[Update Jan. 19, 2016]
"Shtick Not Shtigma" will present a free encore performance on Wednesday, Jan. 20, 5 p.m. in the Semel Institute Auditorium. See this flyer for more information.
A unique comedy improv group — seven young Angelenos who have all survived mental health issues of one sort or another — will share their talents in “Joyology” on Thursday, Dec. 10, at noon in the auditorium of the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA.
“Shtick Not Shtigma" — the troupe's name is a tongue-in-cheek reference to the social stigma so often attached to mental illness — is the brainchild of Marcia Meldrum, an adjunct assistant professor of history and associate researcher in the Semel Institute’s department of psychiatry and biobehavioral sciences. After seeing a performance by a comedy improv group at the Edelman Westside Mental Health Center — part of L.A. County’s Department of Mental Health — Meldrum recruited that group’s director, actor and UCLA alumnus Brook Sylvann, to form and lead a new troupe at the Semel Institute.
“I’ve been very impressed with the way in which [comedy improv] encourages people who are often shy and find it difficult to interact with others,” Meldrum said. “It brings them out of themselves. And the use of humor makes everything seem less horrible — something that’s valuable for people with mental health issues ... and for the rest of us.”
“Joyology” is free and open to the general public. Following the performance, troupe members will talk about what comedy improv has meant to them in their lives. For more information, email Meldrum at mlynnmel@gmail.com.
