It starts with a hard truth. Suicide is not funny. But a stand-up course run by comedian Angie Belcher is using comedy to help men at risk of suicide talk about trauma in a different way.
Belcher’s course, Comedy on Referral, is backed by the charity Rethink Mental Illness. It gained funding in 2022 through an NHS grant from the North West London Integrated Care Board.
Belcher said the classes are designed to help trauma victims “process their trauma in a different way” by reclaiming the narrative of their life story.
“This enables survivors to consciously use comedy to change their perspective of their experiences, but it also puts them in a physically powerful position because being on stage is very powerful,” Belcher told The Guardian.
According to the International Association for Suicide Prevention, an estimated 703,000 people die by suicide worldwide each year, and the rate for men is nearly double that of women.
Belcher’s students include men over 18 who have attempted suicide and who have often also lost friends and family to suicide.
“We’ve never done anything like this before and we’re very excited about it because we’re hoping it will reach men who, even though they’ve been diagnosed as at high risk of suicide, don’t think they have an issue and so won’t go to counselling or attend anything signposted ‘suicide prevention,’” said Lourdes Colclough, head of suicide prevention at Rethink Mental Illness.
“This is a different way of engaging with this hard-to-reach group.”
Belcher and Colclough designed the lessons with psychologists. The classes use writing assignments, group games and one-on-one work.
The six-week course ends with a comedy show in front of an audience of 100 people.
Using comedy as a healing tool is not new. Stand-up comedian Patton Oswalt has spoken publicly about how performing helped him through the loss of his wife in 2016.
On top of the catharsis it brought him personally, Oswalt said writing and performing during his grief also helped other people.
“My goal, as always, is I want to be funny, and I want to get laughs,” Oswalt told NPR. “But laughter, I think, can loosen up a lot of poison that has kind of settled into your muscles and your soul; not to get too Oprah about it. And maybe incidentally I’m helping someone out with their grief.”
Belcher said she knows Comedy on Referral may be an unconventional way to support people in her Bristol community.
“I want participants to leave the course with a different part of themselves, their comedic persona, so that they can enjoy their lives in a different way and hopefully in a better way.”
Read more from GoodGoodGood.
