Splitsider

Posts tagged as mental illness

Getting Better

Maria Bamford and the Cathartic Comedy of Mental Illness

by | March 13th, 2013

Maria Bamford is launching a revolution from her microphone. In less than two years, Bamford has survived the death of her best friend — her pug, Blossom — and a battle with depression, suicide, and hospitalization. The result: Her stand-up contains some of the most transformative work being done around mental illness and stigma today.

Last Monday, comedian Mike Birbiglia Tweeted, “Saw [Maria Bamford] tonight at Caroline's. I've never seen a comedian who made me want to give 25 standing ovations in one set.” He wasn’t alone.

I have seen Maria Bamford perform for almost eight years, primarily at the now-shuttered Lakeshore Theatre in Chicago. Her act has always been [...]

Mental Health

The Uneasy Relationship Between Mental Illness and Comedy

by | December 14th, 2012

I had to take a Xanax to write this article. My anxiety makes it hard to start; my depression and self-doubt make it hard to come to any conclusion. And so, in classic neurotic fashion, I begin with skepticism:

“Are you SERIOUS?" Marc Maron asked me, presumably rhetorically, upon hearing my reason for calling him. I don’t think he was trying to be mean. It seemed like genuine disbelief.

I told him that I was. That I believed — in the face of countless evidence to the contrary — that mental illness was an obstacle to good comedy and not a tool for its deployment. That there exists a [...]

Standup

Maria Bamford Tries to Find the Humor in Mental Illness

by | May 11th, 2012

"Yeah. I have a joke about how people don’t talk about mental illness the way they do other regular illnesses. 'Well, apparently Jeff has cancer. Uh, I have cancer. We all have cancer. You go to chemotherapy you get it taken care of, am I right? You get back to work.' Or: 'I was dating this chick, and three months in, she tells me that she wears glasses, and she’s been wearing contact lenses all this time. She needs help seeing. I was like, listen, I’m not into all that Western medicine shit. If you want to see, then work at it. Figure out how not to be so myopic. You know?' [...]

-->