Essay by Luke Foster
I get those fleeting, beautiful moments of inner peace and stillness – and then the other 23 hours and 45 minutes of the day, I’m a human trying to make it through in this world.
Ellen DeGeneres
Doctors heal the body and psychologists and shrinks heal the mind but comedians heal the soul of a person and make people happy. I like comedians like Ellen DeGeneres and Adam Sandler who both started out as stand ups. I love comedic actor Adam Sandler. His movies make me laugh and happy.
I had my moments of being humiliated, and then I had moments of doing something humiliating. I’m glad I lived out both roles.
Adam Sandler
I also like the Chinese show Monkey that I used to watch after school on ABC before the English comedy show the Goodies. Monkey was a sort of comedy but it was the mismatched lip sync of the English voice overs that made it more, funny. All the characters were interesting but I liked Sandy most. While I was in primary school, we had a dress up day and my mum helped me make a monkey costume.
While I was at the café this morning there was a young guy wearing a yellow goodies t-shirt and I approached him and told him the story about how my art school friend Sean Cordeiro started a petition for the ABC to put re runs of the Goodies on ABC and it worked they put it back on.
While beach walking this morning, I had an idea for an art installation called Coming Together with a trestle table and a book of drawings called: Am I Going in Circles? On it that I made in the Blue Mountains studio residency and two video projectors on it too with two slow-motion ten-minute segments of Happy Gilmore and Monkey Magic playing silently over half an hour side by side.
The idea behind the installation is the coming together of American and Chinese culture through comedy and artistic good will.
I was also thinking about the comedy gala run by Oxfam. What could be better comedy and charity work coming together to tackle one of the world’s biggest issues.
This is from their website:
“MELBOURNE INTERNATIONAL COMEDY FESTIVAL PROUDLY PRESENTS
The Gala
Proudly supporting Oxfam
We’re rolling out the red carpet once again for the biggest night on Australia’s comedy calendar.
Join us as we gather the Festival’s brightest stars on the iconic Palais stage for a one-off, never to be repeated, night of nights. The Gala is not just a comedy extravaganza, it’s a powerful force supporting Oxfam’s mission to eliminate poverty and tackle global inequality.
It’s the comedy event of the year so tickets won’t be around for long. Book now to be part of the magic and to support Oxfam – changing the world by empowering communities to tackle poverty. Don’t miss out!”
In conclusion comedy is not just entertainment but a powerful force to heal peoples mind, let down people’s guard and be happy.
“Comedy is a medicine – a healing process that can help people get through difficult times and understand things better.”
— Ricky Gervais
