I became a clown when these docs came to the house in Berkeley and asked me to come cheer up kids. I'd just had my third spinal fusion and I was looking for something to take my mind off the pain I was in.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
I'm training to become a giggle doctor. It's a kind of hospital clown who changes the atmosphere on the ward and helps recovery. It's about making patients laugh but also much more.
My whole family is in orthotics and prosthetics, so I grew up having to check for scoliosis every week. 'Come over. Let me feel your spine.'
I was named Class Clown in the high school yearbook, so I was always turning to comedy and laughter to heal and to get me through things.
My friends and I were the class clowns in high school, so one day we were showing off at our seats, and I fell off my chair! I had to get stitches, and I had a bloody lip. I was trying so hard to be a cool class clown!
I got really, really sick with a spinal infection that put me in a hospital for a couple of months, and it was touch and go. I had my guitar with me, and as soon as I got well enough to play, there was nothing else to do in that hospital. The nurses would come in and request songs.
I remember seeing 'Spinal Tap' at a young age and being like, 'That's how you perform comedy.'
The day in 2004 when the radiologist told me I had invasive cancer, I walked down the hospital corridor looking for a phone to call my husband, and I could almost see the fear coming toward me like a big, black shadow.
I grew up in a scientific world, the son of a neurosurgeon.
I was the class podiatrist. I never made it to class clown. I wasn't funny enough. I would examine feet and prescribe and ointment. It was a sad childhood.
I had this tic where I touch my mouth to my knee, and I'm always screwing up my back. I've had two shoulder surgeries. My doctor just smiles and laughs at me.