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Fresh Ideas, Real Stories, and a Lot of Laughs

Insights on laughter, leadership, and team culture direct from our founder

October 30, 2024

Office Zombies: A Cautionary Tale

In the early 90’s when I first moved to LA I worked as a paralegal. This was back when you needed real people to redline legal documents to catch errors. The “office” I reported to was a house with very large dining and living rooms. Each had long tables running from one end to the other with folding chairs on both sides. A very thin woman in her early 50’s with long red nails and bleached blonde bob was in perpetual motion. She was never without a personalized ceramic mug: Boss Lady. Which she was, the owner of what was basically a paralegal sweatshop.

October 24, 2024

You Say Facility, We Say Community!

Most of you are probably too young to remember the Ginger Rogers/Fred Astaire song called, “Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off.” It’s a duet about the minute differences in pronunciation of words - like tomato and potato - poised to ruin a relationship. With a meet-cute vibe, about breaking up and then deciding not to, it’s charming and very 1937.

October 17, 2024

Self-Deprecation vs. Self-Compassion

Like prizefighters in a ring, it’s time for these two heavyweights to duke it out. I know who I’d bet on for going the distance for mental health, but often, particularly in comedy, I can be alone on this.

October 9, 2024

HAPPY AGEISM AWARENESS DAY

I love a good holiday, any chance to blow up balloons and eat buttercream. However, today is Ageism Awareness Day and it has me a little stumped. Or at least it did at first glance. I mean, I know how old I am, do we nee

October 3, 2024

National Alzheimer's Accountability Act Gets A Pick Up!

I work in comedy, so when my mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, naturally I thought to help by making her laugh. Then I set out to help not only people facing the disease, but the people who care for them with comedi

September 27, 2024

Amazon is Making Connection a Priority

The executive who booked us to come in person to AMAZON this week may be psychic. Or maybe they knew that CEO Andy Jassy was going to make his RTO announcement. Love that they wanted to make sure people feel good by

September 19, 2024

Laughter Here, Laughter There, Laughter Everywhere!

What a whirlwind few weeks with the LOC crew! Apparently people love to kick off the fall with laughter and connection. First I traveled to San Francisco for the annual Dartmouth Entrepreneur Forum to share the Laugh

September 5, 2024

Happy Healthy Aging Month

I’ll kick this one off with a confession. I’ve lived in Los Angeles for almost 30 years and yet I still look forward to reading the Sunday New York Times. There are plenty of reasons to attack any newspaper at this point. Journalistic integrity is challenging in highly charged times. Which is exactly what made Sunday’s piece “Why is the Loneliness Epidemic So Hard to Cure?” so gosh darn compelling.

August 30, 2024

What Can We Learn from Empty Nesters?

Yesterday a dear friend of mine sent me the link to a video of Brooke Shields crying. Not because I feel so connected to her since I also auditioned for The Blue Lagoon at 14. I didn’t get it. No, my friend sent it over because Ms. Shields is so unapologetically bereft in the wake of her daughters going to college. Two of them have flown the coop leaving her an official “empty nester.” I still have a son at home, but Amy and I grew up together and although I’m crying yet, she knows I will be soon.

August 20, 2024

The Elephant - and the Donkey - In the Room

Laughter On Call - to quote my friends in 12 Step programs - “has no opinion on outside issues.” Our laughter is intentionally non-partisan. Given the current political climate my sense is that 75 days before this Presidential election, after watching the two parties’ conventions, it’s pretty clear that affiliative humor isn’t in anyone’s playbook.

August 15, 2024

Keeping A Vacation State of Mind

Eek! Mid-August, how did we get here? For that matter, how did we get to 2024? I still think 1984 was twenty years ago, max. But here we are and as summer wraps up I had some insights about vacation. Something I’m not ve

August 8, 2024

FIGHTING THE GOOD FIGHT FOR GOOD THOUGHTS

“Levity is a mind-set,” said Naomi Bagdonas, a lecturer at the Stanford Graduate School of Business who advises executives on leading with humor and humanity. “It’s looking for reasons to be delighted rather than disappointed in the world around you.”