Janelle James Discovers She’s a Comedian and Not a Gardener

The Hilarious World of Depression

American Public Media

Comedy, Comedy Interviews

4.8 • 4.4K Ratings

🗓️ 18 December 2017

⏱️ 43 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

New York comic Janelle James never even imagined being a comedian. She had grown up in the Virgin Islands, worked in fashion PR, had two kids, and was living in Illinois when she first walked on stage at an open mic night. She was 30 years old. But as soon as she hit the stage, she knew this was her calling and many years later she's headlining clubs all over the country and is a comedy star on the rise. She talks about trying to outrun her depression, dealing with depression-induced physical pain, and a therapy session that did not work out. Special guest: neuroscientist Daniel Levitin.

Transcript

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0:00.0	I'm Cameron Espazito and I have a lot of jobs. I'm an actor. You've seen me on ABC's and a million little things.
0:04.8	I'm a stand-up comic bestselling author, but I am no expert at survival.
0:08.5	On my new podcast Survivor Diet trying, we're going to learn together from shark attacks to
0:13.8	tsunamis and bad breakups. This is your one-stop shop to prepare for the absolute worst-case scenario.
0:20.0	Join me and some special guests on Survivor Diet trying a comedy podcast that prepares you for anything.
0:26.4	Listen and follow wherever you get your podcasts.
0:30.0	Is depression funny?
0:32.5	I don't think so. I mean, I feel like, of course, there can be good, uh, they can be funny jokes made
0:39.2	about it, but I feel like it's everybody depressed. Yeah. So certainly the neurotic comic is an
0:46.3	archetype. And I guess maybe the depressed comic is an archetype. Yeah, I think we go through phases.
0:50.8	Yeah. And then people jump on like, this is me too, where it's not authentic. I feel like I can always
0:55.6	tell when it's authentic. I love that people are aspiring to be depressed. And I'm like, why?
0:59.5	And see, and you said depressed, and what I was just going to say is weak. Oh, I was going to say,
1:04.1	why would you want to be weak? There you go. See?
1:26.5	I can't shake now. Is there something I can't take now?
1:35.7	It's the hilarious world of depression. I'm John Mo. On this program, we talked to people who are
1:40.7	funny and who have had firsthand experience with clinical depression with cleanity.
1:46.3	You know, once you have cleanity, you more or less get to a fork in the road. On path A,
1:51.8	you can seek medical help. You can get to a therapist, try exercise, meditation. You can read a book
1:57.7	about mindfulness or you can choose path B, go into denial, run like hell, keep busy, and talk
2:05.6	yourself out of it. Path A is widely considered to be a better idea. My guest on this episode went
2:12.4	down path B. I am Janelle James. I'm from the Virgin Islands currently living in New York City.
	...

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