First Annual Island Comedy Festival, Friday August 14 at 8 pm and Saturday August 15, at 1pm, 4pm and 8pm at the Mary Winspear Centre in Beautiful Sidney By the Sea
Presented By the Mary Winspear Centre in Partnership with Stand Up For Mental Health
Most people think that you have to be nuts to go anywhere near stand-up comedy. We Are Nuts!
Stand Up For Mental Health (SMH) is an innovative and successful national program that uses stand-up comedy to talk about mental illness. Laughter is our lethal and cost-effective weapon of choice in breaking down the prejudice, stigma and discrimination that surrounds mental illness
SMH Founder David Granirer helps members of the community who have a mental illness create and perform their own original material about their mental health journeys. As student’s self-confidence and self-esteem grow, they start to perform for a variety of audiences throughout their communities.
What starts as rehabilitation and recovery for our comics, enables them to then go out and entertain, educate and de-stigmatize their audiences. The results have been life-changing for many. Stand Up For Mental Health is on the cutting edge of mental health and comedy, and the word is spreading.
SMH has programs in Campbell River and Courtney and will be starting in Victoria in the fall of 2009. We are proud to be partnering with the BCSS Victoria (BC Schizophrenia Society) and Executive Director Hazel Meredith for the new Victoria Program. We also have programs in Vancouver, Abbotsford and Chilliwack.
All of our traditional funding partners, VIHA, Fraser Health, Vancouver Coastal Health, Royal Jubilee Hospital, mental healthcare agencies and others, have had their budgets slashed in the current economic downturn. No funding for us.
Stand Up For Mental Health refuses to go down without a fight. We are determined to keep all of our programs across BC going by performing, performing, and performing. The Island Comedy Festival will help us raise the money to not only keep SHM going, but it will also enable us to raise money for Peninsula Rotary Club Projects and The Military Family Resource Centre of CFB Esquimalt.
SMH firmly believes in sharing, particularly in these challenging economic times. We actually see these challenges as opportunities to help each other. Our message is one of Hope and Empowerment.
We plan to make this an Annual Must-Go-To Event that folks on Vancouver Island look forward to each year. Our Partner, the Mary Winspear Centre, continues to be a respected, strong and vibrant part of community life on the Island under the energetic leadership of Executive Director Ian Hennigar. The Mary Winspear Centre hosts a great number of artistic, cultural, social and business events throughout the year.
Spreading the Word and Sharing the Laughter has never been more timely or important...and SMH seems to be catching on. CTV and Black Press are already on board. SHAW TV is interested in possibly filming several shows for broadcast in Canada and the US. The Sidney and Sidney by the Sea Rotary Clubs are the official Host Community Clubs for the Festival.
The beautiful Town of Sidney has agreed to be the Sponsoring Host Community for the Festival, and to officially declare it Stand Up For Mental Health Day in Sidney during the Festival. We are hoping that the City of Anacortes and the Anacortes and area Rotary Clubs of Washington State might also co-sponsor the Festival. Mental illness knows no borders-and neither does laughter.
SMH is truly Changing Hearts and Minds One Laugh at a Time. We Invite Vancouver Island to join us in Spreading the Laughter.
