The Laughter Clinic

A time of reflection on a year of significant personal and professional changes, and a look at what's in store for 2026.

• Mark McConville • Season 1 • Episode 19

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In this final episode for 2025 I reflect on a year of big decisions, both personal and professional. From leaving cruise ships to going off my ADHD medication and growing the Laughter Clinic, it's been a year of significant life changes.  
I also take a moment to hold space for a national tragedy.  

• acknowledging the Bondi Beach victims
• stepping away from cruise ships to prioritise The Laughter Clinic
• delivering 53 Laughter Clinic presentations nationwide
• collaborations with Employee Wellness Australia, Ellen Briggs, and Linda Alexander
• personal update on ADHD management without medication
• daily routines of exercise, meditation and journaling
• launching the podcast, lessons learned, and community impact
• 2026 roadmap: Life Skills Masterclass Series with Jodi Allen, new guests, key conferences
• choosing a break to return stronger and more focused
• gratitude to listeners, clients, and communities

For more info on Employee Wellness Australia
Visit: https://employeewellnessaustralia.com.au

For more info on the 4 Aussie Heroes Foundation
Visit: https://4aussieheroes.com.au

For info on booking Mark as a speaker at your event. 
Visit: https://www.icmi.com.au/mark-mcconville/




Website: www.thelaughterclinic.com.au

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@thelaughterclinicAus

"If you or someone you know needs support, please contact one of these Australian mental health services. In an emergency, always call 000."

Lifeline Australia
Phone: 13 11 14 (24/7)
Web: lifeline.org.au

Suicide Call Back Service
Phone: 1300 659 467 (24/7)
Web: suicidecallbackservice.org.au

Beyond Blue
Phone: 1300 22 4636 (24/7)
Web: beyondblue.org.au

Kids Helpline (for people aged 5-25)
Phone: 1800 55 1800 (24/7)
Web: kidshelpline.com.au

MensLine Australia
Phone: 1300 78 99 78 (24/7)
Web: mensline.org.au

SANE Australia (complex mental health issues)
Phone: 1800 18 7263
Web: sane.org

QLife (LGBTIQ+ support)
Phone: 1800 184 527
Web: qlife.org.au

Open Arms (Veterans & Families Counselling)
Phone: 1800 011 046 (24/7)
Web: openarms.gov.au

1800RESPECT (sexual assault, domestic violence)
Phone: 1800 737 732 (24/7)
Web: 1800respect.org.au

Headspace (youth mental health, ages 12-25)
Phone: 1800 650 890
Web: headspace.org.au

13YARN (Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander crisis support)
Phone: 13 92 76 (13YARN) (24/7)
Web: 13yarn.org.au

Music by Hayden Smith
https://www.haydensmith.com


SPEAKER_00:

Welcome to the Laughter Clinic Podcast with the comedian and super psychologist Mark McCombe. Bringing you practical, evidence-based self-care strategies, the latest research in mental health, along with conversations that inspire, educate, and entertain. This is the Laughter Clinic Podcast with your host, Mark McCombill.

SPEAKER_01:

Hi my friends, welcome to this episode of the Laughter Clinic Podcast, which is actually going to be the final episode for 2025. So it's been a big year for me personally and professionally. A few things that I'd like to share with you, and I also want to give you a bit of a sneak peek as to what's going to be happening in 2026. So this is the opportunity for me to take a pause basically, and I want a few moments of reflection and gratitude and a bit of a reset over the next few weeks for me. So a couple of personal things that I want to share with you in this episode. So um yeah, let's uh let's get into it now. Look, before I do talk about 2025, I just want to take a moment to acknowledge something that's weighed pretty heavily on many of us this week, and that is the fact that last Sunday night our country experienced an overwhelming tragedy at Wandai Beach. What was an unimaginable attack on the Jewish community is just yeah. Now we have so many families that are grieving and so many people that are affected by this, and and so many of us now having what a really urgent conversation centered around safety and security and and how we should be looking after one another. You know, there are there are no easy answers to to this, and this week has really been a harsh reminder of the world that we now find ourselves living in. And to be honest, it's been a lot to process. It really has. It's been a lot to process for you know a lot of friends of mine and my family, and and you know, and we haven't been affected directly by it, but we just know that it's a lot to process. So if you have found yourself feeling emotionally affected by the events of last Sunday night and what happened, that is totally understandable. And all I ask is that you please reach out to any of the support services that are listed in the show notes. And and yeah, because look, you're not alone. You're not alone in in feeling this way about whatever has been brought up for you. So yeah, I just I just really want to to acknowledge the the events of last Sunday night and take a moment to remember the victims and everyone that has been affected by that that unimaginable act of violence that occurred in our country. So yeah, it's a lot to process. So now moving on to 2025 and and what this year has held for me personally and professionally. So I we'll go into the per uh professional stuff first. So look for 27 years I've been doing this is my 27th year as a professional comedian, and look, for 16 of those years I worked on cruise ships, doing, you know, between t 12, 15, sometimes 20 cruise contracts a year, performing all around the world on these big, beautiful cruise ships, doing late-night one-hour shows to a thousand people in big, beautiful theaters and getting to travel the world and meet incredible people, and and it's a lucrative gig, you know. It was a big source of my income for 16 years. And in January of this year, I stepped away from all of that. And one of the main reasons for making that decision is because I knew that I really needed to shift my attention into spending more time and energy working on the laughter clinic. It just needed more of my attention. So, look, I still perform stand-up comedy and I still work as a comedian and MC and comedy clubs on land and corporate events and conferences, because at the end of the day, I still absolutely love being a comedian, right? I just I just still love it. I love walking on stage and making people laugh. It's it's and I think I will always, I think that will always stay with me. And in actual fact, I've got my last stand-up comedy gig for the year this night, MCing the Sit Down Comedy Club in Brisbane. So, but for the most part, you know, my focus has definitely shifted in a big way this year into the mental health and suicide prevention space, which is the laughter clinic, which, you know, I started the laughter clinic back in 2015 when I started university, and you know, I've been doing presentations all of this time while still working on cruises and doing all of that. But yeah, this year, at the beginning of this year, I really made the decision, no more cruises, and it's and it's really focusing on the laughter clinic. And the ripple effect of making that decision has meant so I worked it out. Like I said, I've been doing these presentations around Australia for the last 10 years, but this is the first year that I actually, you know, sat back a couple of weeks ago and worked it all out. So this year, with my focus shifting onto the laughter clinic, I delivered 53 Laughter Clinic live presentations around Australia. And this was, you know, in workplaces, for rural communities, at conferences, for first responders and veterans. I went into schools. And basically this year I reached thousands of people around Australia, giving them evidence-based mental health strategies and doing it in a way that wraps it up in humor and humanity and laughter, and the whole time encouraging social connection and individual self-care. But to be honest, I haven't done it by myself, right? I've I haven't done this alone in the last 12 months. And so there's a few people that I really need to acknowledge over for this past 12 months, and and one of those is a guy called Stephen Woods, who is the founder of Employee Wellness Australia. Stephen does fantastic work in the employee wellness space, and I'm very grateful for the fact that he has entrusted me to uh he's brought me on to be a so I do my laughter clinic presentations for a lot of his clients around Australia, and I really am grateful for our relationship and him entrusting me with his clients. So that's been a really, a really good relationship that we've built and worked on this year. My corporate booking agent, Denise from ICMI Speakers and Entertainers Australia, has you know been great this year, as always doing a fantastic job of getting me into conferences and speaking at events and all this sort of stuff, and always making sure that the gigs are good. And yes, I'm really appreciative for Denise's work. She she always goes above and beyond. But something very cool happened in the second half of this year. I did a collaboration where for the first time, so like I said, I've been doing the laughter clinic presentation for 10 years myself. And this year was the first time where I actually bought two people into the presentation itself. So, comedian Ellen Briggs and lived experienced speaker Linda Alexander, both who I've known for a long time, and I brought them in as part of the actual presentation itself. Together we did five Laughter Clinic presentations to some rural communities in Southeast Queensland. And what they bought to the table really took the Laughter Clinic to the next level. It really did. Having Ellen there delivering her world-class stand-up comedy and Linda sharing her very powerful lived experience story of her family's uh lived experience with suicide really took the Laughter Clinic presentations to the next level. So I'm really that's a really standout event, uh, those events for me this year. So I just wanted to acknowledge them and thank them for their uh willingness to be involved. And we're already planning on how we can we can do more of that in 2026 and take it to other parts of Australia. So that's pretty exciting. And look, at the end of the day, all of these collaborations have reminded me that mental health isn't a solo sport, it's it's collective, it's collaborating. You know, sometimes it's messy and real and and and it can be hard, but it only works when we really do show up for each other, so it really does. So yeah, I just wanted to, you know, thank everyone who's basically engaged me to perform my laughter clinic presentations over the last 12 months because each and every one of those presentations has meant something to me, and and yeah, it's I'm very grateful, very grateful for the opportunities that I've been given this year. So now look, on a personal note, something that I want to share with you, which is quite personal. So a few months ago, under the care and guidance of my psychiatrist who I've been seeing for a long time, who's helping me manage my ADHD, we collectively made the decision for me to stop taking my ADHD medication. And basically, my friends, for the first time in 30 years, I am unmedicated for my mental health. Because for 15 years I was on antidepressants until I got the correct diagnosis of having ADHD in 2010, and so I've been on ADHD medications ever since. So and now I'm on nothing. And so as a friend of mine says, I'm freewheeling it, I'm freewheeling it. And and look, I just want to s I just want to take this opportunity to say that if you are on medications, they serve their purpose. They really do. I am in no way advocating for people to just stop taking their pills, and and do that is not why I'm sharing this stuff with you, because medications serve their purpose, they really do, and they've helped me for a long time. It just so happens that at this moment in time where I'm at now personally, and as I said, under the guidance of my psychiatrist, it was actually his idea, he suggested it. Because look, it doesn't mean that I don't still have ADHD because I do, but now I'm just managing my condition in a different way outside of taking medication. So what that's meant is I'm now I work with an ADHD coach. I uh meet with him once a month, and he helps me in relation to my work and work strategies and getting things done and understanding how my brain works a bit better for you know managing my workflow and and just finding ways of managing my condition differently without taking medications. But yeah, as I as I said, if you are on medications, they serve their purpose, and they really do. So, you know, I'm no way advocating that you just stop taking your pills because, like I said, for 30 years I was on I was on medications. So what this means to me on a day-to-day basis, basically, is now I'm really trying to obviously I work with my ADHD coach, but it's really meant on a daily basis, trying to be more diligent in relation to physical exercise every morning, meditation, journaling, having that morning routine, trying to get my diet under control and my sleep. They're probably the two areas that I struggle with the most is my diet and and my sleep. But the exercise, meditation, and journaling, getting those ticked off the box in the morning is something that I really am leaning into. And look, do I get it right? Do I do it on a day-to-day basis? It's hard, you know, like some days are easier than others, and when I'm traveling and doing this and that, but I'm doing my best to try and, you know, really lean into this holistic approach to managing my condition as as much as best as I can. So, and look, why am I sharing this with you? Because really it models something important about our mental health journey, and that is that our journeys are individual and they're constantly evolving, right? There is no single path, there is no one size fits all, it is only your path and what is right for you. And it's really important that you've got the support of good people who are in your corner and who offer you guidance in relation to evidence-based care, which is so incredibly important. So I'm very grateful to my psychiatrist for entrusting me with the belief that I can do this. I'm grateful to my, you know, my ADHD coach for what he's brought into my life and my mental health strategies. And in a way, I'm grateful to myself for being willing to try something new and give this a go. Because, you know, like I said, confronting, a couple of confronting decisions this year, you know, stepping away from the cruises after 16 years and and stepping away from taking medications is these are two quite big decisions. So I'm really grateful for myself for having the courage to to try something new and to and to you know step into a new a new version of myself. So and I hope that this is the kind of courage that this Laughter Clinic podcast inspires in you. I really do. And so let's talk about the podcast. So this has been another big decision for 2025. So because I thought, you know, I'm seeing all of these people live and in person, you know, but I'd I'd really love to have a greater reach, you know. So I made the decision to, you know, start the podcast in all honesty. It was probably about three to four months in the planning before I launched the first episodes, which was back in late August of 2020 this year. So I launched it with five episodes. And, you know, what now four months in nearly, and 18 episodes later, and genuinely moved by the positive response and feedback. You know, I've I've talked to some awesome guests over the last few months, I really have, and we've spoken about mental health and self-care, and and I've also been able to share with you some research stories from around the world in the fields of mental health and suicide prevention and the study of humor and laughter. And I gotta tell you, it's given me a new appreciation for the work that goes into behind the scenes of doing a podcast, you know, because for the last few years I've listened a lot, you know, but now that I'm doing it myself, I'm, you know, really appreciative of the work and the cost involved and all that sort of stuff. So for those of you that have been listening right from the start, thank you. Thank you so much for listening. And I really appreciate it. And and there's a lot more to come in 2026. So let's talk about what I've got planned for 2026 because I've got some really cool things happening. I'm gonna talk about three things in particular. So uh as we as we head into January, right? So, firstly, early on in 2026, probably mid to late January, we're going to be launching this. I'm going to be doing a 12-part Life Skills masterclass series in collaboration with Jodie Allen. Now, Jodie is a clinical nutritionist, she's a trauma-inform informed facilitator, and Jody and I have actually been the core people that have been involved with the Triumph Over Trauma program for Four Aussie Heroes, which is a basically a 11, an 11-day live-in real rehabilitation retreat for high-level PDSD first responders and veterans here in Australia. So we've been with the organization now since 2018, and Jodie is now the lead facilitator. She brings a lot to that space, and so we're going to collaborate next year and do some really cool stuff. So I've actually got an episode with her that we're going to do right at the start of the year, and then from there we're going to go into our 12-part Life Skills Masterclass series, so which is really exciting. This isn't, it's not just going to be theory, this is practical stuff that's grounded in evidence, and it will be immediately useful to you. And, you know, think of it as a toolkit for living better, thinking clearer, and building resilience. And, you know, so we're going to be talking about core life skills and how we can use these to improve our general well-being. So that's number one. Secondly, obviously, I'm going to be bringing you some more incredible guests. I've got lined up for the first half of next year, some mental health professionals, more comedians, some researchers, people with lived experience of suicide, and people that are just out there doing incredibly positive things in the community. And each one of these guests will bring their own uniqueness to the field of mental health. So very exciting. And thirdly, I'm actually going to be attending a couple of major conferences in the first half of next year. And this is a big decision for me because these conferences cost a lot of money to go to. And for the last few years, I've kind of, you know, I've been teetering on the edge as to whether or not I need to go and attend these conferences. And now that I've, you know, made that decision to really lean into and focus on the laughter clinic work and the mental health and suicide prevention space, I've thought, right, now's the time to, you know, I just need to put it out there and and and and just commit to going to these conferences. So in April of next year, I'll be attending the Suicide Prevention Australia Conference in Sydney. And in May of next year, I'll be attending the Moral Injury, the Australian New Zealand Moral Injury Conference in uh Tasmania. So this will give me a great opportunity to connect with other people doing fantastic work in this space to learn a lot of information and the best that I can, I will be bringing as many insights from these conferences back to you and sharing them via the podcast. So that's pretty exciting. And, you know, obviously, you know, bringing you more episodes on protective factors and mental health and research and the intersection of humor and laughter and mental health. So yeah, it's going to be a really looking forward to what we're putting together for uh for 2026. But look, for the meantime, my friends, to be honest with you, I need to have a break. I need to take a genuine break. I need a few weeks off the podcast. I need to spend some quality time with my family. I need to rest and recoup and catch up with my friends and play some golf and do some fishing and and just give myself some space to just be, basically, and just process everything that has been the last 12 months and and and what's coming up. So and look, you know, taking breaks, it's it's not a weakness, it's it's not a f failing, it's necessary. It really is. And at the end of the day, this is me modelling what I ask of you that your mental health matters and that some Sometimes rest can be productive, and that's how I'm looking at it. I'm looking at I need this few weeks off to be more productive for next year. And at the end of the day, sometimes being able to show up fully sometimes means taking a step back and giving yourself some space to, you know, like I said, just be basically. So that's going to be me over the next few weeks. So I'll be back, my friends, in 20 uh, you know, early 2026, mid-January, I'd say. So keep an eye out for the episodes coming out in January. You know, stronger, clearer, focused, and ready to build on what I've already started to create here with the podcast. So to you, my listeners, I just want to say thank you so much. Thank you for your time because I am for a long, for a long while now, I've been an advocate of your time is your most valuable asset. It really is. And so I really do appreciate your time in tuning in to the podcast. I appreciate your engagement and your willingness to share what we've offered you and sharing it with others, because that's really that really means a lot. So, and as I said, to the organizations and communities that have engaged me to perform my laughter clinic presentation and give mental health talks and all of that sort of stuff over the last 12 months, thank you so much for believing in in this work that I'm doing. So incredibly grateful for each and every one of those gigs that I've done this year. And and look, finally, to any of you who are listening who have struggled this year or who may be currently struggling or grieving, you know, or have felt alone or feel alone currently. I just want you to know that I see you and I I honor your strength and your courage and thank you for still being here, you know, because I know some days are a lot harder than others. And I just want to acknowledge you and thank you and honor you and and just encourage you to please reach out if you need support. I really do because it's so incredibly important. So I don't know if you can hear that, but that's the Mr. Whippy Vad in the background, you know, cruising down the street doing ice cream visit. I tell you, there's something that you don't hear very I haven't heard of Mr. Whippy Vad in years. Christmas, right? So anyway, he clearly he doesn't know that I'm recording a podcast in the front in my front office at home. But you know, I thought the episode's gone pretty well thus far, so I'm not gonna do a new one. This is it. So if you could hear the Mr. Whippy Vad in the background, so be it. Look, my friends, as we move into Christmas and beyond, I just wish you all a few things. I wish I wish that you my hope for you basically is that you get some rest when you need it, that you get connection, you find some connection with someone when you're feeling lonely. It's so incredibly important. I hope you find some laughter when the world is feeling a little bit too heavy, and I hope that you find the inner wisdom and the courage to reach out and ask for help if you find yourself in a position that you're struggling in. So they're my hopes for you, my friends. So Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas to you all, happy New Year. I hope you have a you know a wonderful Christmas and New Year period. And I'll be seeing you early in 2026, and uh, like I said, revitalized, recharged, and ready to uh get into 2026 and build on what we've already created here. So as always, my friends, please, please be kind to yourself first and foremost, and be kind to those around you. My name's Martin McCombell. Thanks for listening. I'll talk to you soon. Cheers.

SPEAKER_00:

Thank you for listening. The information contained in this podcast is for educational and entertainment purposes. It is not intended, nor should it ever replace advice received from a physician or mental health professional. Want more info? Visit alumptoclinic.com.au. If you enjoyed the episode, please share and subscribe. Thanks again for listening to Alumptoclinic Podcast with your host, McConville.