The Tears of a Clown: Comedians and Depression

By Merely Me Monday, June 08, 2009

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Man goes to doctor. Says he's depressed. Says life seems harsh and cruel. Says he feels all alone in a threatening world, where what lies ahead is vague and uncertain. Doctor says the treatment is simple. The great clown Terrifini is in town tonight. Go and see him. That should pick you up. Man bursts into tears: "But doctor . . . I am Terrifini."

When I think of some of the greatest comedians in the world I also tend to think of mood disorders including depression and Bipolar Disorder. It seems that if you peer behind the laughter and smiles you are most likely going to find someone who has faced many challenges in their life. Comedy is one way for a person to cope with these challenges. Not every comedian is depressed but there does seem to be more mood disorders associated with this population than not.

I am not alone in my theory. In a fascinating interview with Dr. Amy Alpine who is both a psychotherapist and a comedian, she postulates that both depression and Bipolar Disorder are common among comedians. Doctor Alpine reports that some comedians who have Bipolar Disorder do not wish to be treated because they don't want their manic episodes to go away. You could see the fuel behind the fire of comedians such as Jonathon Winters, Ben Stiller, and Robin Williams who all reportedly have this disorder.

The frenetic energy we have come to associate with many comedians is but one side of the coin. What may surprise fans is to discover when their favorite comic falls into a deep depression. It seems incongruous with the person we see on stage. John Belushi and Chris Farley are just two examples of comedians who died from falling too deep into the well. Coincidentally both comedians died from doing speedballs, a combined injection of heroin and cocaine. And in 2007 actor and funny man Owen Wilson attempted suicide by slitting his wrists. Thankfully he survived. Fans were astonished because Wilson's actions did not match the lighthearted public persona we thought we knew.

It does appear that depression can wear many masks.

In many ways, though, comedy is used for survival. One of the greatest examples of this is one of my favorite comedians, the late Richard Pryor. Pryor was born the son of a prostitute who abandoned him at the age of ten. After his mother left him he went to live in his grandmother's brothel. He was also sexually molested at the age of six by a teenage neighbor and then later by a neighborhood priest. Richard Pryor distracted himself from the horrors of his life by watching movies. He wanted to be in entertainment and found his niche in comedy where his life provided much material for his routines.

Pryor's personal demons continued to follow him despite his success and in the early 80's we almost lost him due to a fiery explosion caused by the ignition of ether being used in conjunction with cocaine. He survived only to be diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis in later years. In 2005 Pryor died of a heart attack at the age of 65. I could be wrong about this but I feel that Richard Pryor survived as long as he did because of his comedy. I feel it gave him purpose to keep going against all the seemingly insurmountable challenges in his life.

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Comments (16) | Add comment

jpw2008

6/ 8/09 12:36pm

hello

It's a variation on grimaldi the comic.

But to the point it is essential correct.

Sometimes the comedians can't even make themselves laugh, or if they do it's out of spite.

Hello, I wonder if I'm home

Hello, immigration the puerto ricans have knocked on your door by mistake and they don't want to go home.

I wonder what life was meant to be like.

Thanks for your observations

Merely Me

6/ 8/09 3:43pm

Hello jpw

happy monday.

psychoward1

6/ 8/09 10:35pm

Ok, So my wife goes to the doctor.

Doctor says whats the problem?

Wife says, I believe I have cancer!

Cancer says the doctor, well you need a divorce lawyer then....

I brought my dog to the groomer the other day.

The lady says, Ok put your dog in that tub over there and you get in the one next to it.

Good Story!

Pat

Ricovring

6/19/09 11:36am

Jpw, great jokes.

I have a couple: I baked and frosted a chocolate cake yesterday, and I saved a few

pieces for today.

I am usually wide awake by five PM, then I roll over and go back to sleep.

You know who your best friend should be? Yourself!

Anonymous

6/19/09 8:20pm

great reply

Its one of the only ones i've got

Jpw

Judy

6/ 8/09 11:36pm

I think humor has saved my life. I seem to like twisted, dark humor and get bored with ha-ha, slapstick stuff. I don't even know where I got it from, maybe it was from my great-aunts who used to get together (with my grandmother) and tell naughty jokes and laugh their heads off and I got to be with them quite a few times. So, I am thankful for that, it got me through my childhood and other challenging times in my life. Some days I think it's disappeared, but then, every once in a while, something will hit me. I survived the worst years of my job by thinking about how, if it hadn't already been done, I would have written the Dilbert cartoons. Yes, it's a mask, but it's also a coping mechanism and one could do worse. I think it's true that it can keep people at a distance, though, and I know I've used it when having to deal with angry people, which is about the last thing I want to be doing. I grew up with so much of it and I just wanted to escape. At least I didn't do drugs - humor is at least socially acceptable!

Devin

1/ 7/10 7:15pm

Wow Judy, I can totally relate to your story. In a weird way, it makes me feel better about my own situation. I too have used humor (sometimes dark) to keep my head just slightly above water. But it does get harder as I get older...and perhaps more cynical.

Mac

12/11/10 10:15pm

Yeah, I even use humor to keep my shrink from being bored. He tells me I am his favorite patient--just like Ellen DeGeneres or Erma Bombeck. He looks forward to the comedy hour I provide and hide behind. I also can snow shrinks and myself with psychobabble bullshit because I hold a Masters Degree in this field. It takes crazy to know crazy, I always say. And like most true comics, I get way carried away on my own bullshit.

I also think high intelligence is also correlated with humor. Someone who is really funny has also likely got very good observational skills of people around him or her. A case in point, the fine example in this blog of Bernie Mac as a young child watching his mother weep. But we comics observe ourselves too and find so many things lacking.

I use self-depreciating humor which everyone finds hilarious. I am always the most popular nut during my in-patient hospitalizations. I try to watch my tendency to get "pointed" with others in my comments--which then may be cruel and not funny--something done to me hurtfully time and time again throughout most of my 55 year life. For instance, I told a friend who hurt me time and time again, this in exasperation: Kathy, maybe your husband might talk to you some if you quit constantly criticizing him when he's try to help you (with big things such as the entire Thanksgiving Feast for 8 people). I know that Sam loves your profile with your lips CLOSED! Everyone laughed and fortunately Katie grew up with four brothers and laughed too, but I was deffinitely being retaliatory, as she criticizes me for things that I am sensitive about such as extreme nervousness (You are such a spazz!), way too skinny (I can see your veins in your arms and your arms are so bony--you better wear long sleeves!). A saint I try to be, but most definitely, I am not-- just someone who uses humor to get by after a terrible life in an unkind and lonely world that is funny it its cruel absurdity.

LyraStorm

6/ 9/09 2:41am

Although I have a very picky sense of humour (you'd be surprised how many things my family find amusing that I go 'okay...' at) I do agree with what you said. I think most comedians have learnt how to funny as a coping mechanism. And I have gotten myself through many tough times by watching things I find amusing (like the American version of 'Whose Line Is It Anyway?' and the Australian version of 'Thank God You're Here' - I love the improv shows!).

It's not my only technique but it is certainly a very useful tool to have on your belt, so to speak. Go the comedy!

mswmommy

6/11/09 4:43pm

Jim Carrey's statement that he decided anti-depressants were not for him and he needed to process his feelings, is quite fine for him. My caution to others is that in deep clinical depression it is not enough to process feelings, and medications can be a life-saving first step in altering a chemical imbalance - pills AND skills are what is needed. I worry that some people might think they are inadequate if processing feelings is not actually lifting their depression, and wanted to affirm that for many medication is a necessary part of treating this medical illness.

d.stefano

6/11/09 8:59pm

When I go through a serious, disabling depressive episode, the heaviness and sadness in my gut is intolerable and simply paralyzing.

By the vivid nightmares I have where I'm so antagonized I wake myself by yelling at the players because they 'just won't listen, or hear me', I have a very good picture of the traumas that have slammed me one after another in my life.

When I'm just feeling 'regular' sad and teary, once I am finally 'out' someplace, I never show that sadness. I talk too much, everything has a double meaning, nothing but puns and jokes.

When I tell someone I just can't do something or go someplace, they think I'm just lazy, that all I have to do is get up and get dressed and go because I'm just so jolly all the time. I can't begin to count the times I've sat all dressed in a chair and not being able to get up and open the door. I always end up laying down and falling asleep. People have no idea how we really are, and how good we are at only taking our 'happy face' out in public.

Nothing seems to alleviate this serious depression with it's pain and symptoms. I've been taking a combo cocktail (one of many) and it just wasn't working. So I decided to detox myself (I'm doing this now) and then try to find a new psychiatrist to try and better evaluate my condition and start fresh with meds and other therapies if they are available. I can't ever tell my county psych how I figure out almost every day how I'm going to kill myself because I'll get put in a hospital where nothing but more trauma happens.

I just wish people could know that this thing is for real. I'm not 'crazy', intellectually I'm just fine. When I want to die, I find a way to make myself sleep so I won't die because I know there has to be 'something else to try' to get better, or at least to make my life 'feel' better some of the time.

Maybe Carrey's 'lows' aren't THAT low, because if they were, he wouldn't be able to work or do anything and it would interfere with his work. There are times when depression is literally disabling.

I wish people could understand that bi-polar and depression are REAL. For a bit they will 'act' like they believe you, but they don't really and they just don't have the patience to be around much. I had a long time friend say she doesn't talk to me anymore because I talk too much (I really needed the blatant rejection), but when I'm UP, that's just how it is.

I sympathize with all sufferers. As if the condition isn't bad enough, the things people will say because they don't really believe us is just one more shot in the heart.

d.stefano

6/11/09 9:01pm

Sorry, have no idea why that font got huge for the second half of my post.

mswmommy

6/12/09 12:18pm

I agree with you that many don't understand that their idea of depression is not at all the experience of someone with a truly disabling depression. The word is overused so the impact of what it can really mean is lost. I'm glad we are able to talk about this here.

Ricovring

6/19/09 11:41am

Yes, I'm sure many people still think depression is just the blues.

Merely Me

6/19/09 11:49am

Hi there!

Wanted to say hello to both of you...I had missed these comments until today darn it!

I absolutely agree with what you two are saying and I applaud you for saying it. Yes...sometimes medication is necessary. Depression is on a spectrum. Everyone is different in how mood disorders can manifest. But there is a strong biological component to this. And this aspect needs to be addressed. I feel this component is stronger for some than for others.

I always want to give a balanced view of things here on this site and if I don't...I absolutely want you...the reader...to call me on it. I want everyone to have their say and to speak the truth of their experience.

So thank you both! Please keep sharing your insights here. You are much appreciated.

booberry

5/26/12 12:13am

Touching. The line from Hamlet especially.

The Tears of a Clown: Comedians and Depression

Maybe Carrey's 'lows' aren't THAT low, because if they were, he wouldn't be able to work or do anything and it would interfere with his work. There are times when depression is literally disabling.

I sympathize with all sufferers. As if the condition isn't bad enough, the things people will say because they don't really believe us is just one more shot in the heart.

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