The best medicine

Laughter leader brings forced, and
genuine, mirth to the ailing

by CHRIS BARRY

Name: Pam Wener

Age: 53

Occupation: “Certified Laughter Leader”

Bio: This loquacious, good-natured Hampstead gal has spent most of her professional life to date labouring as a pre-school teacher, but recently undertook an “intensive” course at the Snowdon Y lasting “one entire weekend, each day from 9 a.m.–4 p.m.” to learn how to lead something called “laughter groups.” Since becoming “a fully certified laughter leader,” Pam has been conducting her laughter workshops primarily among seniors, although, as a longtime volunteer with the Learning Disabilities Association of Quebec, says her workshops have been a big hit on the learning disabled front as well. “But probably the best one I’ve ever done was at the Manoir Renaissance for people with Alzheimer’s and dementia. Oh, that was great, I left there feeling really good. They really, really responded.”

How laughter groups are alleged to reduced misery: “Benefits include better communication, lowered blood pressure and heart rate, stress relief and improved mood.”

What happens in a laughter group? “We basically begin by doing breathing and stretching exercises to warm up the body and another specific exercise to warm up the vocal chords. Then we’ll do anywhere from five to 10 laughter exercises with deep breathing in between. Then we rest and discuss Good-Hearted Daily Living—giving and asking for examples divided by the days of the week. Monday is for compliments, Tuesday for flexibility, Wednesday for gratitude, Thursday for kindness, Friday is for forgiveness and weekends are for chocolate. After this, I state the Laughter Club values. Then we do announcements—like birthdays and such—our three cheers affirmations and finally I applaud everyone and thank them for coming.”

Sounds like a hoot. What’s a “laughter exercise”? “We don’t tell jokes, the exercises involve the imagination and aren’t cultural at all. Like, one thing we do is when we go to shake somebody’s hand, we have [joy buzzers] that give off an electric shock when they grab it. So when the person gets shocked, they withdraw their hand going, “Oooh, hoo, hoo, hoo, ha, ha,” that kind of thing. It’s not cultural, this is universally funny. You see, simulated laughter leads to stimulated laughter. It’s kind of forced in the beginning but eventually it leads to real laughter. It’s a lot of pretending and make-believe, but the idea is to bring a sense of fun back to your life, to bring you back to an almost childlike state.”

Based on the guffaws the trusty ol’ joy buzzer gag always gets, is it safe to assume the people attending these things are generally so desperate to feel better they could even find something funny in, say, an episode of Corner Gas? “Well, the difference between attending a laughter group and watching something funny on TV is that in laughter classes you’re interacting and participating. The laughs you have when watching something funny are different than the ones you have in a laughter group. It’s because you’re using your sphincter muscles—oh wait, not your sphincter, your…uh, diaphragm—so much because you’re also doing deep breathing in between exercises.” To participate in a session, contact Pam via pamela_wener@hotmail.com.

Musical preferences: Mariah Carey, John Mayer, Elton John.

Last book read: The Glass Castle, by Jeannette Walls.

Words of wisdom: “Be kinder than necessary. You never know when a few sincere words can have an impact on a life.”

Comments: dimwit@hdot.net