Finding the Bright Side: A Comedians Take on Humor, Cancer, and Healing Through Laughter

Hey, there Lifter uppers. I'm Deb Krier, the co-host of Cancer and Comedy, where our mission is to heal cancer-impacted people through hope and humor, something we like to call turning the grim into a grin. Well, today on cancer and comedy, we're going to talk about the bright side of diagnosis based on material from comedian Hank Green, where he talks cancer, laughter and leadership. Now here's the host of Cancer and Comedy. Dr Brad Miller.

Hey, Deb, great to be with you all our lifter uppers, we like to, here in Cancer and Comedy look at the bright side in the sense, we like to take the the drama and the trauma of cancer and other things like that, things that eat us alive, emotional distress, depression, divorce, debt, any number of things that can eat us alive, but particularly the physical aspects of cancer and physical health that can use alive and the turnaround, if we can with a change of attitude, a change of outlook that we like to call turning the grim into a grin, which is all about living a fulfilled life, whether we are on this planet a couple days or a couple decades, we want to have a fulfilled life all the way to the end. That's what we're here to do, to offer something for people to hang on to that's in a positive light. And we'd like to be able to connect up with us and build a community together, which we can do here at our website, cancerandcomedy.com/follow.

So Deb, how about a couple of dad jokes to get us rocking and rolling here today?

I'm ready bring them on.

All right. What is the only kind of water that cannot freeze?

I don't know.

Hot water, hot water. Ah, it was a lame one. That was a lame one. What is two leg but cannot walk?

I don't know.

A pair of pants, a pair of pants. There you go.

Cute, cute. Your granddaughters have a lot of fun with these. I know you and your granddaughters have so much fun with these.

That's why I got first grade humor in my in my life here, that's what I go on.

I love it. I love it. Well, as folks know, following our conversation today, you're going to want to stick around, because we will have another one of Dr Brad's bad dad jokes of the day. But then, of course, we turn serious for the very important Faith It or Break It segment. Well, as mentioned, we would love for you to be part of our Cancer and comedy community, where together we crush cancer with a message of how to cope with hope and humor. Please follow cancer and comedy at cancerandcomedy.com/follow

Deb sometimes, something we like to do from time to time here on Cancer Comedy is actually follow the stories of actual comedians, so professional comedians, and to see what the story is all about, and to then highlight that through some of the things we learn about them. And sometimes we have them lie as guests on our program. Sometimes we just learn about them and share their stories. And came across a comedian by name of Hank Green, based out of Missoula, Montana, who was a dyke. He's a science teacher. And then a comedian as well. And then he was had a diagnosis of non Hodgkin's lymphoma, which we know is a very serious form of cancer, and he chose to approach it by seeing the bright side of a diagnosis, which, of course, is hard to do, and we talk about it here from time to time, but just give me some of your impressions about learning a little bit about Hank Green and how he decided to approach his diagnosis.

Well, you know, we research him. He's got a couple of YouTube channels, one that he does with his brother John. And so what I found interesting was the one with his brother John. It's like he's talking to his brother, and so he's kind of walking his way through this process of when he first thought, oh, something's wrong, you know. And what I, you know, what I was interested in was, you know, he talks about, you have to pay attention to your body and and when he thought something was wrong, he didn't ignore it his, you know, part of his brain said, that's normal, that's natural, and the other part said, No, you need to, you know, to deal with this. And so he's really open and honest on both of his YouTube channels and in his comedy performances about what he had to deal with. And I, and I really liked that, and I love what you said, that he's looking at the bright side, you know, which is a little bit different than the laughter, the humor, things like that. He's looking for the bright side of things.

Yeah, I think he made a decision early on, and I think all of us who deal with bad things in life would be well served by making a decision relatively early on, at the decision about how we're going to approach this. And. The decision that Hank made was to it's really embodying the phrase take a bad thing and turn it into a good thing in some way or another. Make a good thing out of a bad thing, seeking some meaningfulness and value out of his cancer diagnosis, and somehow transform it in his own life, and also tell a story that could entertain other people and maybe resonate with others. And I thought that was important. So that moment of decision that you decide to make some good thing out of a bad thing, was there any moment like that with you, Deb, where you decided to make kind of a good thing of a bad thing?

You know, I'm not sure that it was an actual decision as more of just, okay, this is next. And I talk about a lot that happens in my life, you know, and, and, but I did, you know, and, and I still think, are people tired of hearing about it? I mean, you know, this has been a 10 year journey, and it's like, you know, I wonder, are people like, Oh, God, it's her. Is she still, you know, she needs either get well or die, right?

Get well or die.

I know, you know, pick one, pick one, you know, and, and so it is something that is, you know, it's been interesting to go through that.

Well, I think one of the things that Hank Green was talking about here was kind of the balance, as it were, between vulnerability and boundaries. You know, what's too much or and especially in as much as he's chosen to as a comedian, to share a lot of what he does in the public eye through comedy shows and also through, as you mentioned, the YouTube videos that he does, sharing his experiences with his audience, but acknowledging that there are people out there who there are aspects of the cancer journey that people want to keep private, you know, they want to keep to themselves, especially if you're going through really, really tough days. And I think that's something for all of us to kind of have some sensitivity about how we engage with others, right.

Yeah. And he mentions that when he first decided, hey, you know, what if we turn this into stand-up comedy? Thinking, would people actually find it funny? And we've talked about that before, that it's interesting that we can poke fun at ourselves, but we can't really poke fun at somebody else, you know, like it's just not done that you talk about the fat guy, or, you know, all of those things. It's, it's okay to say, hey, it's us, but, but yeah, and he, he recognized that it was going to be a challenge, but I love the fact that he started off small and as people accepted and even loved what he's doing, he really kind of moved into it and has quite a big following of people who want to know what's going on with him in his life.

Yeah, I think that's one of the nuances of the types of humor. There's self depreciating humor, we kind of make fun of ourselves, and there's humility. Humor we're making fun of somebody else. And I think you and I both take the track of we don't really want to be, you know, humiliating or, you know, putting other people down. That's not the type of humor that I appreciate the most. I don't. Some people lean into that, but that's not my style. And if we can kind of make fun of ourselves, that's one thing. But then also, when we start to talk about and deal with these vulnerable areas, some people will respond because they need to have a different approach to it, than what you know, and then the doom and gloom and the heaviness of cancer that is in their life. And I think it was indicative of kind of the progression of a story that Hank told about how suddenly, in his actual comedy routines, more and more people were showing up, who had who were impacted by cancer, family members, or actual people impact with cancer, and they wanted to have a connection with him, and they relate to him and and that became industry part he talked this tells the story about a man who came to check out his show he had cancer, and then later on, he came and brought his family with him, because he kind of checked it out for himself first, and then sometime later, there was a hank received a notification that this person had had passed away, and it was basically a thankful note of thanks, and what that led to Hank to have a tearful moment in realizing that what he did in his comedy was able to serve the person with cancer in this family, and even to be have some sense of gratitude about it, and, boy, when you have life change like that happens well that that's that means something significant is going on here. Don't you agree?

Right, you know. And I think one of the things that. This is leading to is the fact that, you know, as I mentioned, he wasn't sure how people would take it, and I think we're all like that, you know, and so we don't talk about it. But then, because we don't talk about it, it kind of has a stigma, you know, and there's nothing wrong. It's not like we did anything you know, to do all of this, and in any many ways, this is kind of a normal part of life that, yeah, well, well, this is what's going on now. And so I think talking about it helps people realize that they're not alone, you know, now they might not want to share, and that's obviously fine, but it helps people to realize, you know what, I'm just like everybody else, and that's okay.

We've all had our trauma in life. Had Hank talks about trauma, being bullied as a kid, and things of this nature. We've all had trauma in life and how we can deal with it. And his choice was to perform and to act it out there, but for all. But I think all of us need some sense of affirmation and validation, that our story matters right, and that we need to connect with others in some form or another, friends, family, others. We hope that people connect with us here, cancerandcomedy.com, and with trynottodie.live, your sites and so on. People we offer ourselves, we kind of make ourselves from a vulnerability this podcast out and to help people connect with that. Because we all need to be affirmed that you're part of a of a greater or greater story, and helping meet some needs. And when you meet somebody's needs, I think it affirms you, it makes you feel better, makes you feel that you've done something good. So appreciate all that they and, you know what? There's more people out there like us than we think sometimes, don't we?

I mean, you look at the statistics, and yeah, it's pretty much everybody that either has cancer or knows somebody who does.

If you think about some of the other things are out there, you know, we talk about depression and loneliness and things like that, the people, of people, they often talk about kind of the pen, the pen, pandemic of loneliness. And the people, like any people, seek out some connection with others, and maybe those connections can actually be something like cancer and that that that type of thing. It's kind of an aside thing, just a little bit, but I happen to watch a television special just from ESPN, just yet, just yesterday. Actually, it was about a baseball pitcher by the name of Jim Abbott, who was pretty famous as a baseball pitcher 20, 30 years ago. He only had one hand, and he was able to be a major league baseball pitcher, right as a one handed pitcher, and very unusual, and he threw no hitters and played in the World Series and things like that. And how, all of a sudden, as a, you know, with this situation, born with only one hand and able to play baseball, people, children, especially who had some situation, one hand, or some other physical aspect, some other physical situation, came out the woodwork to be with him. Anyhow, he that became his next life, or his life, even as a baseball player. But I just think, you know, God gives us, gives us the opportunity, sometimes, to take, take, take something bad and to make something productive and good out of it. And, right? I think that's what Hank is looking to do here. And, you know, some good things here there, take a chance. It's worth it to take a chance, don't you think so most of the time?

Yeah, you know. And it really is important to show people that they're not alone, you know. And, if that means that we're going to giggle about, you know, some of this, well, that's okay.

Yeah, yeah. I think so too. Well, I think it's good for us to talk about these things. And when we talk about comedians, as we do from here, from time to time, that it is only just about the haha, the hehe and the get the laugh, it is about the meaningfulness of that, and how that serves some sort of a greater good. And that's what we look to do here in Cancer Comedy. It's a sort of a greater good out of the pain and the trauma of cancer, things like that too, as we say, to turn the grim into a grin. And that's what we're looking to do here.

I love it. I love it. Well, let's turn that grim into a grin again with another one of Dr Brad's bad dad jokes of the day.