Episode 59: Laughter: The Best Medicine? with Kody Green, Part Two

00;00;09;00 – 00;00;29;18
Kelly Parbs
Welcome to OnTopic with Empathia! I’m your host, Kelly Parbs. Today we’re continuing our conversation with Kody Green, a comedian and mental health advocate. Kody, also known on social media as the Schizophrenic Hippie, will help us understand how we might add humor into our daily lives.

00;00;29;21 – 00;00;36;24
Kody Green
Comedy is really more of a top tier – once I’m stable, I can focus on finding humor in some of these situations.

00;00;36;24 – 00;01;30;07
Kelly Parbs
And every person and every situation is is different. I’m thinking right now – so I work in the field of crisis management, and sadly, recently I was at a mass casualty event working with families who had lost loved ones. And I did notice a couple of days in a family that was gathered around a table, you know, talking about their loved one, and they tended to lean towards telling old stories and laughing. And, and in that situation, I thought, this laughing is really healing. It’s helping them remember their loved one and lighten this heavy, heavy situation that we’re in right now. And I just got to see upfront how for them in that moment, laughter just got them through a really rough time!

00;01;30;10 – 00;02;34;14
Kody Green
I love seeing that when I work with peers as well. I’ve done peer support for years and I, you know, through online. I’ve also done, forms of peer support. And I love being able to see someone who’s really struggling, be able to make that shift into, either storytelling, using humor, or like being able to, to tie their situation to something they found funny or a comedian story or something online that they relate to. I think that’s a huge healing, move for anyone who’s, you know, in active conflict or active stressors, because it’s so and like you had mentioned, it’s different for everyone. There are some people who, you know, it might take longer. There are some people who might never find humor in what they’re going through. And that’s perfectly fine because everyone has different circumstances, different situations. But I do find that if you’re able to utilize it, it can be such a healing thing to have in your, you know, your wellness arsenal.

00;02;34;17 – 00;02;58;18
Kelly Parbs
I love that, wellness arsenal. So Kody, let’s talk about just bringing humor into everyday life for the average person, maybe someone who doesn’t even consider themselves to be naturally funny. What are some ways that we can intentionally bring humor into our daily life for better mental well-being?

00;02;58;20 – 00;05;00;11
Kody Green
Yeah, I think one thing people can do is, be willing to laugh at yourself a little bit? It’s so hard in this day and age. We’re all so stressed. We all want to, you know, have a purpose. We want to be successful. We want to have better paying jobs and do all these amazing things. And I think we’ve gotten to a point in the world where people have a hard time making fun of themselves. It heals me so much because I in my comedy, most of what I make fun of is myself? And so if it’s not, you know me, it’s my hallucinations. But either way, it’s like I’m usually the butt of the joke, and I- I actually like that! And I think people can- I think people are skeptical when I tell them that because they’re like, well, you know, there’s nothing funny about what I’m going through. And I’m like, there doesn’t have to be! But if you go through something difficult, it’s so easy to drone on on yourself about what you did wrong in a situation or what’s not going right your life. If you can find humor in, like, everyday things going on. I think it makes life a lot easier day to day. Me and my wife can’t joke about what what we have going on at home and and, for, you know, all intents and purposes, we’re very happy, functional, successful people. But I think that’s also what allows us to push through. You know, we’ve been through a lot. We go through a lot every single day. And, you know, the world is constantly changing. There’s so much happening and it’s so easy to to only focus on the bad and forget that, you know, if you can make light of a situation or make light of your own situation, it just makes it so much easier to to get through the day and to to understand, like it’s not always that deep, you know, sometimes it’s just it’s just funny how things play out. And if you really look deep, you will find humor in most situations. You just got to be willing and able to see it.

00;05;00;13 – 00;05;22;18
Kelly Parbs
Absolutely. Although I have to just be honest and say, I don’t know if I’ve ever heard anyone make fun of their own hallucinations. And and when you first said that, I felt a little bit tense, like, oh man, that’s really serious. But then then I thought, how cool would that be to be able to talk to someone who can make light of that?

00;05;22;19 – 00;05;24;23
Kody Green
Yeah, I think-

00;05;24;26 – 00;05;25;05
Kelly Parbs
Yeah!

00;05;25;12 – 00;06;17;03
Kody Green
I really think that’s why I’ve had, you know, success with my comedy is I’m willing to poke fun at my own situation. And I always get the same response! When I do stand up, the first minute of my standup, whether I’m doing a 20 minute set or a three minute open mic. My first minute is spent convincing the audience that it’s okay to laugh, because I do. I get people so like they tense up their shoulders and, you know, they’ll laugh a little bit, but they feel it out, you know, and, and I have to basically tell people, one of my jokes I always say is, if it’s okay if you guys don’t laugh because even if you don’t, my hallucinations will. And that always gets people cracking up a bit. And I just want people to know, like, I’m up here joking about it. This is a healing thing for me. I want you guys to laugh like this is –

00;06;17;03 – 00;06;18;07
Kelly Parbs
You have permission! You have full permission!

00;06;18;10 – 00;06;55;17
Kody Green
Exactly! But some people, they do like they hear me talk about that or like I do. I also do a lot of jokes about my addiction. Addiction is a very serious thing. You know, a lot of people die from addiction. I myself am lucky I made it out of my addiction, in one piece. And so it’s a tough topic, but once I get into it, people open up and you can tell there’s a lot of people in the room. And, I mean, if I’m performing in front of 50 people, chances are a good percentage of those people have experienced or know someone with addiction or mental health issues like it’s a given, right?

00;06;55;18 – 00;07;21;13
Kelly Parbs
Everyone knows someone or is someone, you know, has been touched by addiction, no doubt. So what we’re really talking about is having fun. And from a mental health perspective, we know that people who are having fun are less prone to having symptoms of anxiety and depression. And and they just feel better, right? They just have happier lives. And that’s what you’re promoting.

00;07;21;16 – 00;09;27;14
Kody Green
Exactly. I just- mental health recovery is it’s exhausting. And I you know, and I always try to explain to people it’s very hard work and, you know, addiction recovery too. I’m constantly working. You know, I’ve I’m ten years out from my diagnosis and my sobriety and even to this day, every day I have struggles with, you know, my, you know, thoughts of addiction or my constant experiences with mental illness. It’s a lot of work. And it’s it never stops. It’s a daily job for me. And it gets exhausting. And people in recovery, people who are trying to better themselves, better their wellness, they need a break once in a while. And they’re not giving themselves that break. They’re they’re pushing themselves beyond their limits, trying to do everything just right. They’re not finding humor in their own journey. They’re not finding humor in the situation. And and that’s so tiresome. And I’ve been there. That was me early on in my own journey, and I was so serious about it. And I was so, like, I was suffering. And so I want people to know, like. And humor is not going to be an outlet for everyone. Right. And I’m aware of that. But there are people out there who haven’t thought about it that way. There are there are people out there who have been told how serious this illness is and how how scary it is to struggle with mental health and mental illness. And they’ve lived it themselves, and they’re forgetting to look for, you know, something they can find relief in. And it doesn’t have to be humor. It can be whatever hobby or thing they want to do that helps them in their day to day life. But for me, it’s humor and it’s comedy. And I think a lot of people do find that especially, like I said, millennials and Gen Z, we basically function on dark humor. So I, I really think that more people need to utilize that. And they’re being told that this is too serious to talk about, in a funny way. And I think that’s preventing people from maybe getting some of the healing that I’ve had in my comedy journey.

00;09;27;17 – 00;09;51;04
Kelly Parbs
So let’s talk more about how to cultivate that. Back to what I said before about the average person, maybe someone who doesn’t consider themselves to be naturally funny. Are there any small habits or maybe mindset shifts or exercises that people can do to tap into humor more often? Make it part of their daily routine?

00;09;51;06 – 00;11;27;05
Kody Green
I think one thing people can start with is, find a comedian that you can really relate to so it doesn’t have to be a mental health comedy. You know, it can be anyone that you like, a storytelling comedian or whatever and really like. The more you watch comedy, the more it’ll just naturally come up in your life. And so that could even be like, a funny TV show you like, you know, things like that. I found that comedy was never forced with me. It was just natural. And if anything, I was pushing it away when I, you know, when I was in that moment where there was so much stigma and I was like, oh, I shouldn’t joke about those things. It’s not that I already wasn’t finding humor in the situation. I felt bad about finding humor in those situations. And so I think more what people need to do is just let those thoughts come, let them be natural, don’t push them away, because the people who use humor as a coping mechanism, it’s already there, you know, and that’s I me and Tom, Tom Farley also talked about this, when he talked about his family using humor. And he did mention, like, they didn’t always use it the most productive way, but it was always there. It was not something that, you know, they ever pushed away. It was something that was a part of their life. It always was. It always had been. And so figuring out how to utilize it is really what you need to focus on how like how to use it in your own situation, how to, use it in a way that is healing for you. And that might be different person to person.

00;11;27;07 – 00;12;06;23
Kelly Parbs
Sure. And I’m thinking about even like couples who are in the daily grind of life and not taking time to to enjoy each other, maybe something that they might build into their schedule is, why don’t we go to a comedy show once a month to break free from all of life’s stressors? Laughter brings people together, right? It creates a a bind between people. It gives them fun memories to look back at. So to be intentional about, creating situations where you can invite joy and laughter into your life, I think is a great idea for everyone.

00;12;06;25 – 00;13;23;21
Kody Green
Yeah, and I’ve seen it. Like I said, I’ve seen it work in people that I’ve worked with over the years. And I can’t say enough for, you know, the people who have been able to embrace it, because I really think that’s the separation. I think it’s just a matter of understanding that it’s okay to laugh because like I said, when I started doing- when I started doing stand up, the first minute of every event is convincing people that it’s okay. And I feel like I have to do that with people who are experienced and family members and people who really should have the most permission to laugh at this, are the people going through it, and even they feel bad about it. They feel guilty. I get that from caregivers a lot, too. They I think that’s why I get pushback from that demographic is they feel bad, like like they’re guilty for for laughing about a joke or something. But I really do find there’s a lot of humor in my everyday life. And in the moment, it might not seem like it. And I absolutely agree with the people who have reached out and told me that. But it’s it’s a lot about being okay with how humor enters your life and being okay with how you use it, and really understanding that, like, it’s just it’s a way that people cope and that is completely all right.

00;13;23;23 – 00;13;28;10
Kelly Parbs
Well, and I think it’s contagious too. I think it’s true that laughter is contagious. Would you agree?

00;13;28;12 – 00;13;29;21
Kody Green
Oh, absolutely.

00;13;29;23 – 00;13;41;05
Kelly Parbs
So if you can get one person going, the next person is maybe a little more willing to lighten up and and join the fun. I think that’s why they have those laugh tracks on TV, isn’t it?

00;13;41;07 – 00;13;44;11
Kody Green
Yeah, yeah. They want you to know, like, hey, this was.

00;13;44;13 – 00;13;57;01
Kelly Parbs
Supposed to be funny, right? It’s it’s okay to laugh right now. I’m curious about how you do that in the first minute. How do you what do you say to people to let them know it’s okay to laugh?

00;13;57;03 – 00;14;30;01
Kody Green
Well, so that the joke I told you before is like my opener most of the time. I’ll always tell people, you know, if you don’t laugh, at least my hallucinations will, but I, I also like to, I have a joke where I say people always ask me if it’s okay to laugh at these shows. And I want to let you guys know. Not only is it okay to laugh, but if you don’t laugh, you’re ableist. And it’s like. And it’s just something to, like, lighten that load. And that one always gets people because they’re like, oh, so now he’s saying, if I don’t laugh, that’s actually bad.

00;14;30;03 – 00;14;31;29
Kelly Parbs
Right? They have no choice.

00;14;32;02 – 00;14;37;21
Kody Green
Exactly. So it like puts them in this like funny corner where they’re like, oh, now I feel like I have to laugh.

00;14;37;23 – 00;14;47;19
Kelly Parbs
I love it. So tell us a little bit about your standup comedy, your website, your mission. Tell us more about how we can access some of that.

00;14;47;22 – 00;16;14;03
Kody Green
Yeah. And, you know, we’ve we’ve been talking a lot about the comedy, but, you know, I do a lot of advocacy, so I do motivational speaking. You know, my social media is my main platform for mental health advocacy. I’m on TikTok, Instagram and YouTube, all under the username schizophrenic hippie, which is also a funny story of how I got that username. I also just had a book come out about mental health and mental illness in the workplace. It’s called Minds Over Meetings. And as for stand up comedy, I do open mics here, and, I live in Madison, Wisconsin or near Madison, Wisconsin. I do open mics here, and then I’m doing more events coming up. And if you want to check out my comedy stuff, it’s, www.kodygreencomedy.com. And so that’s just a fraction of what I do. My full time job is mental health advocacy. And really trying to help people better understand schizophrenia and addiction. I do a lot of advocacy, politically, I talk to, different representatives in my state and in the country, trying to help them understand the importance of mental health resources and funding. So I’ve really made my entire life about advocacy, and it was because of social media that I was able to do that. And so that all led seamlessly into my comedy. And so I was really grateful just to be able to have the opportunity to do all these different things.

00;16;14;05 – 00;16;34;19
Kelly Parbs
It all just kind of came together for you, I would imagine, 10, 15 years ago especially, you know, when when you were going through the addiction, you mentioned incarceration, which we haven’t talked about, but when you were going through all of that, I bet it would have been hard to imagine that your life would look like it does right now.

00;16;34;21 – 00;17;38;14
Kody Green
Yeah, well, and like I said, so 2015. So we’re exactly ten years out now from my the year that I was diagnosed, the year that I got sober, the year that my journey really began with recovery. So, this is a huge milestone in for me. And if you had told me ten years ago that I was doing any of this, I wouldn’t have believed you, at that point in my life, I was still delusional. I was still having symptoms almost every single day, even with my medication. I was barely able to talk and communicate. I couldn’t, I couldn’t really express my thoughts and feelings because I didn’t understand what I was feeling. And so for me to be in a place where I can not only communicate, but sometimes I’m in front of groups of hundreds of people sharing my story, and helping people better understand, my own experience. It’s unreal to think that I would be here. It’s something that I still struggle to believe, even though it’s happening right in front of me.

00;17;38;16 – 00;17;41;21
Kelly Parbs
A true story of of hope and healing.

00;17;41;23 – 00;17;44;15
Kody Green
Yeah, yeah.

00;17;44;17 – 00;17;49;08
Kelly Parbs
So you are going to circle back to why you named your- Did you say your website?

00;17;49;14 – 00;19;46;28
Kody Green
Oh, no, it’s my username on Instagram and YouTube. So this was a really it’s it’s super funny because when I started my TikTok and TikTok is where all of my social media started. When I started it, I went onto the platform with the intention of being once again, I- still a lot of stigma, so I went in with the idea that I was going to be just very serious. I wasn’t going to do any humor or comedy. This was going to be 100% a serious page, and it did not take long for it to go the other way. And I was like, social media is really where my humor started with my advocacy, because I was using different trends to tie back to different stories that I had been through. And a lot of them were, you know, funny or audios and stuff like that. So my very first video I shared on social media about my schizophrenia, it received a lot of amazing and supportive comments, but because it was on the internet, that means it also received a lot of hate and a lot of negative comments. And, I, you know, I know this is audio so people can’t see me, but, just to paint a picture, I, you know, I have a lot of tattoos. I have a long beard, I very long hair longer than my wife’s hair. And so, and so I definitely, you know, I started getting hate comments not only about my illness, but about my appearance. And the very first hate comment I ever got was, you know, I shared a video about me having schizophrenia, and someone said, you look like a schizophrenic hippie. And I just decided to take it and make it my username as a joke. But people loved it and they they really like it became part of my identity, became part of, you know, who people know me as. I still to this day, when people recognize me from social media, most people don’t call me Kody. They’ll call me schizophrenic hippie on the street. So that’s-

00;19;47;06 – 00;19;48;14
Kelly Parbs
And you’re okay with that?

00;19;48;14 – 00;20;15;21
Kody Green
I love it, I think it, you know, it’s something where, like I said, it became a huge part of my story. It became a huge part of who I am and how people know me. And so I, I wear it like, you know, I wear it very proudly now. And that’s awesome. It became like, such a big part of my advocacy and my comedy. And I am so grateful for, for that hate comment that I got almost five years ago.

00;20;15;23 – 00;20;33;07
Kelly Parbs
Wow. You know, I do a lot of teaching about resilience. And one of the things that I say to people is a sign of a resilient person is someone who can pull a positive out of a negative. And I don’t know that I’ve ever heard a better example of that.

00;20;33;09 – 00;20;53;26
Kody Green
Yeah. Well, you know, that’s that’s really what my whole life has been, has been, you know, ever since my mom’s diagnosis and my diagnosis. It’s it’s making the best of really unfortunate situations. And so I think comedy makes that easier. And I always want to see people be able to utilize that in their own experience.

00;20;53;29 – 00;22;34;22
Kelly Parbs
And it’s just great. You know, I was thinking and preparing for this, like, how can I incorporate more joy or more laughter, like true laughter or comedy into my life? What kinds of things do I like or know make me laugh and kind of challenged myself to think about that which I had never done before. And, I came up with just silly things like, I know for sure if I’m scrolling on my phone and I come across laughing Baby videos, I’m going to laugh for sure. I know that that’s going to make me laugh. Or silly animal videos are likely to make me laugh. And and so a challenge I have for myself is build that into my day right? My work is very heavy. It often involves, you know, a crisis or a death or a tragedy. And so to build that into my life or make those baby videos or funny animal videos or whatever, it might be more accessible stories about my grandkids that make me laugh, maybe writing those down rather than hoping I remember them. Those are intentional things that I can do, and I hope that those of you who are listening today stop and take some time to think, what can I intentionally do to bring laughter into my life on a regular basis? Kody, before we wrap up, I really do like when our listeners can leave with something actionable, a take away, anything that comes to mind for you that you would share with the audience about, a take away for bringing humor or laughter into their daily lives?

00;22;34;25 – 00;24;01;26
Kody Green
Yeah. I think, specifically for peers or people who have a diagnosis of schizophrenia or mental illness. My big thing is find peers you can talk to. It doesn’t have to be a peer support setting. It can be online friends. It can be people that you know in your personal life, but that always opens up more conversations. And the more you talk about difficult topics, the easier it will be to find humor in it. You know, it’s it’s only a matter of time before you tell a story and you go, you know, that that was actually kind of funny. And so I really think what we do poorly in, you know, in our own lives is we don’t talk enough, we don’t communicate enough. And finding people who have similar experiences can allow you to really open up about that. And then for just generally, I think people need to, you know, find, like you said, really look into what makes you laugh, what brings you joy, what things can you incorporate in your daily life and utilize that! And it doesn’t have to be tied to personal experience like I choose to do. It can be laughing babies. It can be, my wife really likes funny dog videos, you know? So whatever it is, find more of that because it’s so easy to find negative, horrible things in your own life and online. And, and really, I think that’s really what’s pushed at us because that’s what gets emotion from us. That’s what people want us-

00;24;01;26 – 00;24;02;13
Kelly Parbs
Absolutely, yep!

00;24;02;16 – 00;24;26;08
Kody Green
And so we need to go out of our way to find the things that will bring us joy. And so if you’re like me, if you scroll on my Instagram right now, it’s going to be all dog videos and comedy videos and like, stuff that it’s only stuff that brings me joy. And I think I need to surround themselves with that instead of feeding into all of the negative stuff that’s already out there and being pushed at us.

00;24;26;13 – 00;25;09;24
Kelly Parbs
Oh, right. Set limits on- on media and news and especially sad or tragic stories, set limits on all of that. And ask yourself, do I have balance in my life if I’m going to read about these really difficult stories or things that are going on in the world that are bothersome to me, am I balancing that with, you know, watching Funny Dog videos or listening to jokes? Or like you said, Kody, that I loved just spending time with people we love because naturally those funny stories are going to start coming out and we’re going to talk and and just find joy and laughter in those relationships. So find that balance. I think that’s a great takeaway.

00;25;09;26 – 00;25;10;20
Kody Green
Yeah!

00;25;10;22 – 00;25;13;07
Kelly Parbs
Are there any jokes you want to tell us?

00;25;13;10 – 00;25;51;03
Kody Green
I think I threw a couple in here already. I do have one where I always say, you know, for those of for anyone who doesn’t know, I do have a psychiatric service dog. Her name is Luna, and she helps me identify visual hallucinations. The way she does that is, you know, I ask her to greet, and if she goes up and greets the person, I know, they’re there. If she sits down and looks up at me, I know they’re not really there, but she doesn’t have to do it SO judgmental? I don’t know if you’ve ever had a dog look at you like you’re crazy, but, But I get that every single day.

00;25;51;05 – 00;26;01;22
Kelly Parbs
Thank you for sharing that, Kody! And, as we wrap up here, would you like to share with our listeners how they can find you on social media?

00;26;01;25 – 00;26;27;02
Kody Green
Yeah. As I said, you can find me on TikTok, YouTube and Instagram at Schizophrenic Hippie. I’m also on Facebook and some other platforms with my real name, Kody Green, including LinkedIn. And then my website is www.kodygreen.com.. My comedy website is www.kodygreencomedy.com. And if you want to check out my book, Minds Over Meetings, that is available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble and signed copies are available on my website.

00;26;27;04 – 00;26;30;10
Kelly Parbs
Fabulous. And I might just add that Kody is with a K.

00;26;30;12 – 00;26;34;06
Kody Green
Yes! Oh thank you. I always forget to mention that.

00;26;34;08 – 00;26;37;18
Kelly Parbs
Thank you so much for spending time with me today, Kody.

00;26;37;20 – 00;26;40;00
Kody Green
Yeah, thank you so much for having me.

00;26;40;03 – 00;27;27;28
Kelly Parbs
Thank you so much for joining us today. If there’s one thing we’ve learned, it’s that laughter isn’t just a reaction. It’s a resource, a little lightheartedness can go a long way, especially when life feels heavy. And the best part? We can choose it. We can plan for it. So today, give yourself permission to laugh on purpose. To hear more episodes of OnTopic with Empathia, visit our website at www.empathia.com. Follow us on social media @Empathia, and subscribe to OnTopic with Empathia so you never miss a moment of insight, inspiration, or maybe even a laugh. I’m your host, Kelly Parbs- Thank you for listening! And don’t forget to find something that makes you smile today.