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Conference demonstrates how 'humour creates community'

October 31, 2006

RobinsSmith.thumb.JPGIn his opening address at an international conference on “Humour, Health and Education”, Mikey Robins gave delegates and guests a living demonstration of the way in which humour can – as he said – “create community”.

While doing so, he made serious points about the vital role of humour in the wellbeing of society and the individual that other speakers reiterated during the three-day conference at The University of New England last weekend.

Mikey Robins is one of the best-known entertainers on Australian radio and television. “Laughter is something we take for granted,” he said. “But as a society we need the release of laughter.” He defined “people in a room, laughing together” as an “instant community”.

UNE’s Vice-Chancellor, Professor Alan Pettigrew, welcomed the delegates to the University, and spoke about the role of humour in education and scholarship. “One has to have a balance in life,” Professor Pettigrew said, “and humour is an important part of achieving that balance.”

Delegates to the conference came from seven Australian States and Territories as well as from New Zealand. “It was quite different from other conferences in that the delegates laughed a lot,” said the conference convener, Angie Smith (pictured here with Mikey Robins). “The presenters represented three distinct strands: humour scholars from various universities, with backgrounds in health, psychology, education and philosophy; motivational speakers who have become interested in humour as a mood-lifter and productivity enhancer; comedians who make a living from performance.”

Ms Smith, a lecturer and researcher in UNE’s School of Health, explained that the academic papers had been interspersed with papers by the comedians Mikey Robins, Rachel Berger, Fiona O’Loughlin and Judith Lanigan. One example of these, she said, was Judith Lanigan’s paper titled “Professor Judy’s true history of the hula hoop: its use in health and happiness”. “This was absolute magic,” she said – “a true ‘performance’ paper that even had the audience physically involved.”

Subjects explored during the conference included humour and spirituality, the humour of Barry Humphries, political satire, therapeutic humour, humour in nursing, humour at school, humour at work, humour and activism, and humour as a means of coping with pain and stress. The event was hosted by UNE’s Faculty of Education, Health and Professional Studies.

Ms Smith is also the joint coordinator of the annual Armidale Women’s Comedy Festival. This year’s festival, held concurrently with the humour conference, provided the conference with an arts program. A youth humour project, held in conjunction with the conference, involved 15 high-school students in workshops and performances and resulted in the selection of five of them to train as presenters with UNE’s student radio station TUNE!FM. The youth project was supported by The Foundation for Young Australians, the Armidale Women’s Comendy Festival, and Radio TUNE!FM.


Posted by Jim Scanlan at October 31, 2006 04:19 PM