Laugh Until You Cry - The Swellcast
There's no telling the number of times I've felt better after a comedy show or being made to laugh. And we really want to explore what that's about, and that's what this swellcast is for. And we hope to continue conversation here around this really special show. Our creator and host Schuyler Shock will be joining us here, as well as some of the other comics. And we hope you'll join in as well and ask questions or participate in the conversation
Freddy Correa
@fredreker · 4:59
Hi, Adam. I appreciate you, and thank you for introducing me to this new application. Swell. It's pretty interesting. I like it. And I'm also excited to be part of the show tonight. I had reached out to Skyler a couple of weeks ago. She had posted that she was going to be producing a show regarding doing comedy and also involving mental awareness. And it will be a different type of format, and it sounded very interesting to me
Deborah Pardes
@DBPardes · 0:32
Music hey, Fred, I wanted to ask how the show was. I know from the sort of buzz that I got from Adam that it was great, but I'd love to hear from you since you participated in it. I'm also going to connect you to somebody who just did a really good swell about anxiety. And I just really appreciated her taking us down that road. And when it comes up and it was just so cool
In addition, I am really happy to add another voice to this conversation, another one of our stellar lineup last week. Garrett hall is a comedian from in Las Vegas by way of Little Rock, Arkansas. And as a Southerner and active duty member of the US Air Force for the past seven years, Garrett has a unique perspective on life and the world around him
Garrett Hall
@ghallcomedy · 2:15
But I had such a good time and something about being able to express myself on stage and a microphone. And once you finally do start getting the laughs, there's nothing really that can compare with that, the feeling of that. And so I just kept on pursuing it, kept on going, kept showing up, and started producing my own comedy shows, started my own comedy company with my friend Ian. We started funding comedy, and now we produce multiple shows all across town
Garrett, I love that it's the center of your life when it seems to me that your life also has this. You're a career military guy, career Air Force. You know, that's what you and I talked about anyway. I could be wrong. So correct. I don't want to be wrong. But that's an interesting juxtaposition that I think you're aware of
Swell Team
@Swell · 0:15
Garrett Hall
@ghallcomedy · 1:45
And it's led to my comedy, especially the other aspects of comedy as far as, like, marketing and promotion for myself, I just kind of go about it, and I do what I'm supposed to do, and I show up when I'm supposed to show up. And a lot of comics aren't the most punctual people in the world. So it does help
And what do you think? What would the dream be for you? I know we're supposed to talk more about mental health, but that'll come right? It's embedded into everything we're doing here. And I could be more incisive with you if you'd like, but let's talk about your future. And then I'll really hit you with a hard hitting question that will make you runs screaming from this conversation
Garrett Hall
@ghallcomedy · 4:28
I'm finishing up my degree in business. I'm planning on staying in the military for another ten years and getting that retirement. I started a company, like I said, called Sunday Entertainment or Fund Day Comedy. Follow us on Instagram if you can fund a comedy. But we're producing comedy shows, and we have a few other things coming up, but we're constantly involved in that
That's the attitude, champ. I love it. Well, so you're talking about your audience. I love that because I don't know that most people think comics consider their audience with a scalpel. I think a lot of them do. I think clearly you do. And it does bring us back to this mental health conversation, I think, in a way
Garrett Hall
@ghallcomedy · 3:32
But yeah, those are some of the people that I've really been watching. Also, Ron Funches, as well. Great comic. And these are people that do shows in venues that are kind of in between what we have here in Vegas. They're not necessarily bars. They're not necessarily huge theaters or stand up comedy clubs. There's a lot of them in a lot of their stuff is recorded in music venues or places that wouldn't normally facilitate comedy
Bowie Rowan
@bowie · 0:28
I just want to say thank you so much for your reply here. I loved hearing about your experience and I had to stop for a second and rewind and listen again because you articulated so well. Just supply thing that I experienced as well growing up and I'm really excited to hear more about how that has influenced the path you're on now and also your creative and comedic work. So thank you for sharing and really excited to hear more
I need to introduce another voice because we're not done with the comics who were such an essential part. Laugh Until You Cry the last week Spiro Adam Cervelis grew up in the suburbs of Chicago and originally made his move out west to pursue his hockey career in 2005 after a neck and shoulder injury put an end to his hockey days. He Dove heavily into improv comedy and never looked back
So I weave it in because it's just something that I felt really helped us get through it the best we could and made us appreciate and enjoy all the time that we had together. And I think it's just something I'm really passionate about, is just wanting to make sure that people can find the humor in such dark times and they aren't alone. And there is stuff that they can smile about because whoever is going through whatever they're going through, they want us to smile
But humans have this ability to do what you're doing. Not all humans, very few, I think, which is to, as you say, see the smiling in the dark. See the humor in the dark. See the light in the dark. Right. And it doesn't negate the dark. It sometimes can sharpen it, but it also is how we handle things that seem overwhelming or impossible. Excuse me. Your wife was your biggest supporter through your comedy journey
She's told me several times, especially right before she left. She wanted me to keep doing what I was doing and not stop. So I am in the growth phase. I'm still in the growth phase, but I think I'm finally in a spot now where I feel comfortable and able to talk about it in the right way on stage. I tried to do it a couple of months after she passed because I felt like that's what I needed to do
How do audiences respond to this material and can you contrast it with comedy stuff you were doing before your wife passed away? Are you seeing a market difference when you talk about the audience responding, you wanting the audience to respond in a certain way, and I can imagine what that is. But for the layman, you might don't want to get into that just a little bit more. But I'm curious how they're responding now for good or for bad and how that changes the material for you
I wasn't usually so dark, but I would just talk about how my life experiences, how the craziest things happen to me, how it's me in this life with just these outstanding and outrageous circumstances that I'm trying to navigate through. And that's usually where I try to pull my comedy from is me just trying to live a normal life and so many crazy, not normal things happened to me and it's me telling these stories on how I got through it
I love the sense that the audience is either concerned about what you're talking about or just concerned for you on the stage, which is itself. It's a reality. Right. Of the performers life. But I'm reminded, of course, of Mel Brooks great quote that tragedy is when I cut my finger and comedy is when you fall into an open sewer and die finding that line between I mean, I think it's a very accurate definition of the difference between comedy and tragedy
Well, thank you so much. And again, thank you for having me a part of this. I think this was really awesome, and I'm excited to see where everything goes in the future and how this grows as well, because I think it's super important. And I think for just this big. The first show that you guys have done, it was excellent. And I think all the comics did amazing. You guys did a great job. I think these conversations are super dope
Freddy Correa
@fredreker · 1:26
Hi, Deborah. Sorry for the late response. I had a blast at the comedy show. I think what Skyler did and Adam, you know, what they put together was such an amazing show. It wasn't just the comedy part. I think it was just obviously the combination the panel afterwards, the discussion was amazing. And I think a lot of people benefited from it, including myself, starting with myself, because it's something that a lot of people are afraid to discuss
Freddy Correa
@fredreker · 4:57
But when you start doing comedy, you don't really know sometimes what path you're going to take. And about three or two years into it, one of my mentors, his name is James Goff, very funny comic from New York City. He told me, he said, why don't you start writing about how much you worry about things, how anxious you are about things. I was just two or three years into it at that point. And I heard his voice
Deborah Pardes
@DBPardes · 1:09
And he really turned the tide, pun intended, and allowed people to see that you can talk about this stuff and also have the lightness to be able to handle sort of the irony of the crying clown sort of scenario and letting people understand that you guys, as long as you're a community, as long as you're talking about it, you're healthier than you would be if you were isolated. So I really am looking forward to the growth of asking to you cry as well
And then I realized, like, I had nothing else to say. I didn't want to share too many of my fears at that point. But to me, laugh until you cry. Not to get too navel gaze here, but what else are we doing is really about honesty, right. The true intersection of comedy, stand up comedy and mental health comes down to truth. Truth in storytelling and truth in expression of those fears and thoughts and anxieties and everyday stories