What my mother’s Alzheimer’s taught me about laughter | Dani Klein Modisett | TEDxCapeMay

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Despite working as a comic for over twenty years and teaching stand-up at UCLA for ten, when my mother became depressed, facing an Alzheimer’s diagnosis, I could not make her laugh. Desperate to recapture this light in her eyes, I had an idea that would not only change her end-of-life experience but also my understanding of how laughter connects us. In this TEDx talk, I share what I have learned in 30 years as a professional, a daughter, and a wife about specific comedians’ tools that help us break through feelings of isolation and create joyful communication where we least expect it. Dani Klein Modisett is a comedian/author and Founder/CEO of the award-winning company Laughter On Call. LOC launched to help her mother who became depressed facing the disease. Since then the company has grown to help all people feeling isolated. It has trained thousands of caregivers and worked with over 600 companies around the world including META, Amazon, Capital One, and Bristol Myers. Dani is also author of the books, “Afterbirth: stories you won’t read in a parenting magazine (St. Martin’s Press) “Take My Spouse, Please,” (Penguin Random House) a how-to for using comedian’s tools to keep laughing in marriage. Dani taught Stand-Up at UCLA for 10 years and has coached business leaders and Congressional candidates to use humor to connect. She’s been a keynote speaker at Women’s Business Enterprise National Council, Dartmouth Entrepreneur Forum, CALA, ICAA. She has been a guest speaker at the Milken Global Conference, Stanford, MIT, Columbia, Fuqua and Harvard Business School. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx