2011 Conference Comedy Night...
Back by Popular Demand!

SATURDAY, MAY 21, 2011
4th Annual Stand-Up Comedy Night
7:30 - 9:00 p.m. 
$5 / $10 / $15
Tickets available for purchase with conference registration.

This conference smash hit is back! Come laugh your head off on Saturday night, May 21, 2011, with David Granirer, counselor, stand-up comic, and author of The Happy Neurotic: How Fear and Angst Can Lead To Happiness and Success. David is the founder of Stand Up For Mental Health, a project teaching comedy to people with mental illness as a way of building confidence and fighting public stigma.

David, along with a group of conference attendees (newly trained as stand-up comics) and some very special guests, will put on a show that looks at the lighter side of taking meds, seeing counselors, getting diagnosed, and surviving the mental health system. Stand Up For Mental Health aims to reduce public stigma around mental illness and spread a message of hope, confidence, and empowerment. Those with mental illness are always being told what they can’t do. In this show, they prove what they CAN do!

What the Experience Meant to 
Stand-Up Comic Student Alumni 

"Doing the DBSA Comedy Show was an EXPERIENCE OF A LIFETIME. All of us comics worked hard as a team with David as the leader. David took our life experiences and helped us turn them into jokes. I would not have been able to do the show without the support of my co-comics and David, who went beyond the call of duty." 
--Donald Farrell (San Jose, CA)

"Stand Up for Mental Health was the most terrifying thing I have ever done. And so far, the most rewarding. Be not afraid of who you are,
who others think you are, or who you were. Instead, laugh at yourself and the world will laugh with you." 
--Rave Meyer (Oklahoma City, OK) 

"The opportunity to stand before a crowd and make them laugh with me, not at me, was such a truly exhilarating experience that it practically makes me feel lucky to deal with bipolar disorder on a daily basis."
--Susan Parker (Purcellville, VA)

Watch Clips of DBSA 2008 National Conference Stand-Up Comics

Video clips of our 2008 conference stand-up comics are featured in the Entertainment section of the Media Room on FacingUs.org. This could be you next year!

Watch Clips of David's Routine

David is featured in the Entertainment section of the Media Room on FacingUs.org. Check out his hilarious perspective on Facing Stereotypes and Telemarketers.

2008 Voice Award Winner, Cracking Up, Features Granirer's Stand Up for Mental Health

In Hollywood, May 2008, Cracking Up--a documentary film featuring David Granirer's "Stand Up for Mental Health" program--won a prestigious SAMHSA Voice Award. These awards honor writers and producers who incorporate dignified, respectful, and accurate portrayals of individuals with mental health problems into film and television productions. Cracking Up is a documentary about people with mental illness who embark on a quirky quest to become stand-up comics; this life-affirming film followed 11 courageous people who live with mental illness as they pursue a year of stand-up comedy. The course they took--Stand Up for Mental Health--is part fun and part therapy. And it's the brainchild of David Granirer, a Vancouver counselor, stand-up comic, and the author of The Happy Neurotic. “It’s like The Full Monty except people want us to keep our clothes on,” he says.

“Doing stand-up comedy has had an amazing effect on the people in the course. For the first time in their lives, they have embraced the word crazy, and learned to laugh at their mental illness—and their audiences are laughing right along with them. They have discovered a talent they never dreamt they had.”
--David Granirer

Learn More about Stand Up for Mental Health

Visit http://www.standupformentalhealth.com to learn more about this innovative and empowering program.