I’m grateful for standup comedy.

Ahh, standup comedy. When everything is grey, bleak and dreary, it is like emotional comfort-food for the soul, the way one eats pasta or soup noodles or buttery mash potato on a cold winter day. A reprieve from real-life by laughing at real-life; a way to beat the demons down with belly-aching, rip-roaring, face-cramping laughter. I absolutely love to laugh. I’ve attended at least nine Melbourne International Comedy Festivals throughout my life, since I was 16, diligently booking tickets ahead of time; and, pretty much anywhere I am in the world, if a famous or up-and-coming or favourite or recommended comedian is doing a show in town, I’m there, even if I have to buy the cheapest tickets at the time. This is one of my favourite comedians, Danny Bhoy, at the Melbourne Athenaeum (I love it when comedians localise humour!):

I also really enjoyed Maz Jobrani, Russell Peters, Kitty Flanagan, Paul McDermott and his crew, Steve McIntyre…

I’m so grateful for standup comedy, and to standup comedians for being willing to expose their insecurities, vulnerabilities, griefs, sorrows and daily mundane grind to turn them into laughter and perspective, throwing them in such beautiful comic relief.

I’m grateful for laughter.

I love laughing. I love books, scenes, script lines, memes, comic strips, standup comedy, musical comedy, even political speeches that have me barking and howling with laughter. I love witty humour, whimsical and random and absurd humour, quirky humour, word humour, sarcastic and droll humour (I call this Romanian humour; but it’s also British humour), and in-jokes. I love and admire clever things.

Ah, laughter. The emotion of being tickled, amused, entertained.

Just a few little things that made me burst out laughing in the last week:

About Russia…

Video of Australian senator Scott Ludlam summing up most Australians’ thoughts on their PM at the moment

http://www.theguardian.com/world/video/2014/mar/05/ludlam-slams-abbott-government

Ellen with the pizza guy at the Oscars

Ouroboros Ouzo: A Johannes Cabal story

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20654132-ouroboros-ouzo

Parts of the episode “Madeline Pratt” of The Blacklist (though one part of it made me sniffle)

http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2014/02/24/the-blacklist-season-1-episode-14-madeline-pratt-tv-recap/

---

Photo licences and attribution (clockwise from top):

1.  Some rights reserved by lolololori
2.  Some rights reserved by Ciaran McGuiggan
3.  Some rights reserved by craigallyn
4.  Some rights reserved by romainguy

Humour. I’m definitely grateful for humour.

Ok, I know, I know, it’s not everyone’s cup of tea, and never will be, because humour is like that. That’s one thing I just love about all our senses of humour– it’s all so different. Because when you find your soulmate, chances are, a good part of it will be because of matching senses of humour. It’s like a summary of all our experiences, our upbringing, culture and personality, our exposure to the world and all we’ve read and absorbed, a testament to our core attitudes and view of life. What we laugh at is like a stripped-down Myers-Briggs score.

I’m grateful for a sense of humour. I’m relieved to have an open, easily-tickled sense of humour, and for a loud, hearty laugh.

I’m sure I’ve read research somewhere that shows that people who laugh more live longer, because laughing does feel so very, very good. I think a person can bounce from most of life’s unpleasant curveballs as long as they hang on tight to their sense of humour. It’s how you keep perspective when you can’t physically move away to get some distance, when you must stay still, suck it up and deal with it. Humour is a lifeboat when it’s yours, and a thrown life-ring when it’s someone else’s. It’s not the umbrella, but the thing that makes you laugh and dance in the rain.

And just because I find Benedict Cumberbatch rather sexy, and I giggled my way through this: