Finding the funny side of psychedelic drugs

A pharmacologist is taking to comedy to talk about psychedelic drugs, and why not to perform high on magic mushrooms.

A rare combination of scientist and comedian, pharmacology lecturer Jonathan Falconer uses his stand-up routine to discuss recreational drug use.

Originally from San Diego, California, Falconer is an academic at Otago University who moved to Dunedin four years ago.

Falconer uses his own experiences with drugs, as well as his scientific background, to give ‘‘a fair and balanced perspective on drug use in general’’.

Taking a scientific approach to understand the ‘‘magic’’ of comedy, Falconer will assess why some jokes work in some situations but fail in others.

He has also conducted experiments that include being high while on stage.

After watching a documentary on Jim Morrison from The Doors performing on LSD, Falconer and his friend Jackson tried stand-up comedy while high on mushrooms.

Jackson stuck to his stand-up routine, but Falconer thought he would ‘‘just start talking and see what happens’’.

The experiment revealed a false positive with Falconer walking off stage believing it was a great performance, only to view a recording a week later that proved the opposite. At the time, despite his altered state, he realised the audience was not enjoying the show. But he failed to address the issue and instead laughed at his own jokes. ‘‘I just started laughing about how ironic I thought it was. I was supposed to be entertaining people but I was having a better time than everyone in the audience.

‘‘And then I laughed about that for I think four minutes.’’

But there is a serious side to Falconer’s comedy. He uses his show to ‘‘talk about the risks of psychedelic drugs compared with alcohol’’.

‘‘I try to use science to be as accurate as possible about drug harm and drug risks . . . and psychedelic drugs aren’t completely safe.

‘‘There are definitely risks but, in general, they are much less harmful than alcohol.’’

Falconer will not be on drugs for the upcoming show in Palmerston North.

‘‘That [magic mushroom] science experiment taught me that psychedelic drugs are not a performance-enhancing substance for stand-up comedy.’’

The Science of Getting High is on at Globe Theatre at 7.30pm tomorrow..

University of Otago teaching fellow and stand-up comedian Jonathan Falconer’s new comedy show The Science of Getting High is coming to Palmerston North at The Globe Theatre tomorrow.