David Granirer: Still Standin’ Up For Mental Health

Filed under: Themes, The UpDown Report, Irked Videos

Quoted from StandUpForMentalHealth.com:

In David Granirer’s Stand Up For Mental Health course, mental health consumers turn their problems into comedy, then perform their acts at conferences, treatment centers, psych wards, for various mental health organizations, on college and university campuses, and most importantly for the general public. ‘We use comedy to give consumers a powerful voice and help reduce the stigma and discrimination around mental illness’ says Granirer. ‘The idea is that laughing at our setbacks raises us above them.

It makes people go from despair to hope, and hope is crucial to anyone struggling with adversity.’ . . . . Granirer, who himself suffers from depression, got the idea for Stand Up For Mental Health from watching students in his Langara College Stand-Up Comedy Clinic course. ‘Though Stand-Up Comedy Clinic isn’t intended as therapy, I’ve had students overcome long standing depressions and phobias, not to mention increasing their confidence and self-esteem. There’s something incredibly healing about telling a roomful of people exactly who you are and having them laugh and cheer.’

Watch David Granirer doing stand-up comedy about the stigma people with mental illness face:

“Most people think you have to be nuts to do stand-up comedy.”

David Granirer is a counsellor, stand-up comic, and the author of the book “The Happy Neurotic: How Fear and Angst Can Lead to Happiness and Success”. He performs, maintains a counseling practice and teaches the Stand-Up Comedy Clinic at Langara College in Vancouver. He also runs Stand Up For Mental Health—where he teaches stand-up comedy to people with mental illness, as a way of helping them build confidence and fight public stigma around mental illness.

David Granirer, quoted on NationalReviewOfMedicine.com:

“When I was single, my therapist said that to build my self-esteem, I should be my own date. So I tried it. I made myself pay for everything, wouldn’t return my phone calls, and then decided I only liked me as a friend.”

Watch Jonathan Granirer, 10 years old, doing stand-up comedy in front of 450 people about the stigma people with mental illness face. Jonathan, who writes Exacto-sharp jokes and has perfect delivery, is a veteran of the stand-up comedy scene, having performed hundreds and hundreds of shows since age 5. And Jonathan knows what it’s like to live with a parent who has a mental illness—he is, after all, David Granirer’s son. Video shot in Vancouver, B.C.:

“People with mental illness are always being told what they can’t do. In this show, they get to prove what they CAN do. . . . And yes, it is a laughing matter.”

Watch footage from the wonderful CBC documentary “Cracking Up,” which follows the story of 12 courageous people who stand up for their mental health—literally! Using laughter as a form of therapy, David Granirer trains these individuals who suffer from mental illnesses such as schizophrenia, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and manic depression, to confront their problems through stand-up comedy. (To purchase the documentary download this order form):

*To book Stand Up For Mental Health or David to perform at your conference or event, or to run a SMH program in your community, please contact David directly at (604) 205-9242, email david@standupformentalhealth.com, or click here for more info.

• SMH also gives a presentation on fighting stigma in the workplace. It’s not only hilarious, but also helps your people reevaluate their attitude towards mental illness.
• The course is also available as a distance program, where David trains your people via phone and email, then flies in to do a rehearsal and a show with them.
• Makes a great event OR fundraiser!
• Stand Up For Mental Health is now offered across Canada and in the US.

Quoted from CBC.ca:

“Here’s a group of people who have suffered the stigma of mental illness for most of their lives,” says Granirer. “They’re stared at, strangers whisper behind their backs. Many of them have been in and out of institutions—all of them are medicated. And now here they are, learning to laugh at mental illness. When you think about it, it’s really quite amazing.”

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