BLOG

As the daughter of someone who suffered from Alzheimer’s, he had me at amyloid plaque.

In November it will be two years since I had the idea to hire a comedian to cheer my mother up.

I have a big birthday coming. I’m not going to say which one but it’s not hard to figure out.

Comedians love imperfection, we know it’s a goldmine for laughs, and in terms of business, can often be a source for innovation.

Let me first acknowledge that families are facing much...

Most comedians traffic in foolishness. It’s woven so tightly...

It’s April 2021. Times like these aren’t very funny...

Yesterday, at the tail end of our fourth event...

I recently had the good fortune to travel to Israel with the Bnai Zion Foundation. They have been dedicated to building community in Israel with love for over 110 years! And we know Laughter On Call builds community and connections with laughter so it was a perfect fit.

On Sunday a group of Improv comics met at my house in Atwater Village for some Interactive Storytelling training. As you can see, it was awful. Fortunately we also had snacks!

“At Laughter On Call, we’re so committed to making you laugh, we’ll crack a rib if we have to!” this was the ad copy running through my mind lying on the cold metal table in a paper dress slit down the back waiting for my torso to be x-rayed.

If you’re old enough to have a parent who is a senior, you may remember the seminal book Tuesdays with Morrie. This memoir, recounting the wise and intimate conversations that the author Mitch Albom had with his former college professor Morrie Schwartz in the last months of his life tugged at the heartstrings of popular culture with surprising vigor.

Funny how lyrics can resonate differently depending on where you are in your life. I have been thinking a lot about bravery, more specifically courage, these last few months. So much so that you may have noticed we changed the tag line for Laughter On Call from “Hope. One laugh at a time,” to “Courage. One laugh at a time.”

Hello to all our isolated friends. We have arrived at week three of staying safe, social distancing and creating laughter from where ever we are.

Some might argue we’re a motley crew. Ranging in age from 30 to 93, in t-shirts, unshaven with unkempt hair, we meet Monday through Friday at noon, following the lead of our in house “comedy care” expert instructing us to breathe deeply, make funny faces and, depending on whatever comedy principal we are taking on that day, tell silly stories.

When I first brought my mother to Los Angeles from New York City where she had lived for most of her life -minus a long decade she spent in suburban Connecticut – she was doing okay.

I was late to altar, so to speak, meaning it took me a long time to settle down and get married.

Laughter On Call started as a way to bring some much needed comic relief to my mother.