Beverley Laughs and the World Laughs With Her
By Shirley Gilbert
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Beverley and Kathy Garfinkle ham it up before the workshop. Kathy has Beverley’s red ladybug purse.
It’s tough to describe a Beverley Bender workshop.
You have to experience it to believe it. You see people who are ordinarily staid and conservative clucking like chickens; braying like donkeys; jabbering nonsensical words at each other; complimenting each other to the skies — and generally having a heck of a good time.
The bottom line is that we should all have been at Laughter 4 The Health of It — Laugh Specialist Beverley Bender’s laughter session at the Fremont Main library on Monday, November 26th. It was truly a lark for the 50 attendees who were there — and good for our health at the same time.
Beverley started off seriously enough. She described the work of three gentlemen who influenced her to become a Laughter Specialist and Leader:
- Dr. Norman Cousins, who aside from his work with illness and laughter, was a diplomat, a journalist, a peace activist and well-known writer. Cousins was diagnosed with Ankylosing Spondylitis — a form of arthritis — and was hospitalized for a time. He decided to leave the hospital because he believed that hospitals were not places that promoted health. He checked into a hotel room and, since Allen Funt was a good friend, he brought Cousins lots of videos from Candid Camera. He also watched loads of Marx Brothers movies and the hilarious work of other comedians. The laughter, he contends, in the book An Anatomy of an Illness made him better.
- Hunter Doherty “Patch” Adams is an American physician, social activist, citizen diplomat, clown and author. He founded the Gesundheit! Institute in 1971. Each year he organizes a group of volunteers from around the world to travel to various countries where they dress as clowns in an effort to bring laughter to orphans, patients and everyone else. Robin Williams starred in a movie about his life and methods called Patch Adams and Adams’s book Gesundheit! was a best seller.
- Dr. Madan Kataria is a third influence. He wrote Laugh For No Reason and founded the new and health-promoting concept of laughter yoga. There are 1000 classes of this type of yoga in India and 6000 around the world. Kataria believes fervently in the healing power of laughter. And so does Beverley.
It seems that recent studies support the idea that laughter is good for our health. The Minneapolis Star Tribune cites a study at Oxford University that found that laughing causes the body to release the same endorphins as exercising, resulting in a feeling of euphoria mixed with serenity that many endurance athletes report experiencing.
Well, euphoria reigned supreme during Beverley’s workshop. We all stood up and there were many exercises that brought on hilarious laughter — just the ticket for a healthy night’s entertainment.
Beverley herself has the kind of sweet, pleasant face that looks like she’ll break into laughter at any moment. She carries a silly and humungous ladybug purse. Wears a clown nose or dons a huge pair of sun glasses at a moment’s notice. And is full of jokes and jests and funny sayings.
The Laugh Specialist entreats us to laugh at ourselves and with others, reach for a funny book or movie instead of a pill (“We’re all overmedicated,” she says) and find amusement and delight in every day life.
The audience stands during one of Beverley’s laugh-exploding exercises.
One of her audience-applauded quotes: “Don’t stop playing because you’re older; we get old because we stop playing.”
And then there’s her wonderful cheer: Very good (clap), very good (clap), very good (clap) YEAH! (thumbs up)!
Kudos go to Anne MacLoud who welcomed the audience and gave the history of One Book, One Community; to Sharon Yool who reminded the crowd that they could become a member of AAUW Fremont Branch if they weren’t already; and especially to Kathy Garfinkle who introduced Beverley and invited her to be part of this Lots of Laughter year.
To them and to all of you — Very good, very good, very good, YEAH!
Visit the 2012 Beverley Bender Album to see lots more pictures.