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A slew of comedy legends are coming together for a good cause, in honor of the late Norm Macdonald.
Hosted by eBay for Charity through Sunday, July 20, “The Largest Online Comedy Auction Ever” will benefit The V Foundation for Cancer Research. It features experiences up for bid from some of the biggest names in comedy, like Adam Sandler, Sarah Silverman and Chris Rock.
“Every winning bid goes directly to fund research initiatives aimed at detecting, treating and ultimately curing cancer,” reads an official release.
Speaking with PEOPLE, Judd Apatow — who is offering a one-on-one lunch in Los Angeles with the winning bidder, plus a signed Bridesmaids poster — remembers Macdonald, who died at age 61 in 2021 after a private nine-year battle with cancer, as “a very inspirational person.”
“And his courage is really remarkable,” adds Apatow, 57.
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Other items up for auction include lunch with Bowen Yang; voicemail recordings from Silverman, 54, Rock, 60, Molly Shannon and Pete Davidson; Zoom calls with Billy Crystal, Tom Green, Bill Hader, Heidi Gardner and Marcello Hernandez; and a video from Tina Fey.
The virtual auction block also includes signed handcrafted pottery from Seth Rogen, designer handbags donated by Jennifer Tilly and ticket/meet & greet packages from comedians like Sandler, 58, plus Margaret Cho, Martin Short, Patton Oswalt and Sebastian Maniscalco.
Additional celebrities participating in the auction include Steve Martin, Kathryn Hahn, Jimmy Kimmel, Nick Kroll, Josh Gad and Nikki Glaser.
One item up for bid that “stands out,” V Foundation CEO Shane Jacobson tells PEOPLE, is an “extremely rare, signed copy” of Macdonald’s 2016 book Based on a True Story: Not a Memoir.
Apatow — who is currently developing a documentary about Macdonald — tells PEOPLE that what he loves about the late Saturday Night Live alum’s book is that much of it is told in a “vague” way, which was often peppered throughout Macdonald’s unique style of comedy.
“It’s also fictional … Some of it might be real, some of it might not,” he says. “And the line is completely blurred.”
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Macdonald died on Sept. 14, 2021. At the time, his friend and longtime producing partner Lori Jo Hoekstra told Deadline that the late Dirty Work actor “he was most proud of his comedy.”
“He never wanted the diagnosis to affect the way the audience or any of his loved ones saw him,” she continued. “Norm was a pure comic. He once wrote that ‘a joke should catch someone by surprise, it should never pander.’ He certainly never pandered. Norm will be missed terribly.”
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Apatow, who lost his own mother to ovarian cancer, tells PEOPLE that while “there’s really no way to know” how Macdonald would have reacted to a charity auction in his honor, his unpredictability was what cemented him as such a special talent.
“That’s the beauty of Norm. He might’ve been completely fine with it. He might’ve had some really funny observation of the whole idea of it,” Apatow says. “And that’s what made him great.”
“The Largest Online Comedy Auction Ever” is currently live through Sunday, July 20, at ebay.com/norm.
