Chatting with film maker Medhavi Fernando about her upcoming docuseries 'Seriously Unserious'

In this episode, Mark chats with filmmaker Medhavi Fernando about her upcoming docuseries Seriously Unserious, a project exploring the real-life power of humour and laughter. They discuss documentary storytelling, therapeutic humour, comedy as craft, the science of laughter, and why being unserious might be one of the most serious things we can do for our wellbeing.

• what “laughter is the best medicine” means in real life 
• Medhavi’s mix of tech, journalism, and self-taught filmmaking 
• why the series is called Seriously Unserious 
• the personal moments that spark the project
• shifting from one feature documentary to an episodic docuseries 
• Kevin MacIsaac role as host and how he draws stories out 
• guest arcs across cancer, workplace humour, productivity, and resilience 
• the inclusion of neuroscience and psychology
• humour as reframing, coping, and emotional distance 
• the hidden craft of comedy, including bombing and bouncing back 
• the editing challenge of keeping story, context, and jokes 
• how film festivals, broadcasters, and streaming pickups can work 
• takeaways from the Association for Applied and Therapeutic Humor conference 
• Medhavi’s Feel Good Five and what keeps her grounded 

Thank you for listening. 

For more info on Medhavi Fernando visit: https://www.linkedin.com/in/medhavifernando/

If you haven’t already done so, we invite you to hit the follow button, leave a comment, let us know your thoughts, or flick through the archives to see if there’s any other episodes that you think you may be interested in. 

Website: www.thelaughterclinic.com.au

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Lifeline Australia
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Web: sane.org

QLife (LGBTIQ+ support)
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1800RESPECT (sexual assault, domestic violence)
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Web: 1800respect.org.au

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Phone: 1800 650 890 
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Phone: 13 92 76 (13YARN) (24/7)
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Music by Hayden Smith
https://www.haydensmith.com

Transcript

Welcome And Guest Introduction

Speaker 1 0:33

Welcome back my friends to this episode of the Laughter Clinic podcast. As always, really appreciate your time in tuning in. And if you haven't already done so, hit the follow button, subscribe, and all that jazz. So today we have a wonderful guest. We always have wonderful guests. And today is no different. We are speaking to a filmmaker about what it's like to produce a documentary film all about comedy, humour, and laughter. So uh without any further ado, let's welcome to the stage. Medhavi Fernando, how are you going?

Speaker 2 1:08

Hello, Mark. Good to be here.

Speaker 1 1:10

Welcome to the Laugh Clinic Podcast. Good to see you.

Speaker 2 1:14

Good to see you too. Great to be here.

Speaker 1 1:16

So uh oh, we have got so

Laughter As Real Medicine

Speaker 1 1:18

much to chat about today and so much to unpack in relation to your documentary and all of that sort of stuff. So before we get into all of that, right, we like to start our chats on the podcast uh with a conversation around the saying laughter is the best medicine, right? So here is a saying that's been around for over 3,000 years, and now we have modern-day research supporting the physical benefits of laughter, psychological benefits of using your sense of humor as a coping mechanism, and the social benefits of coming together and experiencing laughter in in a social situation. So uh so for you, when when you hear the saying laughter is the best medicine, what is that what does that conjure up for you?

Speaker 2 1:59

I think it's the best way, both humor and laughter, it's the best way to alleviate, yeah, like you said, mental distress, anguish, pain, sometimes even physical pain. It really helps with that, with the easing. And beyond that, I think humor and laughter are the best way to bring out the best versions of yourself, best authentic versions of yourself. So that's how I presume it.

Speaker 1 2:22

Yeah, because it's very organic, isn't it? You know, that's you when you say the best version of yourself, that's it's an organic thing, is that connection between two people that are having a laugh together?

Speaker 3 2:32

That's it, yeah.

Speaker 1 2:33

Yeah. So so for those of my guests that uh are not going to be familiar with your work, so uh who is Madhavi and uh and tell us a bit about the the kind of work

Medhavi’s Filmmaking Background

Speaker 1 2:44

that you do in relation to filmmaking?

Speaker 2 2:47

Sure. So I do both photography and filmmaking, so they're both like leaning towards nature, human impact stories, but also towards positive change. Um whether it be human, environmental, and benefit of the animals, it's about yeah, bringing change that benefits us all around and also to possibly do it with humans, just to make that engagement and entertaining quality. Yeah, yeah. Because it adds that flare to storytelling.

Speaker 1 3:25

Yeah, yeah, and so because you've got a background in tech as well, right?

Speaker 2 3:32

Yeah, so the the tech part of it actually helps in the sense pretty much the technical side of it, like operating a camera, sound, equipment handling, that stuff, because that was because the filmmaking part and photography was something that was self-taught. Um I didn't go for any kind of full or tertiary education for it. So the tech background really helped in learning all this by itself.

Speaker 3 3:54

Yeah.

Speaker 2 3:55

And operating all this well, almost professional gear and kind of open up the space for the whole creative storytelling that I've arrived at now.

Speaker 1 4:07

Well, the three the three the three genres that you you know, you've got skills in tech and and photography and filmmaking, also journalism in there as well. Because you formerly studied journalism as well, didn't you?

Speaker 2 4:19

Yes, I did, yeah. So that actually helped with the documentary aspect of it. I think to make sure I asked the right questions, drive the narrative into a focus. And yeah, so making sure whether the talent or whatever the topic is stays actually on topic, like yeah, besides all of the like sometimes it can the content itself can be overwhelming.

Speaker 1 4:46

Well, that's right, because you know, yeah, but guess we like guests like to talk about themselves, right? And so that's that's the thing. And so was was you know visual storytelling something that you always wanted to, you know, that was something that you've always been interested in.

Speaker 2 5:01

Yes, yes. So film, TV, that's that's that's been a hobby and something that I've always been do do on my downtime. But to turn that into a career was was was like that big inspiration and stepping stone for me. And what drew me to it would be, I would say, a story shows like The Weekly with Charlie Vickering or the Daily Show on Comedy Central.

Speaker 1 5:31

Yeah, right, yeah.

Speaker 2 5:32

Yeah, so it's it's because the fact that they're the premise of the both of these shows that it takes something factual or new to the crown affairs, yeah, and they have like a comedic spin on it. So the viewers are actually engaged, entertained, and also educated.

Speaker 3 5:46

Yeah, right.

Speaker 2 5:48

Yeah, yeah, that is what really drew me to it, and like that's that's kind of a format I'm always inspired to do more work on.

Speaker 1 5:55

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because it's a real art form, isn't it? You know, doing a good documentary, and it always makes me think of, you know, like we recently celebrated David Attenborough turning a hundred, you know, and it's just like one of those things that you like I've always remembered him to be old, you know, my entire lifetime he's been an old guy, you know. But I mean, the the longevity of of the his career in relation to making documentaries for the natural world has just been like he must be for documentaries, he must be the benchmark, right?

Speaker 2 6:28

Absolutely, yeah. Yeah.

Naming Seriously Unserious

Speaker 1 6:30

Yeah. So how is it? Um how is it that seriously unserious came to be? Now, first, first of all, before we get to the documentary itself, how did the title come about?

Speaker 2 6:42

That's interesting. Well, so I've been I've been playing words like laugh out loud, which is the basic one, and things like laughter survive, because as like a take on drop survive, yeah, healing with humor, all these things. And so I feel like I wrote them all down, and I also wrote Seriously Unserious, and I said it to our producers, Wendy and Amber. I said, Oh, and send the whole lips. I said, What do you think? And they all they said, I I would both both of them said I like uh seriously on serious, yeah, right. And yeah, and then so it stuck. And everyone I say to them, they say, Oh, that's really a cool title. I think it it it it really hits home what the premise of the documentary is.

Speaker 1 7:26

Yeah, so let's just so let's talk about that. So, what is the premise?

Speaker 2 7:30

It's the premise of actually taking laughing medicine to your hands and being serious about finding the funny whenever wherever you can. Because I think people don't take that seriously, they don't take humor seriously, which they should. Yeah, and so therefore, seriously, try to be on serious.

Speaker 1 7:49

Yeah, right.

Speaker 2 7:50

That's what we were trying to tell you.

Speaker 1 7:52

Yeah, that's right. And and I know, you know, we we've been talking about this for over a year now, and full disclosure, I am one of the one of the guests. Yes, uh that Madame has very kindly asked me to be involved in the documentary as well, which I'm very appreciative of. And because I know for you, from your initial, you know, our initial conversations where you were thinking it was going to be one kind of standalone film type documentary, it's now expanded into something quite different to what to what you originally started out on. So so talk talk to us about you know what your what your initial thoughts for this film were and and how it came to be, you know, an episodic thing that you've got in mind now.

Speaker 2 8:41

Yeah, so the the reason was that the number of guests kind of to started to expand. So yes,

The Personal Spark Behind The Film

Speaker 2 8:50

yes. That everyone has to go to knew someone, they said, Oh, this is my first person, and then you know it kind of cascaded. Well, I'll start from the beginning, like the very beginning of how everything came to be. So it's kind of a personal story as well. Like as a child, so we all feel joy, excitement, or exhilaration, all of that. So they're all positive emotions. There is like there's nothing to resolve in those things, you just feel it and it's great. But when you feel something negative, so sadness, fear, anger, it's there is something about it that you need to resolve. Like for for example, anger is telling you something, fear is telling you something. Yeah, and as a child, it's really hard to navigate the situation unless there's someone guides you. But not there's there's not ever someone to guide you all the time. But what I've realized is through time, if I'd been in a bad mood, felt something negative, but you know, for some reason laughed at something or found something really funny, I feel better. And that kind of continued in my teens into my 20s, and there'd be part where I was working in an office. I realized I was a bit too productive, sometimes bored, or even worse case, trying to fall asleep on my desk. I couldn't put on a stand-up comedy on one monitor and then just do the work on the other monitor. So I find myself oh, being more energetic because it was funny, I was laughing, and then I'm just headphones on?

Speaker 1 10:20

Were you sharing were you sharing it with everybody else? Like was this content that could be shared in the workplace because you know, we're all about making sure we don't upset the Apple card in the workplace.

Speaker 2 10:32

Uh it's probably probably all most of the stand-up work they weren't safe for work. That's why I had headphones on.

Speaker 1 10:38

I just have visions of people peeping over the wall, over the little wall if you're like a community workspace or you know, walking past your office, go, what the bloody else you're laughing at in there?

Speaker 2 10:48

They probably did because I was laughing.

Speaker 1 10:51

Yeah.

Speaker 2 10:51

Um, for no reason. I mean, they couldn't hear me.

Speaker 3 10:54

Yeah.

Speaker 2 10:54

Uh, but yeah, so that like all of these, the con thing was that I felt better. And I was really curious as to what's going on. It's really fascinating. What's going on inside my brain, the physiology, what's happening here? And so I thought, oh, maybe there is a documentary about it, you know, I can watch it and learn because there were documentaries about everything.

Speaker 3 11:14

Yeah.

Speaker 2 11:14

And there still is. So I thought, I'll look it up. But I didn't really find one. Although I did find some good TED talks, books, journals, yeah, but not really any all of these condensed into one piece of work. And then so I I didn't really think too much about it. I just continued watching stand up, reading books and watching TED Talk, etc. etc. But then I think around um the time of COVID, because I was just really bored, I picked up, I set up a bought a camera and just played with it. Turns out I enjoy really enjoyed doing it.

Speaker 3 11:50

Yeah.

Speaker 2 11:51

And somehow got into filmmaking with uh producer friends Wendy and Amber. And around the time of 2022, I started reading this book uh called The Laughter Effect by Ross Ben Rochet.

Speaker 3 12:05

Yeah.

Speaker 2 12:06

And she talks about her journey of navigating cancer and how humor really helped like all throughout before and during, and like how she kind of practiced it every day till till this day. And I thought I again while reading it, I looked again for a documentary where maybe there is something about it, but there wasn't. This was around the 2024, 2025 month. And so I just thought, you know, I looked up her website, found an email address, and just sent her an email saying, I am a filmmaker, I am thinking of doing something like this, uh breaking your talk, it's it's really inspiring. Would you be willing to share your story? And a couple of days later she said yes, this really must be made, film, into film. And I'd I'd love to share my story. And that gave me this real exponential confidence boost that I could do it. Yeah. And this was this, by the way, will be my first major project. That's every other thing I've just done, even small amounts of producing work or camera work. This was like major.

Speaker 3 13:24

Yeah.

Speaker 2 13:24

Uh and that, yeah, so that's where it all starts.

Speaker 1 13:29

What a and what a f what a fantastic topic to get you to to get your head around to start with, because it's so it's so interesting that you're going, you know, maybe there's a documentary here, and you've gone to talk to Roz, who and it is an incredible story. Now last week I actually had on David Smeet, who is also so Roz is part of the documentary, David's part of the documentary, and you know, David obviously talks about his journey with cancer treatment and all that sort of stuff as well. And and and let's talk, talk a bit, talk to us about your

From Feature Film To Series

Speaker 1 14:05

host. Talk about that. Let's let's chat about Kevin.

Speaker 2 14:09

Kevin McCazak, you you who you've met. Yeah. He is brilliant, hilarious, talented, very generous human being.

Speaker 3 14:17

Yeah.

Speaker 2 14:17

We're like, we are all blessed to have him on the documentary because he is the driving force of seriously in the serious like because a story like this, which has got multiple arms, multiple storylines, like yourself, Roses, Davids, and even Andrew Tarvin from the US, who is the the most recent person we built. And the the the really cool thing about Kevin that I didn't even really think about is that he is able to extricate the best out of everyone, but also showcase the best of himself in each episode. And this is through like multiple per people.

Speaker 1 15:00

Yeah. I don't know if I know he's so easy to chat to, you know, he's as a host, he is so easy to chat to. You know, he makes you feel comfortable straight off the bat.

Speaker 2 15:10

Yeah. And he's the ways jokes and or joke and questions just come through very quick, rapid fire quirks. I mean, I spent days writing jokes into a script to give him to ask an interview. And I would look at look back and go, oh, these are terrible jokes. You know, I shouldn't, I shouldn't, I shouldn't write jokes. I'm not a comedian.

Speaker 1 15:36

You need it, you needed the yeah, you leave that to the comics, right? But I gotta tell you, he's he's just off the cuff, you know. That's what I think, Kevin. He's off the cuff. It's a very it's he's a very easy guy to chat to. You know, I know when we did our filming, what we were sitting, we were chatting for a couple of hours about stuff, you know, like and it's just it's it's great having someone like him that's able to get the information out of you. And I know that, you know, my recording session may change now because I've got everything happening with the Churchill Fellowship coming up, and that could, you know, change the the my little narrative a bit about the the importance of humor and laughter and the the global you know picture of social prescribing and comedy on prescriptions, all very exciting. So aside from Kevin, myself, Rose, who else have you had a chat to? David Smeet?

Speaker 2 16:28

David Smeet and also Andrew Taubin. So he is someone who talks about workplace humor and productivity.

Speaker 3 16:36

Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 16:40

So that's the episode. Yeah, that's a very uh again, uh fantastic episode. And Kevin joined us remotely, and he was just as good as if he was in the room. Yeah it's and it's it's like a slightly different it's similar on the topic, but a different arc because you you're most of the day, but Russell's and yours is very more much inclined to mental health. Um Andrew kind of stays at the workplace productivity, yeah. So it's more of the self-enhancing and the affiliative thing the terms.

Speaker 1 17:14

Sure. And the in and the the fascinating where the the link comes in, you know, you look at the what the Productivity Commission said a few years ago about, you know, mental ill health costs the federal economy, you know, in the in the tens of billions of dollars a year in lost productivity. And so, you know, and a lot of that is a thing called presenteism, you know, people rocking up to work and and not being productive because they're struggling. And and so having someone that can uh you know talk about the subject of you know humor and laughter in the workplace is so incredibly important because it's you know, there's so many rules surrounding workplace culture now.

Speaker 2 17:54

Yeah, yeah, that's it. Yeah, so that's where the context and timing appropriateness comes into play. And yeah, so that's like another brilliant story arc that we present. And that's another reason we made this a docuseries.

Speaker 3 18:09

Yeah.

Speaker 2 18:10

Because through Kevin we became to uh no David, David Smeet, and then through David Smeet, it was you, yeah, yeah, Roz, and then our Andrew. So we decided it's sort of condensing it as well to one feature-length length.

Speaker 1 18:26

Yeah, we each want our own episode. Yeah, we get to shine. Yeah, we just like to talk about it. So give us our own episode, please.

Speaker 2 18:34

Yeah,

The Host And The Guest Lineup

Speaker 2 18:35

and it it allows you to shine your own episode. And uh the another great thing about the doctor series is that we have experts, uh, neuroscientists.

Speaker 3 18:44

Yeah.

Speaker 2 18:45

So Dr. Nikki Wilson, who's based in Sydney, uh works at Neura, as well as Karen Bucksman from the US. Uh so they all talk about what happens in the brain and the psychology and the physiology, which is really cool because you'd be talking about something, a story explaining how you felt, or how it made you more productive, happier, and they'll explain the chemistry, neurochemistry behind it.

Speaker 1 19:12

Yeah.

Speaker 2 19:12

So in that way, it's it's more yeah, education.

Speaker 1 19:17

It's so cool, isn't it, that there's research out there to be shared with the world, you know. Like, and that's the beautiful thing about the research into humor and laughter. It's not, you know, airy-fairy kind of stuff. This is this is science. This is actual there is robust data to support this, you know.

Speaker 3 19:38

Yeah.

Speaker 1 19:38

And and like you must have learnt personally so much from this varied list of guests, you know. Is there is there someone that's you know, you've been suggested to be interviewed that you've gone, I would have never have thought about including that person.

Speaker 2 19:58

I think it would have been you because I didn't know of you to start with, which is a shortcoming of my course. Yeah. Oh, okay. Because using humour to help prevent some side, I've never heard of anyone else do that.

unknown 20:13

Yeah.

Speaker 2 20:14

Even when I yeah, even when I explain this to some of the conference members when I was in the US recently, they were so they were fascinated. Yeah.

Speaker 1 20:24

Yeah, it's a it's it's an interesting one. Like, you know, I'm Australia's only stand-up comedian that's got a master's degree in suicidology. And then when you try and explain to people what it is that I do, and they kind of go, comedian suicide prevention, how does that kind of and that and yet other people that I talk to, like they instantly go, Well, of course. You know, of course, humor and laughter, comedian, you know, mental health making people people feel better for like early intervention and suicide prevention. It it's kind of a no-brainer, you know. So aside for aside from myself and our and our chat, has there been a guest that's really surprised you that you've gone, wow, you know, I really I didn't see that coming.

Speaker 2 21:12

Maybe Jaggets me because he's a comedian and I didn't see like besides the entertainment part of things, I I I didn't really see how the way he looked at him. Yeah, is that like it like it's a it's an it's a craft. Not like always an art form, but yes, it crafted and and and the fact that it how he deals with comedy not always being a hit. There'll be like tennises and a hit. Yeah. To see that part of it and how how like how comedians recover from it. Yeah, well navigate that.

Speaker 1 21:54

Yeah. Yeah, exactly. And that's one of the things we chatted about in last week's episode. Check it out, David Smeed, ladies and gentlemen. Was the fact that, you know, when you're first starting out, everyone you go, you know, there isn't a comedian on the planet that hasn't had a bad show. Right. We've all bombed at some point in our careers. And and the big thing is that you you don't learn from the ones where you're out there nailing it. You learn from the ones where it didn't go well because you, you know, you're forced to analyze it more and go, what what went wrong? What happened? How do I fix that? As opposed to walking off stage having just, you know, bought the house down for 50 minutes and you just walk off into euphoria going, How good am I going? You know, where it's you know, and it teaches your resilience, you know, like the the behind the scenes of doing stand-up, that whole having a bad night and finding the inner you know, drive to go back to the same

Neuroscience And The Mechanism Of Humour

Speaker 1 22:55

venue the next night and have another crack at it, is yeah, it's it's a weird thing. It's a weird thing to do stand-up. Like, has that been something that surprised you about you know making this is when you've got to talk to comedians and you've thought, well, there's actually a lot more to this than what I thought.

Speaker 2 23:14

Yeah, yeah. Because whenever I watch stand-up, like on YouTube or social media, I always think, oh, they're so funny. I never expect that that never it's hard to believe that they would have bombed. And I always think these are amazing. I love their comedy. Staff comedians are great, they're brave, they go out on stage and say all these fun, you know, hilarious things. Yeah. So like I like I always worship them. So yeah, because and I never yeah, I didn't never ever expect it that there are the bombs and the misses, yeah.

Speaker 1 23:49

Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 23:50

So yeah, that was that was new to me.

Speaker 1 23:52

Yeah, and has there been has there been an aspect aside from you know, changing tact going from one long kind of feature documentary to having an episodic thing purely because you've got so many guests that you want their story to be told. Has there been another part of it that you've found, you know, challenging in the in the process of putting the documentary together?

Speaker 2 24:16

Telling your story and keeping it entertaining. Kevin usually takes Jared back. But like cutting the footage and putting it all together with the graphics and the experts talking about it. Yeah, that's that's all challenged. Because I think I have to make sure it's all structured really well. Yeah, and people stay on it. Because I I really want people to watch it. Not because oh because of how like it's it's a great filmmaking process, but I want them to know that they can do this for themselves as well. Yeah, yeah, I wanted to know that this is all within themselves, like it's it's intrinsic to themselves, yeah.

Speaker 1 24:57

So that's kind of that's kind of what you're you're hoping the audience uncovers is the fact that this is accessible for everybody.

Speaker 2 25:04

Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 1 25:04

Yeah, yeah. And has there has there in the process of of chatting to everybody, has there been kind of a part of an interview that you've had with a guest where you've and you don't have to give too much away, right? Okay, you don't have to give too much away, but has there been something that's happened with with a guest where you've kind of it's caught your breath and you've gone, that's it, that's that's exactly what this film is all about, is is that sentence or that phrase or something?

Speaker 2 25:35

I can tell you what's what I was common with all of the guests that I thought the same thing about.

Speaker 3 25:41

Yeah.

Speaker 2 25:42

Every one of you in your own way said humor and laughter is a necessity. Not a nice to have, but a must to have.

Speaker 3 25:48

Yeah, right.

Speaker 2 25:49

And and for me, personally, it was always a must to have. But that all of you seeing it confirmed it.

Speaker 1 25:57

Yeah.

Speaker 2 25:57

You, Ros, David, Andrew, all of you said it.

Speaker 1 26:00

Is that view on how humor and laughter for mental health, is that something that has kind of been foremost in your mind in relation to getting your the theme or the message across going that this is this is, you know, it yes, it's all about humor and laughter and comedy, but at the end of the day, this is a mental health documentary, really, isn't it?

Speaker 2 26:22

Yes, yes. So we've had so for example, we we want to say yes, humor and comedy, it's uh it's for entertainment, yes. That's that's where David's episode talks about. But then we want to say yes, it kind of transcends to other aspects of our life, like pretty much every other aspect of life. Uh education, work waste, mental health. Yeah, especially those three are the main ones.

Speaker 3 26:44

Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 26:46

And yeah, so in in all of these things, it it really is mental stability. So the humor and laughter is kind of that makes us all stable.

Speaker 1 26:54

Yeah. So when when you when you're saying before about how you you're a big fan of comedians as such, yeah, right, which is a great thing to do for a documentary called Seriously Ud Serious, right?

Speaker 3 27:08

Yeah.

Speaker 1 27:08

But is the uh has has this whole process what's it what's it done for your personal view of of or maybe not specifically comedians, comics as such, but but comedy as an art form. Has it has it

Comedy Craft And Bombing Lessons

Speaker 1 27:25

kind of you know changed or informed your view on on comedy as an art form?

Speaker 2 27:30

Yeah, for me, I think it's more now like a craft. Like it's it's something that needs requires a lot of research and focus and writing.

Speaker 3 27:42

Yeah.

Speaker 2 27:43

Similar to a book, but like a really short book. Because at the end of the day, when comedians go up on stage, they're telling stories. So they have to hit the right marks, like the actual story, the incongruency bit, and the punchline. Like when I say it now, it doesn't sound funny at all because I'm analyzing it. But I yeah, I've seen it's an art form, but there's also a technique out there to it.

Speaker 1 28:04

What has there um has there been a part has there been a part of you know the information that you've been gathering where you've thought to yourself, you know, that that part of the equation between comedy and mental health, like that's a that's a big ticket item that we can actually use to try and bring comedy into you know, like social prescribing and make it more of a non-clinical mental health, you know, intervention.

Speaker 2 28:33

Yes, actually. When it was actually kind of hit me when um Ross said it, I think it was Ross and also Dr. Nikki, where they talk about humor is just reframing a situation. So if you take a stressful situation like for example, if you have anxiety with flying, or fear of flying, yeah, yeah. And so you kind of reframe the situation. So for example, if if I were if I had the fear of flying towards uh a long haul flight, like to the US, for example, yeah. If and if I was anxious about from City to LA, and that's like 12 hours worth of anxiety, but instead, if I can reframe this, like at least things go wrong, I don't have to work and film all these conference uh keynotes, you know, less work for me. And I think like if I did that, yeah, I would feel better in the moment and I kind of just wash over the anxiety. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 29:34

Uh my my main one Well, yeah, and you look at you know, the Australian sense of humor is so unique on the world stage that especially, you know, when I see it come to the fore in relation to what you're saying about reframing something negative, is when you see the everyday Aussie that's been smashed by a cyclone or a flood or you know, something you know, they've had to deal with something pretty harrowing that's a major, major life event, and and you see them be interviewed on the news or for some, you know, special that they're doing about this cyclone that went through this region or whatever, and and the Aussie's sense of humour really shines in that like in that instance, and you just go, that's what it's all about. These guys are just you know, they're in their heart up against it, they've lost everything or whatever, and they've still got a way to you know, what I'm gonna be on the news, I'm gonna be on the news, right? Okay, so you know, and they uh they you know they use that sense of humor to cope with what they're going through.

Speaker 2 30:44

Exactly. It's it's kind of dark, but it helps.

Speaker 1 30:47

Well, yeah, you know, and like as as you would have heard, you know, it's like one of the mature coping

Editing Challenges And Story Structure

Speaker 1 30:55

mechanisms is your sense of humor. Being able to put emotional distance between you and something negative to reframe it is incredibly positive. David Smeet and I were chatting about the different professions and and the different people that have got wild sense of humor, and obviously the first responders have got a pretty full-on sense of humor to deal with what they would have to go through. We agreed that nurses we agreed that nurses probably have the best sense of humor of anybody that we encounter because of what they deal with on a day-to-day basis. Have you have you had a chat to any nurses?

Speaker 2 31:33

No, not recently. No, I don't. I have like I know a friend who's a nurses, but I didn't really chat about their sense of humor now.

Speaker 1 31:42

So well, a comedian nurse that you could chat to is uh Georgia Carroll.

Speaker 2 31:46

Okay, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 31:49

So comedian nurse, she's and she's awesome, she's funny ass. She'd be a great guest. See, here I have given you more guests. So well welcome Emark. Uh yeah, is it gonna be is it gonna be a mini-series or is it gonna be like you know, series one, series? Multiple series, yeah. Yeah, which would which you know like I'd I'd be I'd I'd be a big fan of that. So you must have you must have like an audience in mind when when you set out to make a documentary, like you said, you know, like I've you went looking for something and you went, it's not there in the form that I want it, see it, so I'm gonna do this. But do do you have when you set out on this, do you have an audience in mind who you're kind of targeting this towards?

Speaker 2 32:34

Well, short answer is everyone. Who yeah, globally just everyone, but if you kind of to expand on it, it'd be like anyone who needs a laugh, anyone who loves to laugh, and anyone who likes to make others laugh. Because we'll we'll try our best to kind of either have captions or jumps in different languages because if you want to have a global global outreach, that is the way to go. But yeah, it's just everyone. As long as they can they understand that this is a human spectrum, yeah, and we're trying to keep it as versatile and diverse as possible. Uh it's yeah, it's global outreach.

Speaker 1 33:18

I I love one of the couple of aspects about this that I love so much is that you're covering a more expansive view of it as opposed to just the saying laughter is the best medicine. You know, because when I talk to people about that, it's it's a case of, you know, in actual fact, it should be humor and laughter are the best medicines, you know. And I love the fact that you're going to great lengths to make sure that the importance of humour as a construct to create the laughter is is is a real powerful bit, you know. And that's the difference between like when you see people doing laughter yoga in the park or whatever, which is a great thing. They're obviously getting all the physical benefits out of it, but the psychological benefits of using your sense of humor as a construct to create it, and that's what you're unpacking during this documentary, keeping that in there as well, I think is so important. And you're also exploring the social aspect of it, you know, why it's important to laugh with other people and the connectedness that that brings is you know, it's the three domains of health humor and laughter, you know, physical, mental health, social health. And I love the fact that you're covering all three of them.

Speaker 2 34:35

Oh, we're glad to do it, and also it's to do with the fact that so with um laugh things like your laughter yoga or watching something, you kind of need that stimulus. Um, but the thing is sometimes there may not be a stimulus for you to laugh. Like if you don't have the right show in front of you or someone to prompt the laughter, that's where you need to tap into your own sense of humor.

Speaker 3 34:57

Yeah.

Speaker 2 34:58

And kind of create it yourself. So humor generation.

Speaker 3 35:01

Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 35:02

That's that's why I thought, yeah, it's really important to have that in in the documentary as well.

Speaker 1 35:08

Yeah, well, generating humor is, you know, a big thing. It's one of the the you know, they talk about self-enhancing and affiliative humor as being the two really positive ones. And you know, I've I've read research that supports the fact that it's more beneficial to make someone laugh than to laugh yourself, you know, because of that connectedness and self-esteem and all of that sort of great stuff. You know, I'm forever saying to people, go forward and be funny.

Speaker 2 35:34

Yeah, exactly. Yeah.

Speaker 1 35:36

You know, have you as has your sense of humor been tested during the making of this documentary? Have you, you know, gone, oh, I don't know about that, you know?

Speaker 2 35:46

Like, yeah, you know what? I used to think I still think that I'm funny.

Speaker 3 35:49

Yeah.

Speaker 2 35:50

But when I met you, Kevin, David, Ross, no, I was like, I was nowhere new clothes. Like I like I said, I was trying to write the jokes, and then Kevin would you all would get it in one go rapid fire. And I'm thinking, why am I wasting my time? I'm just gonna say insert joke here or ask in a funny way, and then let you all do it. Yeah, and that's you might have seen me do that during the set. I said, okay, say it talk about this, but say this, it's make it funny.

Speaker 3 36:15

Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 36:16

And so now when I would write the question to Kevin, I'd say, insert the joke here.

unknown 36:20

Yeah.

Speaker 2 36:21

Because I'm like, why bother? Yeah, you can do it better.

Speaker 1 36:24

Yeah, if you guess you're editing enough, you know, like we've got this, we've got this.

Speaker 2 36:28

Yeah, you know. I'm not gonna embarrass myself with writing jokes. Yeah.

Speaker 1 36:33

Well, you know, it must be comedians. I think we it can be a bit hard to rein in sometimes, you know, because we just that's a like how do you I mean, how do you decide what to put in? And like obviously you've got your story arc, you know, but when you've got so much raw footage, that's what amazes me is the the power of a good edit and and and the importance of editing when you've got hours of footage,

Festivals And Getting Distribution

Speaker 1 37:05

it must be really hard to decide what to leave in and what to leave out.

Speaker 2 37:10

Exactly. Yeah, there's so much good stuff, so many good jokes, so much that I want to leave in. But I think uh because it's a comedy document series, it needs to be under 30. Well, uh that's how I've seen the format is. So what I do is I keep everything that's relevant to someone's story, yeah. So everything in your journey. For example, I would keep every all the jokes that has context and relevant to your story.

Speaker 3 37:39

Yeah.

Speaker 2 37:40

And if there's something extra, like if I've got time, like and if there's a context and a joke, I I really love the joke, but if I can include the context also within time, I leave it in. If not, I save it. I think oh maybe we can use it in extras or outtakes, or I can just give it back to you and use it. Yeah. So that's that's how I kind of um sift through everything, all the footage.

Speaker 1 38:08

Well, put them all, you know, put all the little bits and pieces together for a behind the scenes making of or something like that, you know?

Speaker 2 38:15

Yeah, yeah, that's it.

Speaker 1 38:17

Yeah, like it's it's a real process, isn't it? Making a a documentary. So for those, you know, for those listeners that because I know I don't I don't know. What's what's the process for getting documentary on like Netflix or one of those big platforms? Like it must be they must be at one point they must on one side they must be craving for material, and on the second, it must be quite hard to get in.

Speaker 2 38:45

Yeah, it's it's still like a new concept for me as well. But what I've noticed is is that we have um opportunity to submit to film festivals. So as long as it fits the right criteria, like length of jobs.

Speaker 1 39:01

So we so even as even as an episodic series, so five or six episodes, you can still submit that. So is that kind of the is that the equivalent of like the open mic scene for comedy? You've got to go and and show your wares at a at a festival, a film festival.

Speaker 2 39:19

Yeah, quite similar, yeah. So you submit it, usually it's digital, you submit it, and they there's obviously a reviewing panel, they'll have a look and they say, Are you selected or you're not selected? And the more selections you get, it generates buzz. And once that happens, either we go to either a broadcaster like the AEC or SBS.

Speaker 3 39:42

Yeah.

Speaker 2 39:42

And they would again they would agree to it if it's their code of broadcasting guidelines.

Speaker 3 39:49

Yeah.

Speaker 2 39:49

They would broadcast it. Or I think streaming platforms we c will pick up if there's enough popularity and thus generate it from right.

Speaker 1 40:00

So you can yeah, you kind of go you don't go straight to approaching Netflix with it, you go through the festival process and then try to go the free-to-wear television route, and then from there, if it gains traction, put it on a streaming service. Yeah, right. Okay.

Speaker 2 40:16

Because I know for a fact that Netflix doesn't uh accept unsolicited pictures or screens. It needs to be a good idea.

Speaker 1 40:24

Which is which is a which is a very 2026 thing to do, isn't it? Not not not uh receive unsolicited pictures, you know. I know some people at some dating apps that should uh definitely be saying I don't accept unsolid pictures.

Speaker 2 40:38

Yeah, yeah. That's yeah, that's a good line. But um, yeah, so it's like we have to know someone with the in within Netflix to pitch things. Yeah. Which is ironic because if we don't know it, but we have this, how do we get through? Yes, it's it's it's yeah.

Speaker 1 40:53

It's a chicken and egg kind of thing, isn't it?

Speaker 2 40:55

Exactly, yeah.

Speaker 1 40:56

Yeah. So what's the is there specific festivals that you've really got to target for a film like this? Like, or is it, you know, is there a documentary festival, or you pretty much just farm it out to a lot and see who who buys?

Speaker 2 41:11

Yeah, so there's criteria. So for example, uh, I think uh it needs to be a film festival that accepts series and uh accepts the duration. So for example, I think the Sydney Film Festival accepts feature length only. I could be wrong. Yeah, the last time I checked was feature length, so it would be yeah, so I have to go find the film festival that accepts series. And then they would say upload just the one episode, not the full series itself. Yeah, and then they'll review it, maybe and just look to take it through the rest of the series themselves. Yeah, I thought I I did some research early on and found there are a few comedy film festivals that we can submit globally. Yeah, I had a little exposure to it when we did one talk, which was about the body surfing culture in Australia. That was directed by Wendy, I did some camera work on it. So yeah, I did see how that process works. So she would just submit it where it fit the criteria, the film fit the criteria of the festival and got selected for a few uh surfing film festivals. So it kind of aligns it aligns with the topic that we need to film on. Yeah, yeah. So my our line would be comedy film festivals.

Speaker 1 42:33

Yeah, yeah, right. Yeah, yeah, well, so um your commitment to this project, Madave, is so inspirational. It really is. It's it's it's a credit to you. So tell us about the your recent trip to the United States and the conference that you just went to, because you know, for someone that's undertaken

The Therapeutic Humour Conference Takeaways

Speaker 1 42:55

this uh type of filmmaking, you know, genre, the commitment to go to this conference over there is pretty huge. So where were you and what were you doing over there?

Speaker 2 43:06

Yeah, so we flew to the US California and uh drove to uh San Diego, which were which is where the Association for Applied and Therapeutic Humor had their annual conference.

Speaker 1 43:22

So what's say it again, sorry?

Speaker 2 43:23

The Association for Applied and Therapeutic Humor.

Speaker 1 43:28

Applied and Therapeutic Humor. Isn't it beautiful that there's even just a thing? Like, I mean, uh I'm I'm encouraged and it gives me hope the fact that there is actually a conference called that.

Speaker 2 43:42

Yes. Yeah, exactly. And and it's very very much aligned with the documentary, the same intentions and goals. And it's it's the most unserious and the most fun conference I've ever been to.

Speaker 1 44:00

Great. So was there was there a moment at the conference that kind of stood out for you as being, well, that like, you know, it's a big thing going all the way over there for it, but like what did you what were your takeaways from it?

Speaker 2 44:12

Oh, I thought that like being there for three to four days, it it just showed how humor and laughter is kind of something that was resetting. So it's a reset for all of us. Like you travel some such a long way and you just sit there listening to all the talks and laughing with them, meeting all these new people. It kind of was like a reset.

Speaker 3 44:34

Yeah.

Speaker 2 44:34

And what some of the members there at the ATC were saying, I I really needed this. I needed this humor because I had so much going on. I didn't know what to do. I didn't know if I should even be here, I should have been with my family. But then she decided, Oh, I I needed this for me. But that was another thing. One of the speakers was saying, you need to put yourself first, like look after yourself first. Help yourself first so you can help others. And humor is such a great way to do that.

unknown 45:05

Yeah.

Speaker 1 45:06

And I'll put that I think every every mental health speaker on the planet uses the analogy of the light, the oxygen mask and the uh and the safety speech in the plane, you know, put your mask on yourself before helping others because you're no use to anyone if you're suffocating. So, you know, we hear this term duty of care, and I'm forever telling people that you've got a duty of care to yourself, first and foremost. So uh, you know, to look after yourself so it's that way if the people in your life do call on you that you you're not in a heap. You know, you've got to try and and look after yourself. Good stuff for the good stuff for the documentary though, out of the out of the conference for you personally.

Speaker 2 45:47

Yeah, absolutely, yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 1 45:49

Was there is there a guest is there a guest that you got to chat to over there that stands out? Someone that you got to that you're gonna include in the documentary, do you reckon?

Speaker 2 45:59

Oh, I'd love there were so many that I love to.

Speaker 1 46:02

Yeah.

Speaker 2 46:04

There was one called Sporty King, and he is a poet. And he is the one who said that he said, you know, put yourself you look after yourself first, put yourself first before you helping others. You would you would have been a great addition to it. You just didn't have the time or the logistics to arrange anything or even ask anything. That's how busy I was. But he would have been great. Uh there were others who agreed to that have all sorts of stories. Some of them cancer survivors, some of them who work through mental health, become clowns.

Speaker 1 46:38

Yeah, right.

Speaker 2 46:40

Yeah, and there was another attendee called Alan Klein. He he has his own documentary called The Jolitologist.

Speaker 1 46:49

Yeah, because isn't it isn't it strange that that's the name for the study of humor and laughter?

Speaker 2 46:56

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. So they use like a variation of that name. Yeah. Yeah. So much, yeah. So like we could have like at least 10 people from there.

Speaker 1 47:08

Yeah, right. Well, yeah, without putting all of that more burden on yourself. So how where are you at now? Like now that you've just come back. So um what's the uh where are you at in the timeline of you know, getting things all tucked away and all your episodes sorted and everything?

Speaker 2 47:27

So we're it's it's simultaneous filming and post-production. So whatever I filmed in the editing phase.

Speaker 3 47:34

Yeah.

Speaker 2 47:34

And there are a few more things uh session segments to film. Uh like the the actual experts talking gotta do the graphics, yeah, sounds like coloring, all that sort of thing. So yeah, it was all happening in parallel. I I'm I think estimating completion. I was hoping to get it all done by the end of this year. I I don't know. So that's what I'm trying, aiming for mid-next year.

Speaker 3 48:02

Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 48:02

I'm hoping for at least trying to look for just at least one or two more guests that we've got six episodes. Because it seems a bit too low. I've got some merge here.

Speaker 1 48:15

Uh merch, right. Okay, so this is so this for the people that are tuning in uh watching and not listening. So uh what does that say? Oh, it's are you seeing always see the funny?

Speaker 2 48:27

Yeah, and that's the seriously unsuriously unserious. Yeah, so at some point you'll get one of these.

Speaker 1 48:34

How do I get me one of those mugs? I'd like a hat. We need a little hat, seriously unserious.

Speaker 2 48:40

I should I should yeah, well, I'll I'll order one.

Speaker 1 48:43

Seriously unserious. So seriously, I seriously I'm so grateful for your time and on a I'm grateful for your time. Like, I mean, I'm so excited to be involved with this project, and it's it's really interesting. The people that I've met through meeting you, you know, and like I was interviewed, you know, I think I we spoke about this, you know, the end of last year for a lady that's doing a thesis, you know, a PhD in in comedians talking about suicide on stage and that sort of stuff, which is interesting. And there's just so many aspects to this that I I'm so excited that there's someone like yourself who's got the passion, who's clearly doing it for the right reasons, is is putting this together because it's a it's a it's an important topic. It really is the the health benefits of humor and laughter, especially now more than ever. And and I think it's in really good hands with you,

Audience Reach And Self-Generated Humour

Speaker 1 49:45

Madavi. I really do.

Speaker 2 49:46

Oh, thank you.

Speaker 1 49:47

Can't wait to see what what it ends up like. I really can't, and I'm proud to be involved with it.

Speaker 2 49:52

I really that means a lot. That that means a lot that you have so much faith in me.

Speaker 1 49:58

Yeah, well, you know, like you've you've you want to tell the you the story that you want to tell is the right story, you know, and the message that you want to get across is the right message, and and and if you know, if in three, because you you'll never know. That's the thing is when when we do our comedy or mental health presentations and that sort of stuff, I'm constantly being reminded that you never know who's in your audience, you never know what they're going through, you never know what effect what you do is going to have on their life, you know. Like all I needed, you know, if someone sees one of my presentations and then in six months' time they recognize a warning sign or something in a friend of theirs or a work colleague, and then they go, What did that guy say again about that? And it sparks them to create action or have a conversation with that person, and and you know, that's I've done my job, you know, and but you never know the reach that you'll have. And the same with this, you know, like you said, different countries, different having it produced in different languages. And if someone, you know, is sitting at home one night and they're feeling sad and despondent and lonely or whatever, and they they see one of these episodes and it brings a smile to their face and and reminds them of the fact that you know humor and laughter are so incredibly important for those three domains of your health, you know, not only the physical but psychological and social. And it you make and inspires someone to connect with, you know, people that they enjoy laughing with. Job's done. You know, you've done your job. Yeah.

Speaker 2 51:41

That's exactly what we want to do. Yeah.

Speaker 3 51:43

Yeah.

Speaker 2 51:43

And they have a variety of episodes too. So if you're not feeling great at and motivated at work, switch on Andrew's episode, you know, that's the sort of thing. So that's that diverse, vers versatile nature, you know.

Speaker 3 51:55

Yeah.

Speaker 2 51:56

And there's an episode for each of them. So I love it.

Speaker 1 51:59

I love it. So let's uh all right, let's uh, you've been so gracious with your time. I

The Feel Good Five

Speaker 1 52:05

really appreciate it. So what we are doing now is uh we're gonna wind this up with all of our guests get asked what I call the feel good five. All right, this is this is how we finish. We're finishing with the feel good five. So it's basically five questions that everybody gets asked. Your answers can be as long or as short as you like, right? It's totally up to you where we go with this, right? So uh Madavi Fernando, what is the thing that what makes you happy is number one on the list.

Speaker 2 52:37

So pretty much being out in nature, breathing fresh air. So I I live near a lake. So every morning I just go for a walk around the lake. I see different animals, um ducks.

Speaker 1 52:48

What a wonderful way to start your day.

Speaker 2 52:50

Yeah, yeah. And when it's sunshine, it's even better.

Speaker 1 52:54

Yeah.

Speaker 2 52:55

Um, I see like lots of different kinds of birds, so a heron, a dark, uh so yeah, that makes magic. And then I see the dogs walk past uh yeah, instantly lighter.

Speaker 1 53:05

So does this does, yeah. The dogs, of course, right? So does this walk, you know, is it a 20-minute walk that takes an hour and a half because you're stopping taking photos of things and shouting to people? Is it one of those walks?

Speaker 2 53:17

Yes, yes, yeah. When I did take my camera down, I would stay there for ages trying to get a third, but maybe wait for like 20 minutes until it collapses wings. Yeah. I used to do that, yeah.

Speaker 1 53:31

I've totally done that. Okay, so number two on the feel good five, we'll get there. Uh what are you grateful for today?

Speaker 2 53:38

Today I'm well, like just like most days, I'm grateful well most importantly, for you having me on, super grateful and you being in a documentary.

Speaker 1 53:48

Oh I'm very grateful to be involved.

Speaker 2 53:52

Yeah. Uh but gen just if you mean generally, um I'm just grateful that there's food in the fridge, in the pantry. My parents are close by chemists, I think always stop by.

Speaker 1 54:06

Nice.

Speaker 2 54:07

And uh yeah, I have I've got a nice warm bed.

Speaker 1 54:09

So yeah, cool. Yeah, it's a little thing sometimes, isn't it? You know, like you think to yourself, you know, like I'm grateful for all of this stuff, but then at the end of the day, roof over your head, food in the cupboard, bed to sleep in, you know, because it's you know, we're on we're so exposed to what's happening in the world with all the media and stuff. It's you know, there's a lot of people that don't have those fundamentals, you know.

Speaker 2 54:33

Yeah, and that's why I'm thinking if I've got these, maybe I should give back in some. And yeah. And that's like the main driving force of my film. It's about giving back in some way.

Speaker 1 54:46

Yeah, that's cool. I love it. I love it. Okay, so number three on the list, what are you looking forward to? What's coming up?

Speaker 2 54:55

Basically, pretty much doing the edits and making sure everything's done all polished.

Speaker 1 54:59

Yeah.

Speaker 2 54:59

Um with the film. That's pretty much what I look forward to every day. The these couple of days, these couple of months. Maybe the rest of the year, yeah.

Speaker 1 55:08

Yeah, nice. Well, I'll tell you, I've done a bit of editing and I'm just like, oh, it's all yours. Are you are you actually doing it yourself, or do you have like a partner in crime that helps you with the editing?

Speaker 2 55:20

No, I did the editing by myself, yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 1 55:24

Yeah. That's it. Yeah, well, good luck, you know. I I I acknowledge how hard a job that is because getting three hours of footage and going, okay, I'm gonna pull out 20 minutes of gold, it's just like, good luck.

Speaker 2 55:39

Yeah, it's a good skill, it's good practice.

Speaker 1 55:42

Yeah, oh yeah, and it is a skill, isn't it? No, like that's an art form in itself, is knowing, you know, it's like the the guy that what's that old saying where they go, you know, a sculptor's sculpting an elephant out of a block of rock, and they say, How do you do that? And he goes, I just chip away everything that doesn't look like an elephant.

Speaker 2 56:02

Yeah, yeah. And I've noticed that with the films as well. Like if you you can look have bad directing or bad acting, but if you have a really great editor, it can come out so well.

Speaker 3 56:17

Yeah.

Speaker 2 56:18

It's yeah. It also works the other round. Like you have the greatest actors and greatest like a really good director and really cinematic footage and sound, but your editor falls apart, drops the ball, it's not gonna come out great. Yeah, so it all stands with the editor, I would say.

Speaker 1 56:33

That's right, and we're talking real life editors here, ladies and gentlemen. We're not talking AI editors, we're talking real human, real people. That's right. Yeah, okay. So uh number four on the feel good five list is what do you what's your me time, right? When you want to switch off from the world and have a bit of a time to recalibrate, what are you doing?

Speaker 2 56:54

Watch a movie or being to watch TV. So it would be either at the cinema or at home.

Speaker 3 57:02

Yeah.

Speaker 2 57:02

Yeah, it's just on the couch. Yeah, I know it's not it doesn't sound like that's the most exciting thing to do.

Speaker 1 57:08

No, that's that's no, that's sometimes look when you when you go, go, go and you're flat out, sometimes just sitting on the couch having a bit of couch time is just bliss, absolutely blessing bliss, it's just bliss. Turn your phone off about do not disturb while I watch the last five episodes of this, like a duck, you know, because that's a thing, is it's so easy to do couch time now because you can binge watch stuff.

Speaker 2 57:33

Yes, yes, love it. Not the most held things. Uh I try and manage myself, yeah.

Speaker 1 57:39

Yeah, okay, cool. Couch time, love it. And so the last one on the Feel Good Five is what has made you laugh recently.

Speaker 2 57:49

I'll tell you, it's when I want to watch the new Michael film, the biophig uh about Michael Jackson.

Speaker 1 57:56

Okay, yeah.

Speaker 2 57:57

Yeah, there's a scene where the audience is introduced to his pet chimpanzee bubbles.

Speaker 3 58:04

Yeah.

Speaker 2 58:04

And it's the same time his family meets bubbles as well. We don't know if Michael's metal or not. Yeah. But it's that scene where you see the contrast of Michael's excitement to see bubbles.

Speaker 1 58:16

Yeah.

Speaker 2 58:16

And the family's like so shocked.

Speaker 1 58:19

Um, yeah, this is this isn't the scene where Bubbles shows up in the combi lane or something, he's getting delivered. Yeah, yeah. Yes. I feel the exact same thing because you know, it's just like he's got a little nappy on and yes.

Speaker 2 58:34

Oh, it was the best. I was sitting in the cinema chair, I'm going, this is so great, I love it. Because my reaction, Michael's reaction, is the exact same thing.

Speaker 1 58:43

Yeah, right.

Speaker 2 58:44

And and his family's reaction would be people around me um reacting to that or reacting in any of my any of my interactions with the big animals. It's not just like from that scene onwards, he goes and plays Twister with bubbles and talks to him like, oh yeah, that's my music. Uh just don't play with the potato deck, that's that's where my demos are. And I remember I can relate to it because I used to talk to Roger. That way, I used to talk to him, like, do you like what I'm wearing? Do you like this? What do you think about it?

Speaker 1 59:15

Who was Roger?

Speaker 2 59:16

My little pooch.

Speaker 1 59:20

Oh of course, Roger, yes, yes, yes.

Speaker 2 59:22

Roger, yeah, he uh sadly passed um last year. But yeah, that that was my interaction with it. And and that made me laugh because in uh such a joyful, heartwarming way because I can relate to it.

Speaker 3 59:33

Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 59:34

And people around me would look at me like like that, the same way Michael's family would look at him.

Speaker 1 59:39

Yeah.

Speaker 2 59:40

So yeah, that whole scene all the way made me laugh.

Speaker 1 59:42

Yeah, it was a great scene. Yeah, that's that I do like just something about like I challenge you. How can anyone not laugh at a little monkey in you know, doing doing yeah, in diapers, playing Twister? I mean, come on, you know, whoever thought up that is like that's funny.

Speaker 2 59:59

Yeah, and then the way the monkey, like sorry, not monkey because she fancy climbs on Jim's shoulder and he carries him like a baby.

Speaker 1 1:00:06

Yeah.

Speaker 2 1:00:07

I used to carry Roger like that, so I know all about it. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 1:00:11

Yeah.

Speaker 2 1:00:11

So we use it.

Speaker 1 1:00:12

And then later on sorry, sorry you go.

Speaker 2 1:00:15

I was gonna say later on he gets dressed up in suits, like proper t-shirts as well.

Speaker 1 1:00:20

Yeah.

Speaker 2 1:00:20

In photos you would see almost dressed like that. Yeah.

Speaker 1 1:00:24

Yeah. Hey, so what I I've I should ask you this before, but um I suppose it's you know, I'm sorry for thinking only thinking about this right now. But have what what has your family's response been to your choosing to do this documentary?

Speaker 2 1:00:39

Oh, oh they they kind of they they thought it was it was kind of new.

Speaker 1 1:00:46

Is someone are you the funny one in your family? Are you the one that drives the sense of humor? Like you you're the one that you know makes sure that family gatherings have an element of laughter to it. I can picture that being you.

Speaker 2 1:01:00

I think so. I would say out of all of them, I think funniest because like all of our families are very serious.

Speaker 3 1:01:08

Right.

Speaker 2 1:01:09

So I I'm the one that is like the most unserious, and I get told a lot, like, oh, you never take anything seriously. So that's how I know of the funnies.

Speaker 1 1:01:17

Yeah. Uh yeah, that's that's that to me is a that to me is an amazing compliment. If someone says you never take anything seriously, you go, that's right. That's right.

Speaker 2 1:01:29

Yeah. And yeah, I've been told a lot, even by friends, like, oh, you don't take it seriously, do you? So no. I refuse.

Speaker 1 1:01:38

Um that's great. That is great, it's so cool. You know, you don't take it seriously, no, no, yeah. Because there's there's so many things in life that we take seriously that we shouldn't. Obviously, there is a time and a place, right, for serious behavior. But I think what you know, one of the big things about leaning into the relationships with the people in your life that you share a sense of humor with is the biggest thing, you know. That's what I'm constantly promoting is the fact that you everyone knows who in our life we can have share a laugh with and have some fun. And you know, leaning into those relationships is so important, isn't it?

Speaker 2 1:02:16

Yeah, yeah. So, yeah. So I'm glad they turned up this way and that they're not taking things seriously.

Speaker 1 1:02:23

Don't ever change. Yeah, don't ever change. Don't be don't don't be tainted by uh spending two years making a documentary about laughter and then see at the end of it going, I never want to speak to another comedian again.

Speaker 2 1:02:38

Oh no, no, it won't I won't change. Yeah, it won't happen.

Speaker 1 1:02:41

Wonderful. Well, look, I would love to have you back when when you know you're out there peddling the wares, you've got it in the can. Is that still the term in the can when you've got it in the can?

Speaker 2 1:02:54

I don't know. Yeah, maybe yeah.

Speaker 1 1:02:57

So once you've once you've got it all, you know, signed and sealed and delivered, and you're out there, you know, pushing around the Atlanta saying, here it is, people, have a good look at it. I'd love to get you back and and see what you've what what your thoughts are on you know how it's turned out and and and where you're going with the promotion of it.

Speaker 2 1:03:16

So um Absolutely, I'd love to be back.

Speaker 1 1:03:19

Yeah, awesome.

Speaker 2 1:03:22

Press person.

Speaker 1 1:03:24

That's right, excellent. Yes, you heard it here first, ladies and gentlemen. You heard it here first. So uh so that's right. If you've you know, we should get this episode and email it to any prospective investors that uh want to invest in uh this this human life, this series serious documentary. And because I know that it's a passion project.

Speaker 2 1:03:45

Yeah, it's very much independent so far.

Speaker 1 1:03:47

Yeah, yeah. So and so kudos to you. I really admire that. I really do. So uh there you go, my friends. Madavi Fernando, thank you so much for your time today. I really appreciate you hanging out with me this afternoon and and everything that you're doing for the the humor and laughter

Final Thanks And Listener Callouts

Speaker 1 1:04:05

for therapeutic and health and all that sort of stuff. It's uh the documentary is gonna be amazing. I I've seen the bits and pieces that you've been putting together, and I'm so excited. So uh, and uh to our dear listeners, wherever it is that you are listening anywhere in the world, thank you for tuning in. As always, appreciate your time. And uh if you haven't already done so, hit the follow button, leave a comment, let us know your thoughts, or flick through the archive and and have a look at if there's any other episodes that you think you may be interested in, share them with your friends and family. So, uh Madhavi, thank you very much for hanging out this afternoon. All right, and uh, as always, as always, my friends, be kind to yourself, be kind to those around you. Talk to you soon. Cheers.

Speaker 1:04:47

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 the lumpticclinic.com.au. If you enjoyed the episode, please share and subscribe. Thanks again for listening to the Last The Clinic Podcast with your host, McConaughey.