Fresh Ideas, Real Stories, and a Lot of Laughs

June 8, 2023

What is Affiliative Humor and Why Should I Care?

Great question! When I was launching Laughter On Call in the Alzheimer’s space I’d often be asked about where the idea came from of bringing laughter to such a dark situation. The simple truth is, for me creating human connection through shared laughter, even against the toughest odds, is a reflex.

May 26, 2023

In Honor of Mental Health Awareness Month - Trust the Experts!

‍This week in the NY Times featured a story about a moving company for seniors. Hiring a third party to come in so you don’t have to argue with Mom about giving up placemats from 1970. It definitely brought back memories of conversations I had with my mother about her stuff and where it would all go.

Alzheimer’s Silver…moments

The shaky hand, the labored breathing when she sleeps in her wheelchair, her shrinking body nourished mostly by vanilla ice cream: as we move into the eighth year that my mother’s brain is being ravaged by Alzheimer’s disease, none of it seems like a gift. And yet. Sometimes when she looks straight into my eyes now, no longer weighed down by judgment or disappointment or even yes, envy, the gaze is so piercing it cuts right through the haze of grief I walk around in.

Comedy Care Delivered

Laughter On Call started as a way to bring some much needed comic relief to my mother. However, in the year since the idea of hiring a comedian to work one-on-one with her to make her laugh, it has become a company that offers so much more.

Cracking Myself Up – Almost!

“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.

Land Of The Free, Home Of The Brave

Funny how lyrics can resonate differently depending on where you are in your life.

Laughter In The Time Of Corona

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. There is no original way to write this, these are crazy times.

Loc Founder Dani Modisett Talks Laughter and Hope

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. Given how enamored she had always been about Manhattan, in that singular way that native New Yorker’s can be, we anticipated a lot worse, tantrums, sleepless nights and seething looks of contempt.

Loc goes Israel

Loc’s Beginnings

The great aspect of living in a city where everyone comes to realize their dreams, is that it’s full of creative people oozing ideas, good and bad. In no other city in the country are the coffee shops standing room only all day long.

“LUNCHTIME LAUGHTER”? WHAT? AND…WHY?

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.

My Mother, Her Hands

I feel like I’ve always been aware of my mother’s long tapered fingers. Most of the time they were covered in gold rings, catching light as she lit a cigarette or held a glass of wine, always with her pinky extended.