Comedy on Referral

In this training you will find out and experience how to work with stand-up comedy as a therapeutic intervention to give people confidence to write and perform from their life experiences. Angie will show you how she uses the process of learning stand-up comedy to help people experiencing trauma, and you'll get to try it out for yourself at Bristol Improv Theatre!

This course will help you to :

• Understand some of the theories Angie uses to help people to see their mental and
health and wellbeing in a comedic context
• Explore how to write, perform and connect with an audience as a stand-up
comedian.
• How to write comedy using your own life as an inspiration
• Gain insight into how you can use “The Inner Comedian” to bring joy and playfulness
into your life.
• Use comedic approaches to help people’s wellbeing and mental health
This workshop is for anyone interested in using the arts to help people in community
settings.

This will be an experiential course, whereby you get to produce your own comedy set and experience the games, theories and exercises that community participants receive.
Angie will show you how she uses the process of learning stand-up comedy to help people experiencing trauma and as a therapeutic intervention to give people confidence to write and perform from their life experiences.

Angie will talk about her pioneering work being the first person to get comedy prescribed on the NHS and how her belief that comedy is for more than just the live circuit, but a power for good that can help elevate people and transcend their belief in themselves both on a and off stage.

She will share her Inner Comedian theory that promotes the use of comedy to have a happier life and how her successful work in suicide prevention for the NHS has elevated stand up comedy education to a new level.

Angie Belcher is a comedy pioneer, whose career has evolved from stand up, acting and performing to award-winning work as a coach and trainer, teaching presentation skills to CEO’s and staff at major organisations and delivering ground-breaking workshops through the NHS.

For more than fifteen years, Angie has been specialising in the link between comedy, mental health and personal development. Her Comedy On Referral program attracted global coverage when the project was launched, using stand-up comedy workshops to help people in recovery from trauma for the NHS, the first of its kind in the world. She was also commissioned by the NHS to provide stand-up comedy projects for men at Risk of suicide through the charity Rethink.

An expert communicator and award-winning comedian, Angie regularly comperes the Glastonbury Festival’s raucous Cabaret Tent and is an accomplished stand-up comedian and writer ("Highly recommended, go see her”, Phil Jupitus). Her show “Mythical Creature” won North East Theatre Guide’s best show at Edinburgh Festival and she gained 3rd Place in 'What The Frocks’ best UK Comedy Newcomer competition. She also takes a lead role in the Midlands horror flick Crispy’s Curse on Amazon Prime.

Angie has produced, directed, and written “The Bristol Comedy History Walk” as part of her role as Comedian in Residence at University of Bristol. A proud graduate of The Institute for the Development of Human Potential, she also holds a post-graduate diploma in Humanistic Psychology for Leadership, Facilitation and Coaching and teaches masterclasses in expert communication and negotiation to a range of organisations from Category A Prisoners to Bankers.

Angie is course leader for stand-up comedy on Circomedia’s BA course in Contemporary Performing Arts, Writer in Residence for First Story, Associate Lecturer in Comedy Writing at the University of Worcester, and Comedian in Academic Residence at the University of Bristol.

Not shy of delivering quirky arts and health projects, she also has a daytime comedy club AFTERMIRTH which provides entertainment to new parents, and ELDERMIRTH, which provides comedy shows for people in care homes.

Bristol Live 2022 named Angie Bristol’s 2nd most influential woman for her pioneering work in comedy and health. The Hague awarded her World Comedian of Emancipation 2022.

Please note: All bookings for CPD and events are non-refundable.

Contact: [email protected]

Host or Publisher British Association of Dramatherapists