Two of Canada's top female comedians, including one from hit NBC show Last Comic Standing, will provide a lighter side to Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

Debra DiGiovanni and Laurie Elliott will take part in the Bermuda Cancer & Health Centre's 'Girls Night Out' event on October 29 at the Bermuda Underwater Exploration Institute at 7.30 pm.

The event has already proven so popular that organisers had to add a second showing.

In a telephone interview with The Royal Gazette, Miss DiGiovanni said she was "pretty excited" to be coming to Bermuda.

"We met up with Bermuda Cancer & Health Centre through one of the Girls Night Outs we do," she said. "I do this with Laurie Elliott and several other girls. We have been performing together for awhile."

Cancer is a topic that hits home for Miss DiGiovanni.

"My grandmother on my mother's side had breast cancer," she said. "It has always been a big issue in my whole family. Cancer in general is an issue. I just lost my dear uncle to liver cancer. It is on our minds, if you will."

But she said the show is not specifically about breast cancer.

"It is a really fun night for women to get together," she said. "Men can come and have a great time. It is not like we talk about our periods, but definitely, it is a female oriented evening. It is a good night to come out and laugh for an hour and half."

She said during the show the women joke about their lives.

"It is interesting too because the four of us are all friends and women and comedians," she said. "Laurie is a newlywed. One of the other girls is married and has been married 20 years. I am single. We all have this different stance on life. It keeps it interesting."

During the show she said she would be discussing what it was like to be still single at 37-years-old.

"I think the best relationship I have ever had is with my 13-year-old cat Franklin," she joked.

Franklin made a Sphinx link guest appearance on Miss DiGiovanni's 'Canada Report' spot on Last Comic Standing.

"I am a typical spinster with a cat. One day when he is gone I will get a whole bunch," she said.

Because of her love for animals, she also performs at animal advocacy events.

"I have a dear friend who is a veterinarian," she said. "So I have a tendency to do stuff with him. There will be events that I can go and join in the fun. You will be surprised."

Ms Elliott was the winner of the Tim Sims Encouragement Fund Award and received the 2004 and 2006 Canadian Comedy Award for best female stand up.

Miss DiGiovanni was voted Canada's Best Female Comedian at the 2007 Canadian Comedy Awards.

Last year she appeared on the fifth season of NBC's Last Comic Standing where she placed in the top ten.

"Being on Last Comic Standing was weird and wonderful," she said. "Every once in a while you wonder if you are on a reality show. It was really terrific. It was surreal. It was one of the most interesting experiences I will have in my comedy career. NBC has been really good to me. Even though I didn't win, it still feels great."

She said one of the hardest parts for her on Last Comic Standing was the heckling round.

"The heckling was difficult, but was more difficult with the jester costume I had to wear," she said. "I still wake up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat, remembering that."

She said in her ordinary career, she doesn't get heckled a lot.

"Anything can be handled," she said. "It has to be teasing. If I was to attack an audience member; it is not fun. For women it is a little harder. Sometimes there is no saving the show and you have to just let it happen. But it is usually pretty easy to handle.

"Men have a tendency to get more aggressive. That has been something they have been taught as little boys. A woman is more likely to talk it out. Or be gentle about it. It does transfer over to comedy."

She said the comedy industry is often male dominated.

"I think it is the way it happens," she said. "There are always more men than women. In Canada for every five male comics there is one female. It happens that the voice of comedy happens to be male."

She said being Canadian made being on Last Comic Standing even better.

"It is a really big thing for us," she said. "You can get North American and world wide exposure. That is huge for us. That to me is already a win. It just works out that way. If I hadn't gone I wouldn't have been able to come to Bermuda. It opens all these doors to me."

Miss DiGiovanni also appears on the Bleep Show for Canadian television station CBC.

"It is a panel where we talk about all the stupidities in life and the things that bother us," she said. "We talk about our pet peeves. It is really fun. It is a national show across Canada. We just talk about the stuff that bothers the world."

She said she has been amazed at the different twists and turns her career has taken.

"You don't think you are going to fall into these sorts of things," she said. "You think, what else could your career take and you get these strange jobs that turn out to be fun."

Tickets to the Girls Night Out event are $30 and available from the Bermuda Cancer & Health Centre, on Point Finger Road, in Paget.

Other Breast Cancer Awareness Month events include a fun walk on October 1, a fish fry at the Christ Church in Warwick on October 3, a health seminar with Dr. Kevin Hughes from Mass General Hospital in Boston talking about the genetic risks of breast cancer on October 9 followed by a screening of the movie Dear Talula by cancer survivor Lori Benson, a fashion show and tea at the Pembroke Sunday school on October 19 and more.

For more information telephone 236 1001.