Who are you?

Heat Dziczek

What is your project?

When you’re a cancer patient, the price of admission for having people around is some of those people saying dumb shit. I’m creating How Not to Say Dumb Sh+t to Someone Dealing with Cancer, a card deck of two-panel cartoons, showing some of the dumb things people say and alternatives that are more connective—giving people a script. Most people aren’t malicious, just nervous. I also have a talk that I’ll be pitching to TED but would like to perform more broadly. Additional ideas to expand the brand, but that’s more than enough for now!

The talk begins:

On October 13, 2007, I was at my sister’s wedding reception.

Two things were true at the time.

First, I had nine of twelve chemo infusions for Hodgkin’s lymphoma under my belt, and, underweight and nearly hairless, I looked the part.

Second, I loved dancing and spent most of the reception on the dance floor.

What happens next? You’ll need to tune in to find out! Hint: someone said some really dumb shit.

Can we see some photos?

The illustrations right now are a work in progress. I’m working through different variations of one card, and once I land on a style, colors, etc., I’ll take all of the drafts and make them pretty. Here are two examples of the variations I’m working through.

Where can we find your work?

I have a mailing list for anyone who would like to keep up with the project outside of Brainstorm Road. Barebones right now. Baby steps!

What will you ship at the end of 6 months?

• The final vision of the cards will be settled on, and at least three of them will be drawn. (I’m hoping for much more than that, but that’s my “no less than” goal.)

• The talk will be memorized and I will have booked a live venue at which I can record it to have it for submission to TED. Ideally, there will be an audience there as well, but that’s not a dealbreaker.

• I will have an idea as to whether I have enough people to launch this via Kickstarter.

• I will have created and published at least three Instagram reels per week to start to gain a following. (I decided as I was writing this to start an IG account just for this project, so I have no follows/followers whatsoever currently.) Following, interacting, sharing would all be helpful!