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Written by John Gupta
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Thursday, 09 June 2005 |
Recently, John Gupta was featured in a Prime Time Programme of the
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). His laughter workshops were
also covered in a Leading Editorial of the Montreal Gazette.
Below are some excerpts from a CBC article about John Gupta.
Click here to read the full article (.pdf file). Click here for an
article about John Gupta's appearance on CTV.
Club gets your ha-ha's out, by: Bill Brownstein -- Excerpts
Since last fall, he [John Gupta] has been conducting laughter workshops
at the downtown Gilda's Club. And this would no doubt have tickled
Gilda Radner, the woman for whom this club - and the many others around
the world - is named.
The Laughter Club he heads here is part of a fast-mushrooming
international organization that was started in India eight years ago.
Initially, Laughter Club leaders had tried to assume the role of
stand-up comedians, but results were decidedly uneven and often the
joke was on the would-be wit.
"Instead of trying to be funny and failing miserably at it, we decided
to simulate laughter to stimulate laughter," Gupta explained before
beginning his workshop at Gilda's yesterday. "To make people laugh for
no reason."
To the uninitiated, the atmosphere might seem strangely surreal with
gusts to a method-acting class and the Twilight Zone. Gupta doesn't
care how silly or simplistic it might look; it's the bottom-line
benefits that matter most.
If it appears like they're going through an elaborate workout, it's no
accident. "This sort of laughing is like inner jogging," Gupta
explained. "You fake it until you make it. But it works."
Gupta is dead-serious when he asserts that laughter can save the world.
And there are hundreds of like-minded souls around the world trying to
spread the message.
"Our goal is peace through laughter and love."
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