Humorous help available for people with serious illness

Bay Area Reporter
October 2, 2003

By Zak Szymanski

If laughter is the best medicine, then people with chronic or life threatening illnesses are about to have access to some of the best treatment around.

Laughing Stock, a program of Bay Area Theatresports, offers free-of-charge improvisational comedy workshops to people with HIV/AIDS, cancer, hepatitis, and other diseases.

Founded by Anya Blackman Soltero and now run by Jonathan Goldman, Laughing Stock workshops take place several times a year and include performances, specialized training classes, and professional coaching. Specialty workshops include musical improv, story telling and movement. All of the workshops teach basic stage techniques, but non of the workshops are limited to spotlight seekers; in fact, said Goldman, the classes are a way for people to empower themselves, create community, and learn more about their inner talents.

"As adults we tend to build up our defenses and get away from our creative childlike natures, but with improv we can let all that go in a safe environment. You can be anyone you choose to be," said Goldman, adding that classes are also a great way to socialize. "Humor is a unifying thing. Nobody laughs at you; everybody laughs with you. People giggle, sometimes to the point of peeing their pants; you know, they didn't even know they had such humor inside them."

Laughing Stock is about to embark on a few new projects.

The first-ever women's only classes for women living with illness will be offerd at the San Francisco Women's Building on Thursday afternoons from 3-5 p.m. Workshops begin October 9 and run through the end of the month.

This particular workshop was made possible through a grant from the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. Although Goldman himself accepts no money for organizing the classes, he does pay the professional coaches--including regular coach Gerri Lawlor--a small stipend, and each class provides free refreshments and has other assorted costs.

The women's workshop not only offers women a space of their own to experiment and explore, but also provides free childcare, complete with an improv coach that leads the children in activities.

For information on the women's Laughing Stock classes, call (415) 431-1180, ext. 11, or e-mail resourceroom@womensbuilding.org. Interested parties are asked to register by Friday, October 3.

Laughing Stock's general workshops run all year, with the most recent upcoming offerings including a beginning series, held Saturdays from 3:30-4:30 p.m., beginning October 25 and running through November 22. Classes will be held in the Gazebo Room at California Pacific Medical Center's Davies Campus, an activity area set up on the plaza that boasts views of the city.

In the winter, said Goldman, Laughing Stock plans to offer expansion workshops for caregivers and providers, whose stressful occupations may require some emotional release and who could benefit from knowing about how such a program may be useful to their clients.

Additionally, a handful of Laughing Stock loyalists and repeat clients have formed a performance troupe called the Mirth Brokers, which has performed at care centers as well as Q-comedy, and will make an appearance at a Laughing Stock fundraiser in a couple of weeks.

The Laughing Stock benefit show is $12 and featurs a vareity of area and international talent; the show takes place Friday, October 17 at 8 p.m. at For Mason's Bayfront Theater. For tickets, call (415) 474-8935. All proceeds allow Laughing Stock to continue its work in the community.

With a range of participants from 20-60 years old, Laughing Stock, said Goldman, is for anyone with an illness who has felt the need to take risks and just have some good fun.

"In our workshops, success is measured by the attempt, not the final product. If you've tried, you've succeeded," said Goldman, who speaks so highly of Laughing Stock that he sometimes has to clarify that he hasn't joined a cult.

"Everybody," said Goldman, "comes away feeling better about themselves."