Using comedy to tackle fears
Andy Parsons is delighted to be finally approaching the end of his Healing the Nation tour with a date at Horsham’s Capitol Theatre on Saturday (May 7).
He was in the middle of the tour when theatres had to close due to the lockdown. “The tour was called Healing The Nation – so that title worked out well! It will turn out to be the longest tour ever, taking three years to complete.”
But the point is that there is still healing to be done. When he started it, we were still dealing with the divisions of Brexit; now we are emerging from a pandemic. And absolutely the pandemic is fair game for comedians. As Andy says, in a way things come full circle. The pandemic is definitely not a subject to be avoided when you take to the stage.
“I remember (back in March 2020) Boris Johnson was making a statement and then everything was shutting downanditwasjustthewhole scale of it. And we had no idea how long it would last. And it was terrible. I think we are still seeing the psychological scarring.”
“Where there is fear or pain or worry or suffering I do think it is easier to get through if you can find the humour and if you can get a laugh. Somehow it helps you to cope with it better.”
Inevitably the show has had to change. As Andy says thethingshewouldhavebeen talkingaboutbackin2020are pretty much irrelevant now given so much has happened since: “I’ve had to put a new show together in fact and now I’m just looking forward toputtingHealingTheNation tobedatlastandmovingonto something else!”