LaughBox

Kathy Laurenhue heads Wiser Now, Inc., a multi-media publishing and staff development company focused on wellbeing in aging that aims to be practical and lighthearted in everything it produces, including her award-winning e-newsletter, Wiser Now Wednesday.  Wiser Now also provides dozens of online courses, webinars, and other services to a variety of clients in the U.S. and, in the past, Australia. Her brain-stimulating writing includes more than a thousand trivia quizzes, word games, discussion topics, and imaginative/ reminiscence exercises that are available in both downloadable print and themed slide show formats. She is the author of five books, including, Creating Delight – Connecting Gratitude, Humor, and Play, which essentially sums up her life and work goals. Learn more at www.WiserNow.com or email Kathy@WiserNow.com 

Trained as an actress and theatrical director, Marian has spent over 30 years designing and delivering playful social therapeutic workshops and programs. 

An accomplished improvisational actor, Marian has performed improv comedy with This is Your Ridiculous Life and The Proverbial Loons, stand-up comedy at Caroline’s Comedy Club (NYC), and traveled to Central America exploring humanitarian clowning with her clown mentor, Dr. Patch Adams. A lifelong community organizer, and longtime builder of the nonprofit All Stars Project, Marian has taught improvisation to non-actors of all ages from the poor communities of color at the All Star’s free university-style school in New York City. She is a co-founder and Artistic Associate of the Castillo Theatre. 

As a faculty member of the East Side Institute, her joyful and philosophical sessions during International Class residencies have impacted activists, educators and scholars from around the world who are looking for ways to infuse their work with the power of performance. 

She is the co-author (with Carrie Lobman) of “Playing Around with Changing the World,” a chapter about this work in The Applied Improvisation Mindset, Bloomsbury Press (2021).

Her website: https://www.marianrich.com

Her next workshop - Collage Play: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/collage-play-tickets-429349735617

Info about Nippy Bottoms Is Not Going Back to Normal: https://www.marianrich.com/blog/nippy-bottoms

The East Side Institute International Class https://eastsideinstitute.org/study/international-class/

The Global Play Brigade

https://www.globalplaybrigade.org/

AATH Interviews Naomi Shafer of Clowns Without Borders

Where other resources are scarce, Clowns Without Borders makes laughter abundant. These professional clowns and circus artists perform in refugee camps, conflict zones, and sites of natural disaster. 

Read our take on if Laughter is the Best Medicine (https://clownswithoutborders.org/is-laughter-the-best-medicine-these-clowns-say-absolutely/

Visit our website to learn more about the transformative power of play. https://clownswithoutborders.org/

Take our Laughter Challenge to experience for yourself why laughing matters

Follow along Facebook https://www.facebook.com/clownswithoutborders.usa

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/clownswithoutborders/?hl=en

Of coure, you can give the giggles to a child fleeing from war by making a donation 

Better yet, make it a habit by joining the Joymaker's Club. https://clownswithoutborders.kindful.com/?campaign=1207434

Link for the laughter challenge: 

https://lp.constantcontactpages.com/su/RXudxI8/laughterchallenge

Introducing the CHIN group, Creative Humorists Inspiring Noodling. These are a bunch of AATH members of all levels joining together as a result of wanting to connect creatives, humor, and community!  Listen as they describe the feeling of an AATH conference, discuss their experience in the Humor Academy, try and come up with ways to solve problems with humor, and just laugh and have fun.  Giggle with the CHINS!

Dick Hardwick, Corporate Comedian, and Clean Comedy! He has won the Gong Show twice, was a Star Search winner for one week and he talks with us about his history as an entertainer. Discussing his experience with such legends as Jerry Van Dyke, Jimmy Buffet, Reba McEntire, performing with Disney and at the Grand Ole Opry! Have a laugh and have a listen!

Serhiy Velichanskyi is a Ukrainian professional improviser and started Improversity as a way to help ESL teachers use improv and humor in teaching English. His plans were interrupted by the invasion of Ukraine.  Here he discusses how to improvise with war and find humor in difficult situations. Katy BEE and Jim-Bob are very grateful for this interview and learned some Ukrainian language in the process!

Follow the link to learn more about Improversity! https://improversity.org/

Jim-Bob Williams and Katy BEE interview Dutch Martin this month about his history as a comedian and all of his other amazing talents.  Dutch Martin is in year 2 of the Humor Academy and started out running! He has studied improv, and taken many stand up classes and even added some humor to his yoga classes! He is a talented DOD professional in Northern Virginia, as well as a licensed hypnotist, yoga instructor, NLP practitioner (almost) and a great stand up comedian with an international way of looking at life. 

For the past five years or so, Chip Lutz has driven the AATH into some amazing places, as past president, founder of the Humor Round Up and the man who made this Laughbox Podcast! In this episode he hands off the reigns of this glorious audio experience to Jim-Bob Williams and Katy BEE.

Chip Lutz, who is he? Well, we stole this directly from his website (link below). Listen as he describes his next life steps during this podcast!

Who is this Guy?

Lieutenant Commander Chip Lutz, USN(Ret), MSEd, CSP, is the President and founder of Unconventional Leader, LLC and has 30 years of solid leadership experience. A retired Navy Officer, he has had two command tours and also served as the Director of Security for Naval District Washington, DC during September 11th 2001.  In that capacity,  he was responsible for the safety and security of 25,000 people on 6 different Naval Installations in the National Capital Region during one of our Nations most trying times.

A seasoned educator and trainer, he is currently adjunct faculty for two different universities and has taught over 20 different classes in leadership, management, human resource development, and organizational behavior. He is the author of 5 books, is the father of 4 children, has 2 grandchildren, is the youngest of 6 children and remains, to this day, his mother’s favorite child.

Having spoken professionally full time since his retirement from the Navy, Chip has travelled all over the United States, sharing his message of leading unconventionally to organizations, associations, and military units.  One of his favorite engagements was when he had the privilege of speaking to the team members at Sargento Foods (because he got a cheese gift basket).

Chip is a leader who has been there, done that, and has the uniform to prove it!  He works with leaders who WANT to lead better, get more done, and leave a legacy.  He is where theory meets application.

“If you want others to follow…GO FIRST!”  -Chip Lutz

https://www.unconventionalleader.com/

Jim-Bob Williams 

Hi, I’m Jim-Bob Williams. Executive Humor Advisor at Jimusho LLC 

Jimusho  = Japanese word often used for office, especially a talent office. I’m kind of a one-man show and Jimusho LLC allows me to use those skills professionally.

I try to build bridges between people and between organizations. If you came to my house you would find prints of the Brooklyn Bridge, the Wheeling suspension bridge, and the I-64 bridges over the Kanawha River in Charleston WV.

https://jimushollc.com/

Katy BEE - Clown, Life Coach, Play Specialist, Humor Academy Noobie, Improvisational Pro, and Aspiring Funny Person - And Jane of All Things Joyful

Katy BEE is so excited to join the American Association of Therapeutic Humor as a multi-lingual, heartfelt, performance activist, presenter, public speaker, video creator, avid traveler, and joy facilitator, with a background of experiences ranging from traditional acting to professional clown, circus artist, mime, and improviser.

She is seriously interested in the benefits of humor for survivors of trauma, team building, facilitation, and creating safe spaces for expression and collaboration in any language for all ages. 

In case you didn’t know, She’s a certified Laughter Yoga Practitioner, Life Coach, Neurolinguistic Programming Coach, Aerial Yoga Instructor, Social Media Marketer,  has a BFA in Performance Art, and soon to be a certified yoga instructor.

She just graduated from the "International Class" with the East Side Institute out of NYC and creates with The Global Play Brigade, and Clowns of America International. She also is working with the Purpose Alliance to create support sessions for Ukrainian Refugees and Hosts. 

She invites others to join her in co-creating an amazing world of love, fun, play, joy, and wellness in every possible aspect of life.  

https://katybeellc.com/

We all have a story but sometimes we might not think that anyone wants to hear it OR we're scared to tell it.  There's power in your story...for you and those around you.

On this episode I get to talk with story telling maven, Johanna Walker, about how to step up, step out, and step into sharing you....and your story.  ENJOY!

More on Johanna....

Johanna is the fear-blasting, storytelling maven for coaches, consultants, leaders and change-makers. As a keynote speaker and workshop facilitator, she’s presented for corporations, non-profits, start-ups and community organizations, helping audiences develop authentic presence as speakers, find the ideas they want to be known for, and craft those ideas into compelling presentations.

She’s also the founder of Craft Your Talk, a transformational speaker coaching program for emerging speakers, and The Speaker’s Playground, an unconventional training program where entrepreneurs and community leaders become confident and memorable speakers. She is the co-founder of Boulder’s Story Slam, where audience members come to the stage to tell true stories about their lives. In addition to her work as a speaker and coach, Johanna has written and performed solo theater pieces that she’s toured throughout the US and Canada.

Check her out on her website here: https://www.johannawalker.com/

Jill Knox was a light to the world and had a positive impact on everyone she met.  She not only served as President and board member of the Association but also was critical in the development and continuation of AATH's Humor Academy.  On this episode of Laughbox,  AATH remembers Jill.  We share some stories, some memories and even some laughs.

Jill Poole Knox
August 1, 1948 - January 16, 2021

Jill Poole Knox, 72, of Oceanside, CA, passed away on January 16, 2021 from complications related to type 1 diabetes. Jill was born on August 1, 1948 in Pittsburgh, PA, where she lived until 2007 when she moved to Oceanside. She graduated from Edinboro University (PA) with a Bachelor of Science in Education, and taught in public schools for 18 years with a specialization in special education.

She dedicated her life to service and took on leadership volunteer roles at church, school and community organizations throughout her life. In her second career, Jill forged a path focusing on the therapeutic and healing dimensions of humor and laughter, and became active in the Association for Applied and Therapeutic Humor (AATH), for which she served as president from 2013-2015. She was a Certified Humor Professional and Certified Laughter Leader, and she passionately believed in the important role that therapeutic humor and laughter can play in building a more peaceful world.Her contagious joy and zest for life continue on in her loved ones and the many lives she touched.

She is survived by her mother, Anna Lou Poole; her siblings Craig Poole and Wendy Devlin; her husband of 46 years, Charley Knox; their daughter, Stephanie Knox Steiner, Stephanie's husband, Greg Steiner, and their daughter, Daphne Steiner; and her son, Will Knox and his wife, Shalee Sucher.

She was predeceased by her father, David James Poole and her brother, Mark Poole.Celebrations of her life will be held in Pittsburgh and San Diego when it is safe to gather again. In the meantime, the family is inviting donations to be made in her name to the AATH Jill Knox Peace Scholarship Fund.

Music from https://filmmusic.io
"Run Amok" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com)
License: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)