How This Stand-Up is Bringing Comedy and Self-Care Together

Elsa Eli Waithe on combining mental health and humor, the limits of Zoom comedy, and creating the “Slavers of New York” campaign.

Comedy can make us laugh, and it can also help us better understand our world. And for those who are good at cracking jokes, comedy can be a coping skill. This is something that comedian Elsa Eli Waithe knows very well. For their Narratively essay, Waithe wrote about how stand-up comedy helped save their life when they were suicidal. To round out Mental Health Awareness Month, we talked to Waithe about stand-up, teaching comedy to girls, their Slavers of New York campaign, and their new mental health-themed podcast.