As Michael Shafar was being wheeled into the operating theatre, he saw what resembled a butcher’s kitchen.
Machetes and large scissors had lined up on a bench beside him, cleaned and ready for use – or else that’s how it looked.
But don’t be alarmed – Shafar wasn’t.
“Maybe put that behind a curtain until I’m under,” he joked.
As Shafar lay on an operating bed about to undergo an 11-hour surgery, he looked to his left and was confronted with some 40 neatly assembled surgical instruments.
“I just thought it was funny that they’d lined up all the knives.”
“You guys need that many knives for this? Alright,” laughed Shafar.
Being able to make light of his testicular cancer diagnosis gave the Melbourne comedian strength to endure chemotherapy over 24 weeks, as well as five operations, one of which left him in ICU for two days.
“If you can laugh at something, it can’t be that dangerous to you,” he said.
Shafar was given a 50/50 chance of survival – he had 100 tumours in his chest alone and the cancer had spread to his lymph nodes.
“I don’t know how I would’ve handled the process if I wasn’t doing comedy about it. I think it would have been a lot harder,” he said.
Last year Shafar chronicled his cancer diagnosis and treatment in a stand-up show at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, saying it helped him process the hardships he was facing.
Plus, “it was the only thing I could talk about because it was the only life experience I was having at the time”, he said.
Now in remission, Shafar has a new show called Getting Better which will premiere at the festival between March 26 and April 19.
“My whole theory was if I’m going to die from this at least I’m going to die laughing at it rather than scared and depressed about it.”
Death isn’t funny but that doesn’t mean you can’t laugh
Not only did laughter help Shafar cope with cancer but it got Heather Joy Campbell through the grieving process.
Losing two immediate family members in the past 12 months was no laughing matter, Ms Campbell said, but had she not forced herself to laugh she would have fallen “into an absolute heap”.
The journalist-turned-laughter yoga instructor goes into workplaces, retirement homes and other group environments to teach people to laugh when there is nothing to laugh at.
In times of loss, Ms Campbell has been able to stop herself from “falling into a very, very dark hole” by laughing when feelings of sadness start to overwhelm her.
“This is an exercise no different from doing a bicep curl. It’s not about something funny, it’s not because I’m particularly happy at this moment. I’m just doing an exercise.”
She may take her clients through deep breathing techniques and as they exhale, encourage them to start laughing. She might also ask them to shake hands with other people, and instead of saying hello, just laugh.
The brain can’t differentiate between real and fake laughter, Ms Campbell said, and allows feel-good hormones such as dopamine and endorphins to be released.
Not only that, but research shows laughter can strengthen your immune system, improve blood vessel function, allow you to sleep better, reduce pain thresholds, lower blood pressure and help people with Type 2 Diabetes lower their blood glucose levels.
“A little baby will gurgle and that’s a laugh, and it feels good to do that,” Ms Campbell said.
“It’s only as we grow up that we tend to put laughter and fun or humour in the same sentence and think that we have to laugh only when times are good, things are funny and something’s humorous and often times we leave laughter to chance.”
