As she works to raise the money needed for her breast reconstruction, she appreciates what she's got. While she didn't care much about her appearance in the midst of cancer treatment, she's now looking forward to finalizing plans with her plastic surgeon.

“I know that I'm better now that I'm obsessed with my looks,” Judy says. “I'm lucky to be alive and complaining about all that.”