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June 3, 2005
It is a laughing matter
Mental health patients learn unique recovery method.
CASSANDRA FREEMAN
Jonathan Granirer, age seven, stands on a chair with a microphone
in his hand, cracking up the crowd at a local restaurant. His father
stands right next to him whispering the topic of the next joke into
his son's ear.
His dad is David Granirer, a self-professed "psychocomic"
– psychotherapist, comedian and teacher all rolled up into
one. The twist in Granirer's punch line is that he believes comedy
can heal.
"When you stand up in front of people and tell them exactly
who you are, it's a great confidence booster," Granirer told
the Bulletin. "It takes away a lot of the shame you've
had. You come off stage saying, 'Hey, I'm not really that bad.'
"
At 45, Granirer has taught comedy through the continuing education
department at Langara College for eight years, performed in countless
Humor in the Workplace sessions across North America and appeared
in a Global Television documentary called Laughing Through the
Pain, about his work turning recovering drug addicts into standup
comics.
Granirer's new book, I'm OK But YOU Need Professional Help: How
Being Fear-Driven and Neurotic Can Lead to Happiness and Success
is awaiting publication. He said it runs against all new-age values
of being centred and at peace with oneself.
"Fear is the greatest motivator there is," he said, adding
that the book is all about how you can be "happy, productive
and well-adjusted, while remaining as neurotic as ever."
Granirer's latest gig is hardly a surprise. Stand Up for Mental
Health is a comedy course for people with mental health diagnoses.
After the course, the new comics perform almost every week for an
entire year.
He feels that his graduates, around 40 of them so far, take aim
at social stigma just by getting on stage.
"We present people with mental illnesses as being strong and
capable and that goes against what you often hear people say,"
he noted.
Granirer was born in Jerusalem. The family moved to the United States
when he was two and ended up in Vancouver when he was in Grade 3.
His father, grandfather and grandmother, survivors of a Romanian
concentration camp, were rescued only because a Christian relative
bribed their way out.
"Any time you grow up in the shadow of that kind of stuff,
you learn the value of humor and staying sane," said Granirer.
Very early on, Granirer became the class clown.
"I was the kid in every grade school picture who sticks out
their tongue and crosses their eyes," he remembered. He credits
his parents for his daring plunge into comedy as a career.
"Both my parents are really creative people," he said,
"so I grew up around people doing what they were really passionate
about."
Granirer's mother, Pnina, is a local artist. His father, Edmond,
is a retired math professor.
After a long gig as the guitarist in a rock and roll band, Granirer
had a car accident and found himself in therapy at 26. This led
him to pursue a career as a counsellor himself.
As a trainer at the Vancouver Crisis Centre at age 36, Granirer
found he had a captive audience. He tried out jokes on the crisis
counsellors and soon found he had enough material to take the stage
at Punchlines – the now defunct comedy club in Gastown.
"I completely bombed," he said.
Soon after, though, Granirer was back at it, following a workshop
through an organization based in Austin, Tex., called the Comedy
Gym.
He credits Beatrice Scott, his wife, as being a great support in
his career.
An interfaith couple, the two celebrate Chanukah, Passover and Christmas
with their kids and belong to the Peretz Centre for Secular Studies.
Samantha, Granirer's stepdaughter, recently returned from a Peretz
school teen conference in Toronto.
Granirer figures that, to date, he has taught about 500 students.
Some, like Jacquie O'Keefe (better known as "the ex-nun"),
have performed at the Winnipeg Comedy Festival and on national radio
and television. Others have simply fulfilled their lifelong wish
to get up on stage once or twice and face the fear.
"People with a mental illness are always being told what they
can't do," said Granirer. "In this group, they get to
prove what they can do."
Stand Up for Mental Health is sponsored by the Richmond Mental Health
Association and the Burnaby Mental Wealth Society. For more information,
visit the website www.standupformentalhealth.com.
Cassandra Freeman is a theatre performer and writer living
in Vancouver.
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