Atlantic Books Today NEWS FEATURE
Healing laughter Books that bust our guts and make us feel fine
I
started out in stand-up comedy in London, England, in 2004. To this day my mother can’t quite believe that my job is to stand in rooms full of strangers and make them laugh. I was not an outgoing child growing up. I was never the class clown. I was too shy to speak to other kids in my class. Nor was I remotely academic or athletic. Most parents can settle for the fact that their un-sporty child is at least good at math, or vice versa. Not mine. I was what my mother recently described as a “triple bill of failure” for them. Which is my mum using humour to mask what was a very unhappy time for me, and in turn for her and my dad, who loved me and wanted the best for me. Laughter was the thing we always bonded over. Laughter, which meant respecting the healing powers of the art form of comedy in all its shapes and sizes and creative outputs. Anything that elicited laughter was something to admire. This took the form of watching Monty Python and John Candy, listening to Robin Williams and Steve Martin records. Laughing uproariously together. As for more literary forms of humour, I loved my English teacher, Mrs. Murphy, telling me that Chaucer was the original dirty comedian. I revelled in her detailing the meaning
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behind certain smutty sonnets in The Canterbury Tales. Comedy in any form was the key to unlocking joy in my otherwise bleak soul and healing me. So it stands to reason that I would wind up pursuing a career that involves bringing laughter to the world, even though I struggle with self-confidence to this day. It is a career that creates huge highs and crushing lows. Even though laughter may not be the best medicine, it certainly heals some things. For many of us who saw our livelihoods decimated by a global pandemic, it was laugher that saved us. When March 11, 2020, happened and my industry ground to a halt, I was terrified. I lost upwards of 50 bookings and wondered if I would ever be allowed to pack a few hundred people into a theatre again. But when companies realized the importance of laughter to the mental and physical health of their staff, they booked me for virtual performances: performing via Zoom and Teams and Webex and other platforms none of us had heard of but now wished we had shares in. I replaced my love of the sound of laughter with a visual: a small square image showing someone in their home or office laughing at my punchlines. Book publishers too have cottoned on to the power of laughter. This season sees the release of some of the funniest tomes for eons. Tracy and Martina (created and played by Justine Williamson and Greg Vardy) are a bona fide East Coast comedy phenomenon whose popularity has exploded in the past 18 months. It has long been said that Cape Breton Island is the origin of many of the
Photo: Sean McGrath
by James Mullinger
