I’m hosting this panel at the Wheeler Centre for the Melbourne International Comedy Festival on Monday March 30th.
Here’s the blurb:
Comedy aims to make us laugh, but it’s not all sweetness and light. Humour can be a way of taking control over the dark side of life: for the comedians who write the jokes and the audiences who relish them.
The ‘sad clown’ cliché is often true, with high-profile comics increasingly coming out of the closet about their struggles with mental health, partly due to an increased awareness and acceptance. Can seeing the world from a skewed or outsider perspective make humour easier, even if it makes life harder? When we joke about mental health, is there a line between catharsis, or boundary-pushing, and offence? Join host Tom Ballard, Lawrence Mooney and Sarah Kendall as they peek out from behind the red curtain to share their insights.