“The
most wasted of all days is one without laughter.” – E. E. Cummings
 |
| A&K Sisters (Diane Miner and MaMa La Verne) |
Laughter therapy uses the gift of
humor to counter stress. It is learning how to laugh at things in your life
that don’t seem funny at the time. Being diagnosed with cancer and the passage
that follows is a stressful situation. I decided early on in my cancer journey that
I could either use my limited energy to cry about it (which is acceptable and
necessary every once in a while)… or I could heal myself and promote my
wellbeing through comedy.
Even in my “horizontal days” –
the days I did not have the energy to do anything – I watched comedy movie
marathons lying on the sofa without guilt. I was listening to my body and it
needed rest. I was listening to my mind and heart and they needed joy.
When I reached clinical complete
remission January 2015, I decided I would do something out of my comfort zone.
I signed up for a class on how to write jokes at out local arts center. There I
was… the only female in a roomful of 20- and 30-somethings. It made me feel
like I was back working with my university graduate students – something I
missed terribly, since I had to leave my professorship shortly after I was
diagnosed, because of the fatigue and side effects. Most of my jokes centered on
my husband Carl, who I refer to as “Coach” in my act. I have been married to
the man for over 40 years, so I had plenty of material.
Next session was the stand-up
delivery class. I showed up and I was the only person from the joke-writing
class to move on. The rest of the “students” were stand-up comedians who had
performed in public before. Some were even headliners at the comedy clubs. Oh,
brother! I wondered if I had made a BIG mistake. Now granted, I had lectured in
front of hundreds of university students, but the students had to be there or
they would flunk. LOL. This was different.
Then the leader “Creepy Guy”
asked me to go up to the mic, introduce myself, and say something funny. The
first thing that went through my head was that I was going to flunk this class!
But I am not a quitter, so I
slowly walked up to the mic. “Hello, I’m MaMa La Verne and I’m a virgin [long pause and confused looks
on their faces] … of comedy. Everyone laughed.
I was rather surprised. So I guess it was going to be okay.
I wrote my jokes for my first
show and rehearsed in front of Coach. He said to me, ”Are you planning on
making people laugh?”
“Well, of course,” I said.
“Well, you are going to have to
turn it up a notch!” he advised.
“But most of the jokes are about
YOU!” I said.
My husband responded, “I don’t
care. Just make them laugh.” Coach is my inspiration and one of the finest men
I know.
I had gotten to know several of
the female stand-up comedians at the center. One was Diane. In our after-class
conversations I shared with her my cancer diagnosis. She shared with me the
death of her husband of 48 years and the cancer journey of her 20-year-old son.
We bonded.
So I performed in a series of
three class clowns acts at the arts center, when it struck me: Who needs
laughter therapy the most? Cancer patients! So I formed a group: The A&K
Sisters (Alive & Kickin’). The only problem was that I was the group.
A few months later Diane came up
to me after class and was a little shaken. “The doctor says I have multiple
myeloma!” I blurted out, “Oh, good! Then you can be my partner and we can do
stand-up comedy for cancer survivors!” At first she looked confused. And then
she gave me a big smile. She said that was the strangest response she had ever gotten.
So Diane and I have performed at
the Improv for a room of about 200 cancer survivors, caregivers, and donors. We
performed at the Virginia Piper Cancer Center in Scottsdale several times, and
we will be performing for about 100 women in February at St. Joseph’s Hospital
in Phoenix for a non-profit called Face-in-the-Mirror (http://www.faceinthemirror.org/). These pro bono stand-up
comedy performances are gifts of love and gratitude for those who did not
choose to go on the Big-C journey. This is our volunteer work in our soup
kitchen.
MaMa La Verne: Hope is
the word: Spread the laughter, heal the soul.
Diane: In the end what
matters most is how well you live,
MaMa La Verne: how
well you love,
Diane: how well you
learn to let go,
MaMa La Verne: how
much you laugh
MaMa La Verne & Diane: and how hard you kick
cancer’s ass!
Pass it on…
