freyal lawyer turned stand-up comedian
and baptist minister just what you
thought when you saw me right wait it
gets better
i also ride a harley-davidson
yes yes every year my husband and I take
a two-week cross-country motorcycle trip
and in fact a couple of years ago we
were actually turned away from a motel
in Montana because they thought we were
Hells Angels I’m so proud of that that’s
so great right I mean okay we were
looking a little sketchy you know Here I
am in my biker leathers and my fake
tattoos what most clergy we’re on
vacation you know but because of how we
looked
the desk clerk turned us away I mean I
should have known better the name of the
motel was the sea and sand which in
Montana is suspect yeah but nonetheless
we went next door to the biker friendly
Days Inn freshened up I put on a clean
Harley t-shirt and then decided to take
my business card
Reverend Susan sparks to my new friend
at the cience and so I walk over there
put the card on the desk and I’m like
you know Bible says judge night well
here’s the kicker as I’m walking out the
door she bursts out laughing and says I
guess there’s a little Hells Angel in
all of us so great I mean the bottom
line is we judge each other by the
dumbest things things like where
someone’s from or what they look like or
what kind of biker leathers and fake
tattoos they’re wearing things that have
absolutely nothing to do with who we are
as people I mean at least we could take
the biker leathers off
but so many are judged for things they
can’t take off things like race
nationality gender even religion let me
share with you what I have learned in 15
years as an ordained minister and a
professional stand-up comedian you ready
laughter is the key to world peace and
no that’s not a punchline
because when human beings when we look
at each other we tend to see the
differences first and laughter reverses
that formula it’s like a when we laugh
together we share something like a big
spotlight comes down on our
commonalities commonalities we may not
have seen before and in that moment
something shifts beneath the surface and
we began to go from judgment to
forgiveness from hatred to understanding
from despair to hope I mean given the
headlines and the papers can you imagine
a message the world needs more one of my
greatest joys is being part of the
laugh-in piece Comedy Tour starring me a
Baptist a stand-up rabbi and a Muslim
comic yeah in our show rabbi Bob Alper
for example talks about studying in
Israel after seminary eager to try out
his Biblical Hebrew he gets in a cab and
says to the driver in Hebrew what he
thinks is let me out here the driver
bursts out laughing and explains what
Bob had said was behold here I descend
I talked about the oftentimes narrow
worldview of Christians including my
people the Baptist
for example Southern Baptists they can
tow a pretty hard line but their
theology is always short and sweet like
their idea of heaven
you ain’t Southern Baptist you ain’t
coming you know that’s a lot of people
not coming it’s like 6.5 billion people
not coming you know if you look at a
world map that’s like every landmass on
the face of the globe not coming except
Texas and Alabama and then as hard as
mine our Muslim comic loves to riff on
what it’s like to be a Muslim in America
especially going through airports he
says to our audience I don’t get why
you’re so upset that you have to be
there two weeks ahead of time I have to
be there two months ahead of time our
audiences which span everything from
yarmulkes and burkas to Easter hats gets
a rare visual Jewish Christian Muslim
standing together not hating not judging
but laughing in solidarity and it’s then
our worlds ours and our audiences
overlaps for a tiny but significant
moment and we lock into our common
humanity it’s no wonder that Georgetown
University’s conflict resolution program
has identified humor as playing a
significant role in peace building I
mean why not genetic studies showed that
notwithstanding things like nationality
or race or gender we as human beings are
99.99% genetically the same let me think
about that I mean that means all of the
hatred and judgment and even war
is over point zero one percent I think
that’s so crazy
why would anybody fight over a teeny
tiny decimal point I mean it’s like my
southern grandmother used to say honey I
think the butter has slipped off their
biscuit let me share with you an example
of what might happen if we would focus
on the commonalities first it happened
in one of our laughs and piece college
shows it was sponsored by the Muslim
Student Association and the Jewish
Student Association and backstage before
the show we heard the presidents of each
organization busily talking about where
they were going for dinner later they
told us that even though their offices
were right next to each other in the
Student Union before the show they had
never spoken and now their friends hang
out look bottom line you cannot hate
each other
if you laugh together you just can’t I
mean are we gonna change the world
overnight with laughter no but we are
gonna start a ripple effect
a ripple effect where we change how we
see each other and eventually change the
world but that change has to start here
with each one of us we have to be the
first to make the move it’s like a
parade that I saw last year in the
Midwest it was called the stand still
parade why because all of the floats and
bands and Shriners were stationary
parked along the road it was the crowd
that marched by
well like that standstill parade we can
no longer afford to just stand still and
watch judgment and hatred marched by
it’s our time to move it’s our time to
get up and march past that point zero
one percent it’s our time to engage the
world with a fresh new lens I mean it’s
like a billboard my husband and I saw on
our latest motorcycle trip at the top it
said Minnesota cremation Society
underneath that was a photograph of a
casket and underneath that it said think
outside the box that’s what I’m talking
about
I won’t laughter to help us live the
words of that sign I won’t laughter to
help us come at the world in a fresh new
way I want laughter to help us see the
commonalities first our homework I want
each and every one of us to leave here
today and start to bring laughter into
every aspect of our lives into our
workplaces our boardrooms our courtrooms
our hospitals our jails are our schools
our houses of worship our families bring
humor into all aspects of your life so
that together we can laugh our way to
world peace one joke at a time thank you
[Applause]
[Music]
[Applause]
you
and baptist minister just what you
thought when you saw me right wait it
gets better
i also ride a harley-davidson
yes yes every year my husband and I take
a two-week cross-country motorcycle trip
and in fact a couple of years ago we
were actually turned away from a motel
in Montana because they thought we were
Hells Angels I’m so proud of that that’s
so great right I mean okay we were
looking a little sketchy you know Here I
am in my biker leathers and my fake
tattoos what most clergy we’re on
vacation you know but because of how we
looked
the desk clerk turned us away I mean I
should have known better the name of the
motel was the sea and sand which in
Montana is suspect yeah but nonetheless
we went next door to the biker friendly
Days Inn freshened up I put on a clean
Harley t-shirt and then decided to take
my business card
Reverend Susan sparks to my new friend
at the cience and so I walk over there
put the card on the desk and I’m like
you know Bible says judge night well
here’s the kicker as I’m walking out the
door she bursts out laughing and says I
guess there’s a little Hells Angel in
all of us so great I mean the bottom
line is we judge each other by the
dumbest things things like where
someone’s from or what they look like or
what kind of biker leathers and fake
tattoos they’re wearing things that have
absolutely nothing to do with who we are
as people I mean at least we could take
the biker leathers off
but so many are judged for things they
can’t take off things like race
nationality gender even religion let me
share with you what I have learned in 15
years as an ordained minister and a
professional stand-up comedian you ready
laughter is the key to world peace and
no that’s not a punchline
because when human beings when we look
at each other we tend to see the
differences first and laughter reverses
that formula it’s like a when we laugh
together we share something like a big
spotlight comes down on our
commonalities commonalities we may not
have seen before and in that moment
something shifts beneath the surface and
we began to go from judgment to
forgiveness from hatred to understanding
from despair to hope I mean given the
headlines and the papers can you imagine
a message the world needs more one of my
greatest joys is being part of the
laugh-in piece Comedy Tour starring me a
Baptist a stand-up rabbi and a Muslim
comic yeah in our show rabbi Bob Alper
for example talks about studying in
Israel after seminary eager to try out
his Biblical Hebrew he gets in a cab and
says to the driver in Hebrew what he
thinks is let me out here the driver
bursts out laughing and explains what
Bob had said was behold here I descend
I talked about the oftentimes narrow
worldview of Christians including my
people the Baptist
for example Southern Baptists they can
tow a pretty hard line but their
theology is always short and sweet like
their idea of heaven
you ain’t Southern Baptist you ain’t
coming you know that’s a lot of people
not coming it’s like 6.5 billion people
not coming you know if you look at a
world map that’s like every landmass on
the face of the globe not coming except
Texas and Alabama and then as hard as
mine our Muslim comic loves to riff on
what it’s like to be a Muslim in America
especially going through airports he
says to our audience I don’t get why
you’re so upset that you have to be
there two weeks ahead of time I have to
be there two months ahead of time our
audiences which span everything from
yarmulkes and burkas to Easter hats gets
a rare visual Jewish Christian Muslim
standing together not hating not judging
but laughing in solidarity and it’s then
our worlds ours and our audiences
overlaps for a tiny but significant
moment and we lock into our common
humanity it’s no wonder that Georgetown
University’s conflict resolution program
has identified humor as playing a
significant role in peace building I
mean why not genetic studies showed that
notwithstanding things like nationality
or race or gender we as human beings are
99.99% genetically the same let me think
about that I mean that means all of the
hatred and judgment and even war
is over point zero one percent I think
that’s so crazy
why would anybody fight over a teeny
tiny decimal point I mean it’s like my
southern grandmother used to say honey I
think the butter has slipped off their
biscuit let me share with you an example
of what might happen if we would focus
on the commonalities first it happened
in one of our laughs and piece college
shows it was sponsored by the Muslim
Student Association and the Jewish
Student Association and backstage before
the show we heard the presidents of each
organization busily talking about where
they were going for dinner later they
told us that even though their offices
were right next to each other in the
Student Union before the show they had
never spoken and now their friends hang
out look bottom line you cannot hate
each other
if you laugh together you just can’t I
mean are we gonna change the world
overnight with laughter no but we are
gonna start a ripple effect
a ripple effect where we change how we
see each other and eventually change the
world but that change has to start here
with each one of us we have to be the
first to make the move it’s like a
parade that I saw last year in the
Midwest it was called the stand still
parade why because all of the floats and
bands and Shriners were stationary
parked along the road it was the crowd
that marched by
well like that standstill parade we can
no longer afford to just stand still and
watch judgment and hatred marched by
it’s our time to move it’s our time to
get up and march past that point zero
one percent it’s our time to engage the
world with a fresh new lens I mean it’s
like a billboard my husband and I saw on
our latest motorcycle trip at the top it
said Minnesota cremation Society
underneath that was a photograph of a
casket and underneath that it said think
outside the box that’s what I’m talking
about
I won’t laughter to help us live the
words of that sign I won’t laughter to
help us come at the world in a fresh new
way I want laughter to help us see the
commonalities first our homework I want
each and every one of us to leave here
today and start to bring laughter into
every aspect of our lives into our
workplaces our boardrooms our courtrooms
our hospitals our jails are our schools
our houses of worship our families bring
humor into all aspects of your life so
that together we can laugh our way to
world peace one joke at a time thank you
[Applause]
[Music]
[Applause]
you
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