Laughter counters mental illness clichés, show today
Want to be a stand-up comic? Program is coming to the Island
Judith Lavoie, Times Colonist
Published: Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Have you heard the one about the guy with paranoid bipolar disorder?
Employers discriminated against him on the basis of mental health -- they gave him jobs he had to be crazy to do.
Laughing at mental illness is a way for people to build confidence and fight the stigma, says David Granirer, 45, a stand-up comic, author and counsellor who suffers from depression.
Granirer, who in 2004 founded Stand Up For Mental Health, a program that teaches people with mental illnesses to be standup comics, is bringing the show to the University of Victoria today.
He's also planning to start a program in Victoria early next year, in partnership with the B.C. Schizophrenia Society.
"We already have a waiting list of people who want to be in the program," said Granirer, who teaches a standup comedy course at Langara College in Vancouver.
The effect of getting up on a stage and making jokes about mental illness can be life-changing, Granirer said.
"One young fellow started the program when he'd just been released from five months in Riverview. He was stable, but his soul had died. He'd just sit in his room all day and smoke cigarettes and watch TV.
"Then he joined our program and he came back to life. He's done about 150 shows and he's one of our stars."
Mental illness is still considered a shameful experience, Granirer said.
People may not go to work because they have a headache, but they rarely feel comfortable explain-ing the voices in their heads are a little loud that day or they need their anti-psychotic drugs adjusted, he said.
Standing up and trying to make an audience laugh can be a tough job, but many of the performers have survived much worse -- from suicide attempts to hospitalization and misdiagnoses, Granirer said.
"They can survive a five-minute set that doesn't go all that well."
Andrea Paquette, a.k.a. Bipolar Babe, agrees laughter is intensely therapeutic.
Paquette, 32, a project manager in mental health and addictions, was diagnosed with bipolar disorder six years ago and launched the Bipolar Babe website in May.
"I want to reach out to youth and get people talking about it and sharing their stories," Paquette said.
"It's a way of empowering people and bringing humour to something that's not really talked about."
Attitudes are changing, said Paquette, who now feels comfortable talking about her anti-psychotic drugs or the "flatlining" when she knows her drugs need adjusting.
It's a far cry from when Paquette was growing up and never knew why her mother would take to her bed for weeks at a time or spend time in hospital.
"I was just told she was sick," she said.
Bipolar Babe is planning a Nov. 27 hair show and art gala as a fundraiser, which will go toward forming a non-profit society. For details, go to bipolarbabe.com.
For tickets for the 1 p.m. and 7 p.m. performances at the University Centre, phone 250-721-8480 or go to auditorium.uvic.ca/tickets
jlavoie@tc.canwest.com
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