Stay ConnectedDeath is Hilarious is a podcast that talks about grief in a humorous, realistic, and death positive way with comedians and professionals in the grief space.
Tawny Platis, founder of Death is Hilarious Grief Relief Foundation and comedy content creator, started the podcast after her husband, George, passed away in November of 2019. They had a comedy podcast together called The Dirty Bits, which can still be found on this feed.
Watch the show live on Instagram @thatdeathpod
Today my guest is Shohana Sharmin, a Bangladeshi-Canadian comedian, writer, theatre artist, and host of the podcast, “Finders Grievers.” Shohana is also the creator and a cast member of the critically acclaimed award-winning dark sketch comedy revue "Dead Parents Society."
Shohana lost her mom four years ago when she was just in her 20s and stopped by to talk with me about
-feeling like other comedians who had lost their parents in their 20s were the ones who understood her (as opposed to peers her own age)
- toxic positivity and being conditioned to be only happy, accepting sadness in order to avoid isolation
- how weird it is needing to go to the mall right after someone dies (can relate)
- the process behind writing sketches about death and grieving
- needing to be in an ok place so your audience isn’t concerned for you
- how comedy is not a replacement for therapy
- how we laugh the hardest at things we relate to
- how therapists always schedule sessions for Tuesday
- why we’re self-deprecating as comedians (it’s not because we’re confident)
- recognizing being lucky on the spectrum of support during loss
- and how universal death is (at some point, someone you love will die)
For more information about Death Is Hilarious, visit deathishilarious.com To get in touch, email deathishilarious@gmail.com. You can support the podcast by subscribing, becoming a patron at patreon.com/deathishilarious, or by simply sharing the show with your friends and on social media.
In this episode, I spoke with Lori Zaspel, a licensed social worker and co-founder of the Philly Death Doula Collective, which provides emotional, spiritual, and physical support at the end of life. Lori also works as a geriatric social worker, is studying EMDR, and creates really funny videos surrounding grief on TikTok under the handle @phillydeathdoula.
We talked about what drew Lori to taking an academic approach to grief, how she happily talks about the three societal taboos (death, sex, and money) with humor, why shaming and stigmatizing grievers is harmful, how grieving people are going to be shamed regardless of how they choose to cope and the only way to really win is to keep existing, how people judgements because of their own death anxiety, ghosting grievers, why we're told that it’s culturally inappropriate to talk about death and grief (partially because of the lack of control we have as humans), terror management theory (the higher your death anxiety the more likely you are to be conservative), being able to mark one’s grief process by the type of jokes one is making, funny grief stories about having a funeral for a kitten, and having the forethought to make a cast of your partner’s member before they die.
For more information about Death Is Hilarious, visit deathishilarious.com To get in touch, email deathishilarious@gmail.com. You can support the podcast by subscribing, becoming a patron at patreon.com/deathishilarious, or by simply sharing the show with your friends and on social media.
In this episode, I sat down with comedian JC Coccoli, who you may recognize from shows like “A Comedian in Grief,” “Why” with Hannibal Buress, “Key and Peele,” “Chelsea Lately,” and “Last Comic Standing” to talk about
- losing her sister to an accidental fentanyl overdose at 34 years old while she was on tour and how difficult it was to write jokes
- how this was her first real brush with mortality and delving into meditation and sci-fi
- suffering from poor health during grief and how much luck has to do with survival
- what led her to create the special “A Comedian in Grief"
- why the stigma around comedians being unwell isn’t necessarily true and how comedians are philosophers in their own right
- how comedy helps us process the pain and the anger that comes along with grief
- taking opposite action
- the abandonment and secondary losses we experience from those who can’t handle our grief
- loving addicts without judgement
- driving around with Dan Levy (creator of Schitt’s Creek), listening to Sia and how he was there for her
- finding comfort in spirituality, living in the moment, and why we don’t talk about loss and grief.
JC will be performing at Kingfly in Pittsburgh PA at 8:00 pm June 11
For more information about Death Is Hilarious, visit deathishilarious.com To get in touch, email deathishilarious@gmail.com. You can support the podcast by subscribing, becoming a patron at patreon.com/deathishilarious, or by simply sharing the show with your friends and on social media.
In this episode, I spoke with Gracelyn Bateman, one half of Luna Peak, a foundation focused on creating books and products that elevate the stories of survivors in the grief and cancer communities, celebrate life, and give back.
Gracelyn can also be seen on the foundation’s Instagram account, Snapshots of Life After Loss, which showcases authentic and often humorous grief perspectives.
We chatted about the 5 year anniversary of when Gracelyn suddenly lost her dad, how she’s using her masters degree in sociology from Columbia to study the grief process, her professional opinion on using dark humor to cope, Luna Peak’s “The Grief Workbook” (a silly way to unpack your grief, reflective prompts funeral week bingo, loss word puzzle, and word search for condolences), how nerve wracking it was to step into the grief space, what it was like posting funny memes about grief on Instagram, the importance of representation and multiculturalism in grieving spaces, why we need to share our grief to open the door to broader conversations about coping mechanisms, how often grievers are silenced for laughing, surrounding yourself with people who understand, and the awkwardness of telling the cashier at REI your dad is dead.
For more information about Death Is Hilarious, visit deathishilarious.com To get in touch, email deathishilarious@gmail.com. You can support the podcast by subscribing, becoming a patron at patreon.com/deathishilarious, or by simply sharing the show with your friends and on social media.
*If you're new to the show, this is a great place to start! *
I’ve been creating the podcast Death Is Hilarious for a year now. If you’re new to the podcast, It’s a show that explores how we as comedians and creatives use comedy and dark humor to cope with grief through storytelling and jokes. In some episodes, I interview other artists and entertainers - and in other episodes, my creative collaborator, Sam Peterson and I, read each other funny letters we’ve written about trauma and loss in what I call “comedy routines masquerading as correspondence.” All together, I’ve produced over 100 podcast episodes to date. So in honor of all of this and many other milestones I mention in the show, I’d like to share with you some of my favorite moments from the past 35 episodes that have given me hope, perspective, and laughter.
This episode features Michael Drane (professor at Antioch University and host of Unpopular Culture Podcast), stand-up comedians Glen Tickle ("Good Grief") and Rich Kiamco (Bravo’s "Queer Eye For The Straight Guy," Netflix/Buzzfeed’s “Follow This,” and the Broadway Comedy Club), Actress and author Reagan J. Pasternak (HBO’s “Sharp Objects”, Syfy's “Wynonna Earp,” Netflix/HULU/HBO’s “Being Erica”, BET’s “Ms. Pat," and "Griffin's Heart: Mourning Your Pet With No Apologies - A Memoir, Healing Journal, and Keepsake"), Shyni (Lipstick Laundry Podcast), and Lisa Keefauver (MSW and host of the podcast "Grief is a Sneaky B!tch").
For more information about Death Is Hilarious, visit deathishilarious.com To get in touch, email deathishilarious@gmail.com. You can support the podcast by subscribing, becoming a patron at patreon.com/deathishilarious, or by simply sharing the show with your friends and on social media.
In this episode, I had the pleasure of speaking with Jordon Ferber, stand-up comedian from New York who has performed at Carolines, the Gotham Comedy club, Madison Square Garden, and on NBC’s Last Comic Standing. He’s also the creator of the podcast “Where’s The Grief?” where he interviews other comedians and creatives about the tragic losses they’ve experienced. Jordon and I talked about how he coped as a comedian when his brother passed away in a car accident at the age of 21, his work facilitating a siblings group with the Manhattan chapter of Compassionate Friends, what kind of cake his brother would have wanted at his funeral, and the kind of people who make jokes when grieving.
For more information about Death Is Hilarious, visit deathishilarious.com To get in touch, email deathishilarious@gmail.com. You can support the podcast by subscribing, becoming a patron at patreon.com/deathishilarious, or by simply sharing the show with your friends and on social media.
Today my guest is Chris Calogero, a standup comedian from New Jersey who lives in Brooklyn and has been featured in the “NY Times,” “Funny or Die,” “Paste Magazine,” and “Good Morning America Day.” Chris is also the host of the podcast “Mourning Coffee,” where he interviews other comedians about their experiences with grief—how it affects their personal lives as well as their comedy.
We talk about Chris’ initial reaction of “I don’t know if I can ever do comedy again,” to doing a set with dark and heavy punchlines and discovering that stand-up just might be the way he is able to make his way through the grief, how comedians aren’t well, how the impulse to do comedy seems hard to break unless you decide to become embittered and entitled by it, needing the audience to know that you’re ok and won’t break down on stage, why we share about our grief publicly, how lonely grief makes you feel, toxic positivity, how getting laughs on stage is validating where relatability is concerned, then conversely when relatability doesn’t matter when it comes to quality, how we’re watching many of our fellow millennials turn into angry old boomers who hate the younger generation, how comedians dig in their heels when it comes to change, how 28 might as well be as old as 70, the intoxicating feeling of superiority, our favorite grief jokes, and how people think you aren’t allowed to experience joy while grieving.
For more information about Death Is Hilarious, visit deathishilarious.com To get in touch, email deathishilarious@gmail.com. You can support the podcast by subscribing, becoming a patron at patreon.com/deathishilarious, or by simply sharing the show with your friends and on social media.
In this episode, I had the absolute privilege of speaking with Glen Tickle, standup comedian, writer, husband, father, and the creator of one of my favorite specials of all time, “Good Grief.”
We talked about what it’s like being in comedy while faced with loss, writing jokes about grief because it’s the only thing you want to talk about, learning how to play to the audience, Buckaroo Banzai, how 100 people can be in a room and if 99 are having a good time but 1 person isn’t, that’s the person a performer will focus on, how being unable to stop making jokes about uncomfortable topics isn’t new, when making jokes about tragedies doesn't go over well (like Gilbert Gottfried), how comedians can make jokes about their personal tragedies but not other people’s tragedies (like Tig Notaro), the incredibly dumb things people say to those in grief, how you should only say “let me know if you need anything at all” if you really mean it, how your kids prepare you for hecklers, how surprised Glen was to find others who used humor to cope, and how therapy is just a place to have your material reviewed.
For more information about Death Is Hilarious, visit deathishilarious.com To get in touch, email deathishilarious@gmail.com. You can support the podcast by subscribing, becoming a patron at patreon.com/deathishilarious, or by simply sharing the show with your friends and on social media.
*Note: We had a little trouble connecting midway through the episode so you’ll notice a slight change in the audio at about the 15-minute mark. That’s showbiz, baby! *
In this episode, I (Tawny) chat with actress Reagan J. Pasternak (HBO’s “Sharp Objects”, Syfy's “Wynonna Earp,” Netflix/HULU/HBO’s “Being Erica”, BET’s “Ms. Pat”) and author of "Griffin's Heart: Mourning Your Pet With No Apologies - A Memoir, Healing Journal, and Keepsake."
As a widow and someone who is also co-dependent with their fur baby, I really appreciate what Reagan has done with her book!
Reagan and I chat about how animal grief is often trivialized (disenfranchised grief), the way love and loss is a mirror that reflects where you are, what inspired her to take this unique interactive approach to helping others memorialize and cope with the loss of their pet, how definitive death is, cognitive therapy and rewiring your thinking on grief, Reagan laughing uncontrollably at her mom’s funeral, controlling her potty mouth while writing her book, being a huge empath, the beautiful part of darkness, how trauma makes you funny, the shame associated with talking about grief and trauma, trying to balance authenticity and being an open book while taking others into consideration, being an entertainer and artist in grief, the tricky side of feeling exploitative, and we swap some of our funniest stories related to our traumas.
For more information about Death Is Hilarious, visit deathishilarious.com To get in touch, email deathishilarious@gmail.com. You can support the podcast by subscribing, becoming a patron at patreon.com/deathishilarious, or by simply sharing the show with your friends and on social media.
Today my guest is stand-up comedian Rich Kiamco who you may recognize from Bravo’s Queer Eye For The Straight Guy, Netflix in the Buzzfeed’s “Follow This,” and the Broadway Comedy Club, just to name a few things from his impressive resume. Rich’s partner Sandy Gunar was diagnosed with covid on February 7th 2021 and passed away on March 16th, just 19 days ago from when we chatted.
We chatted about being afraid to fall in love with someone who might die in the future, being codependent with your partner, dating as a gay man before grindr on Edwina (“I’m ancient!”), having enough self-love and self-loathing to eat well, Dolph Lundgren (the Soviet boxer from Rocky), how Rich met Sandy (several times!) before they finally got together, how rebounding is like being on the Titanic, how past traumas prime you for widowhood, blaming yourself for your partner’s death, being descended from trauma survivors (Rich’s parents lived in the Philippines during the Japanese occupation during World War II), PTSD infused gratitude, incorporating grief into your comedy, using wit for self-preservation (particularly as a gay kid in high school), and doing comedy on zoom during covid.For more information about Death Is Hilarious, visit deathishilarious.com To get in touch, email deathishilarious@gmail.com. You can support the podcast by subscribing, becoming a patron at patreon.com/deathishilarious, or by simply sharing the show with your friends and on social media.
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