Comedy Crusaders
In an increasingly popular new approach, psychotherapist and comedian David Granirer has combined his two roles to help people tackle mental illness. Could it be that laughter really is the best medicine?
"Suicide is not funny," explains Randy Goodchild. "But the worst thing you can do is not talk about it and not bring it out in the open." Drawing from experience can mean dealing with some particularly difficult topics, but psychotherapist David Granirer's unique approach to mental health is proving an extremely effective way of confronting difficult issues. When he decided to face his demons through stand-up, it proved so successful that he went on to start his own comedy school, where he's been helping people laugh at their own situations ever since. "I'm tired of the secrecy and stigma around mental illness," he explains. "We're not making jokes at mental illness. We're talking about our own experiences through comedy. That's a totally different way of looking at it."
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