lifestyle SUNDAY, AUGUST 17 , 2014 A person walks past the marquee of the Laugh Factory with a message in memory of actor/comedian Robin Williams in †This file photo shows comedian Marc Maron in New York. the Hollywood district of Los Angeles. — AP/AFP photos Lessons of stigmas, stereotypes in Williams’ death amie Masada, the owner of the fabled Los forming stand-up, he knew eight comics who killed did interviews with fellow comics, Maron has Angeles-based comedy club the Laugh Factory, themselves. explored the often-troubled psychology that drives Jvividly remembers a warm exchange with comic “When I find a comedian I admire, my first thing is: people to bare themselves before crowds night after Richard Jeni of the two sharing words of encourage- What’s wrong with this person?” Norton says. “Guys night, feeding off the laughter. ment and gentle ribbing. “The next day I heard he put that I’ve admired the most always had that cloud. And Maron’s conversation with Williams from 2010 is a gun in his mouth and blew his head off,” recalled it wasn’t a purposeful or a pseudo-artist thing. It was a one of his most naked interviews. In it, Williams called Masada of Jeni’s 2007 suicide. “At that point I said, real thing that they were constantly combating. It was stand-up “the one salvation” and commented: “How ‘God, could I do something to somehow prevent kind of a way to keep sadness or depression off of insecure are we, how desperately insecure that (it) that?’” A few years later, having watched his “family” you, to be funny.” Particularly since the likes of Lenny made us do this for a living?” He even riffed on his sui- continuously depleted, Masada did do something. He Bruce and Richard Pryor made stand-up into a more cidal urges, doing a two-man routine between him- began having a psychologist at the club several personal kind of truth-telling, many comedians have self and his consciousness. Replaying the episode this nights a week, offering stand-ups the opportunity for been drawn to the profession as a means for catharsis. week, Maron reflected: “He was a person with his own free sessions. Comedian Tig Notaro pushed stand-up perhaps fur- problems that he carried with him. And I think part of Robin Williams, a frequent Laugh Factory per- ther in this direction than ever before in a famous set his genius came from the struggle with those prob- former who committed suicide Monday, marked only in 2012. Days after being diagnosed with breast can- lems.” the latest comic genius to be plagued by demons of cer, she hit the stage: “Hello. I have cancer. How are Studies have shown a correlation between creative depression and addiction. But seldom has the gulf you?” minds and such problems. Nancy Andreasen, a lead- between the bright buoyancy of the performer and ing neuroscientist and psychologist, co-wrote the first the inner pain of the man seemed greater or more Feeding off the laughter empirical study that proved the increased likelihood unfathomable. How did someone who suffered such Nowhere has the intersection between comedy of mood disorder in creative people. “There really is demons summon such starbursts of generosity and and psychological pain been more thoroughly no question that there’s a statistical correlation of glee? plumbed than on Marc Maron’s podcast, which Maron mental illness in highly creative people,” said Like countless others this week, Conan O’Brien began after he had suicidal thoughts. In lengthy, can- Andreasen, who chairs psychiatry at the University of remembered Williams’ great capacity for thoughtful- Iowa. She stressed, though, that mental illness is usu- ness and kindness. When O’Brien was feeling down ally treatable - “It’s not a lifetime sentence,” she said - during the “Tonight Show” debacle, a bike arrived out and that treatment “does not diminish their creativity.” of the blue from Williams, outfitted for maximum particularly vocal about his own struggles with ridiculousness. Said O’Brien: “It’s particularly coura- Think outside the box depression with the hope of helping others. geous for someone to be that generous of spirit in the “The great misfortune is that mental illness is still Following Williams’ death, he posted a picture of him- face of that kind of depression.” so stigmatized,” said Andreasen, lamenting the lack of self taken after an earlier day spent crying in bed, care for the mentally ill. “This probably could have labeling it: “This is the face of my mental illness.” Warm during darkest moments been prevented, and it’s a terrible misfortune that it “All kinds of people get depressed - comedians Such tales don’t make it any easier to reconcile wasn’t.” A recent study published in the British Journal just happen to be people that professionally deal with Williams’ life with his sad fate. The magnitude of the of Psychiatry found that comedians are both highly the manipulation of happiness, laughter and other shock over Williams’ death has been matched only by extroverted and highly introverted and that they even positive emotions, so maybe it stands out more or the outpouring of grief for his loss. “I’ll never, ever show lower levels of traits associated with psychosis. gets more pronounced,” Gethard said. Perhaps understand how he could be loved so deeply and not “Humor often requires the ability to ‘think outside Williams’ death shouldn’t just be added to the sad list find it in his heart to stay,” said his 25-year-old daugh- the box’ or see unusual connections where others of comics who died too young, like John Belushi or ter, Zelda Williams. “He was always warm, even in his don’t, and this reflects, in a more muted form, the Chris Farley, but should be taken as a lesson by the darkest moments.” Williams’ publicist has said he had thought process and pattern seen in psychosis,” rest of us, the ones in the audience below the floor recently fought severe depression. Williams himself Victoria Ando said in an email. But depression also lights, that we should listen just as keenly to Williams had occasionally spoken about his struggles (“Do I get doesn’t care what you do for a living. It can strike any- in death as we did to him from the stage. “It is our sad? Oh yeah. Does it hit me hard? Oh yeah,” he told one, any time, regardless of success, income or fame. hope in the wake of Robin’s tragic passing that others Terry Gross in 2006) and funneled his fights with alco- In “The Noonday Demon,” an award-winning, multi- will find the strength to seek the care and support holism and addiction into his act. He largely won his disciplinarian “atlas” of depression, author Andrew they need to treat whatever battles they are facing,” battles with substance abuse except for several Solomon wrote that his own depression hit hardest said Schneider, Williams’ widow, “so they may feel less relapses quickly followed by rehab, including a stint at when his life was most in order: “All the excuses for afraid.” — AP Hazelden in Minnesota last month. His widow, Susan despair had been used up,” he wrote. Schneider, added Thursday that Williams also was suf- Solomon says he hopes Williams’ tragic end serves fering from the early stages of Parkinson’s disease. as a “wake-up call.” “We have to recognize that if you Those factors - along with his heart surgery several have depression and enormous wealth and success, years ago - offer a slightly deeper understanding of the love of most of the people in America - you can Williams’ mental state in recent days and weeks. But have all of those things and still be subject to the rav- his death also reinforces the long-held stereotype of ages of depression,” Solomon said. “The tragedy is the sad clown, the tortured funnyman. Comedian Jim Messages, flowers and candles displayed at a that he didn’t have any place to turn.” Norton responded to Williams’ death with an essay makeshift memorial, for actor Robin Williams in titled “Why the Funniest People Are Sometimes the San Francisco, outside a home which was used in Positive emotions Saddest” in which he noted that in his 25 years of per- the filming of the movie “Mrs Doubtfire.” Improv and sketch comic Chris Gethard has been Laughing matter: ‘Patch Adams’ brings humor therapy ubbling with optimism and energy, the friend Williams, who played the role of Adams in US physician who was the inspiration for the 1998 movie that bore his name. Williams Bthe Robin Williams film “Patch Adams” will died Monday of an apparent suicide at his home do anything to elicit a soothing laugh. Even in California. But on Facebook, writing from the something as bawdy as flatulence is not out of Peruvian jungle where he was holding a work- bounds for Hunter Adams. He addressed that shop with local groups, Adams said he was earthy issue this week during a visit to Peruvian deeply saddened. children with cancer and brought the house “The terrible news of the passing of Robin down. Adams works on the premise that humor Williams reached me here in the Peruvian and clowning around is good for sick people. Amazon late last night with tremendous sad- During a recent visit to a hospital for cancer ness,” Adams wrote. Williams helped make patients, the 69-year-old doctor told stories of “humor therapy” known around the world with sick people who learned to be happy through the film.