Ep. 99: Humour and Wellness with Jessica Holmes & Ryan Zeitz
Listen, Rate & Subscribe
Apple Podcasts // Spotify // Google Podcasts // Stitcher // Amazon Music
Life can be difficult. Whatever we’re enduring—a global pandemic? a difficult medical diagnosis?—emerging scientific research shows that humour can be an important coping tool. In this episode, we explore how author/comedian Jessica Holmes (Royal Canadian Air Farce, The Holmes Show, above at right) and mental health comedian Ryan Zeitz (Mental HELLth, above at left) use humour to get through tough times—and what the rest of us can learn from them.
This episode includes live stand-up by comedians Ryan Zeitz [3:45], Freddy Jan [5:36], Rena Taylor [9:42], John Mostyn [11:23], Moira Watson [13:31], and Jessica Holmes [22:04],[27:32].
LINKS
Go see Ryan Zeitz’s Mental HELLth show, happening on the third Tuesday of every month at Boxcar Social at the Harbourfront Centre in Toronto at 7:30pm. It's a 100% fully accessible venue, and the net proceeds from every show are donated to The CAMH Foundation.
NASA has discovered that people who make jokes to get through tough times are important to the perpetuation of cohesive social groups. To study team dynamics in advance of an upcoming mission to Mars, the U.S. space agency is isolating small groups in Antarctica. Here’s a write-up about the research that illustrates the importance of clowns, and joking to endure difficult situations. Plus, this article on the Mars mission from The Economist describes the importance of the clown, and humour, to enduring difficult situations.
Washington Post on laughter and wellness
The Laughter Prescription: A Tool for Lifestyle Medicine in American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine
Humor, Laughter and Physical Health: methodological issues and research methods in Psychological Bulletin
Read this article by the Mayo Clinic: “Stress relief from laughter? It’s no joke”
Clown therapy reduces pediatric patient anxiety: A metareview from the British Medical Journal
If You’re Not in the Obit, Eat Breakfast is Carl Reiner’s film about comedian nonagenarians, which, among other things, investigates the possibility that frequent laughter may promote longevity.
Check out Jessica Holmes on Twitter and Instagram, and visit her website.
Check out Ryan Zeitz on Twitter.
Read Jessica Holmes’ book, Depression The Comedy: A Tale of Perseverance
Watch this YouTube video by Jessica Holmes, about her own depression.
Watch Jessica’s talk on how tragedy plus time equals comedy.
INSIGHTS
In preparation for an upcoming trip to Mars by human astronauts, NASA is conducting studies on team dynamics by sequestering small groups in Antarctica during wintertime. The research has revealed that it’s helpful to team dynamics if the groups include certain roles, such as a leader, a storyteller and a social secretary. But the role that is most important to successful team dynamics is that of a clown—someone who can inject humour into stressful situations. [01:34]
Paraphrasing the comedian Jimmy Carr, guest Ryan Zeitz says, “if you can joke about something really dark… it means that at least some level of healing has occurred.” By joking about difficult experiences, Zeitz says, “it's an opportunity… to try and process some of those intense emotions, through comedy… through that lens of humor.” [11:01, 12:57]
Zeitz calls it “cathartic” to apply humour to tough situations. “Being able to make jokes and create comedy around my own struggles with mental health has been so wildly cathartic and healing and helpful for me,” he says. “I think it's really important to talk about these things… Obviously the show caters to audience members that are empathetic to that sort of material. Being able to get everybody in a room where we can explore this together. Yeah, the hope is that everybody leaves achieving a little bit of catharsis.” [13:36]
A lot of people say to Jessica Holmes, “Oh, you're so brave for speaking about your depression.” But Holmes believes talking about difficult things, and joking about them, is part of the comedian’s job description. “Comedians—this is all we do. All we do is overshare,” she says. “So for me, it was extremely natural, and healing… And the reason that audiences love comedy is because it makes us all realize we are in this together, we are in these common battles, whether it's something silly, like losing your keys, or traffic or relationships, or it's something a lot deeper, like, going through pain and humiliation and suffering… This is like a very valid form of therapy.” [20:13]
Holmes tells a wonderful story about backpacking through Europe on a budget with her grandfather, and the way he was able to use humour to endure misfortune, that really lands the entire thesis of this episode. “When I get together with my family, and when you get together with your friends, isn't the first thing we do is to laugh about how crappy life is and laugh about how embarrassing something was?” Holmes says. “So I realized like, bad things make us need each other. Shared common terrible experiences are what creates society and bonds and relationships.” [30:06]