I am a Suicide Prevention Speaker and Comedian, was a writer for The Tonight Show for 20 years, a full-time speaker and comedian for 37. I’ve worked with Jeff Foxworthy, Jerry Seinfeld, Jon Stewart, Steve Harvey, Rosie, Ellen, The Beach Boys, Neil Sedaka, Randy Travis, and Lou Rawls. I’ve fought a lifetime battle with Depression and Chronic Suicidality, turning that long dark journey of the soul into 11 TEDx Talks, one SPEAK Event, and sharing my lifesaving insights on Mental Health with colleges, corporations and associations. I’ve survived 2 aortic valve replacements, a double bypass, a heart attack, 3 stents, losing to a puppet on the Original Star Search and lived to joke about all of it.
A comedian who speaks on depression and suicide. How does that work?
Well, depression and suicide run in my family. It's called generational depression and suicide. My grandmother died by suicide. My mom found her. Nine years later, my great aunt died by suicide. My mom and I found her. I was four years old. I screamed for days. In 2010, after filing a Chapter Seven bankruptcy in April, I came very close to suicide. Close enough, I can tell you what the barrel of my gun tastes like. Spoiler alert. I did not pull the trigger. A friend of mine came up at a keynote recently. He goes, “Hey man, how come you didn't pull the trigger?”
I go, “Hey, man, could you try to sound slightly less disappointed?” So that's where the humor is in the topic. It's not jokes. It's just funny, personal anecdotes. That's why. And I myself live with two mental illnesses, major depressive disorder and chronic suicidal ideation, major depressive disorder, relatively common. Chronic suicidal ideation, far more rare. It means for people in my tribe, the option of suicide's always on the menu as a solution for problems large and small. And when I say small, my car broke down a couple years ago. I had three thoughts unbidden. One, get it fixed, two buy new, and three, I could just kill myself.
That's chronic suicidal ideation.
You have 11 Tedx Talks. How did you land all of those?
Well, the only person who had five was the guy in England. He passed away. That's the most I've been able to find anybody else has gotten. In 2014, I applied. It was a Tedx in British Columbia. And I got it on my first try, which is unusual. And then two TEDx events reached out to me after that said, do you have any more mental health ideas to talk about? And I did. So I did two more at their request.
The next seven I applied for and got. And I've got a really big social media footprint on LinkedIn. And an event in India, in the state of Assam, reached out and said, we like your take on mental health. Would you be willing to do a TEDx force virtually? I said, absolutely.
So I got invited to as well. So, it's just a matter of applying, it's a bit of a numbers game. I got my first one on the first try, but the other ones took 20, 30, 40 applications before I got the audition and got asked to do it.
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thementalhealthcomedian.com
256: Change the Way you Communicate - with Cynthia Kane
255: Network with a Mindset of Curiosity - with Ariel Kopac
254: Put yourself out there and try new things - with David Splitgerber
253: Live Life with Margin - with Tommy Thompson
252: The Magic Connection Method - with Brandon Fong
251: Stop trading time for money - with Tracy Brinkmann
250: Match what's on the inside with the outside - with Andy Gallion
249: Don't be afraid to reach out - with Chris Larsen
248: Data and Analytics: What to focus on - with Lori Highby
247: Make the most of every opportunity - with Takeyla Tyson
246: Focus on where you want to grow - with Dr. Susan Lovelle
245: Digital Marketing Research Fundamentals - with Lori Highby
244: Network in bite-sized pieces - with Dr. Jim Bohn
243: Start Building Your Bank - with Debbie Seeger
242: Join a Virtual Community - with Tanya Stanfield
241: Be willing to try new things - with Jennifer White
240: All things LinkedIn - with Wayne Breitbarth
239: Grow and support yourself - with Heather Breedlove
238: Deliver value - with Agostino Pintus
237: Don't be afraid to fail - with Lyle Stoflet
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