For Aidan Park, comedy is a way to turn shame into connection

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Set us as preferred When one of his students hits the stage to try out their comedy material, Aidan Park is usually pacing back and forth in the back, hoping his students don’t forget a line.“If a [performer] flips two words, it can tank the next six jokes,” he said.“I’m like a nervous dance mom.”That anxiety is a different feeling from when Park is the one on stage.“Me getting the laugh is cool,” he said.

“But I’m like a football coach [when I’m teaching].”It’s not about the jokes.It is about getting the story across, in a manner that allows the audience to relate and gives the performers the opportunity to share their story in a positive way, without feeling shame.Through the Yay Foundation, the former comedian has helped hundreds of people struggling with some form of mental health own their stories with stand-up.“The thing that bonds is not necessarily the laugh,” Park said.

“The laugh is a vehicle through which we’re doing this.The intimate connection of people revealing something vulnerable from their heart, that creates a connection that is healthy and thoughtful versus just getting laughs.”The approach isn’t one-size-fits-all.

When Park is preparing to build a program for a specific community, he doesn’t analyze the problem through his own lens, he involves the entire community to figure out what works best for them, Veronica Mejia, a board member of the foundation, said.“He’s meeting with community members, interviewing community members, asking how we can best support you and what does that look like?” she said.“We don’t necessarily come in with a framework that works for us, we come in with an open mind to learn what we can do to support communities.”That’s the same methodology Park teaches his students when they tackle tough subjects on stage.

In order for an audience to fully grasp a joke about abuse, HIV or drug use, a performer needs to buil...