I really hate it when people say “laughter is the best medicine.”
Because laughing at stuff doesn’t fix anything.
As a stand-up comedian, I laughed about life’s challenges for 15 years but I still felt crap. Actually, I felt so crap that I had to step off the stage and into the therapist’s office, where I received an unexpected diagnosis of Clinical Depression.
I felt so ripped off! How does a Comedian who laughs for a living, end up with Clinical Depression? I thought… “Well, if comedy got me into this, then comedy better to get me out of it.”
That’s when I started to unpack what a comedian does, and I realised laughter is only one half of the equation. The other half is how a comedian generates that laughter.
You see, to generate laughter, comedians have to be conscious (always aware of what’s going on and what they can possibly use for material), curious (always unpacking and deconstructing things and looking at it from every angle to find the ‘funny’) and creative to actually come up with a ‘joke’.
That’s when I realised humour is more than just laughter. And when you combine laughter and humour the outcomes are extraordinary.
Laughter reduces your stress levels and increases feelings of wellbeing, whilst humour improves your awareness, understanding and creativity. This leads to the powerful benefits of improved resilience, adaptability, confidence, connection, engagement, efficiency and productivity.
The skills around humour are so much more than just making people laugh. That’s why I’ve taken my 15+ years of experience in the Comedy Industry and combined it with my learnings and insights (from about 6 years of therapy!) into a body of work that I call Comic Intelligence.
Now I help people develop their own Comic Intelligence, and use the power of humour to improve business outcomes.
You see in business, the primary reason for humour isn’t laughter, it’s engagement – as better engaged prospects, clients, teams and audiences, leads to better performance, outcomes and results.
To find out more about Comic Intelligence Click Here.
