There are all kinds of contests out there. Wikipedia has a list full of them, there are so many out there that it just boggles the mind, but I heard about one that really got my attention. The World Laughing Championships. Albert Nerenberg is involved in the event which recently happened via Zoom and I got in touch with him to get the inside scoop on the giggle fest.
Albert nice to meet you welcome to Candid Conversations. World Laughing Championships. Interesting competition, who came up with this and how long has it been going on for?
Albert N.: This was the first ever World Laughing Championships but laughing championships have been going on for at least 7 or 8 years. There were live Championships in about 15 countries but actually surprisingly the Pandemic helped. The reason we never had a World Laughing Championship before is the cost of flying everyone to the event would have been prohibitive. COVID fixed that. On Zoom contagious laughing works.
Cliff T.: How did you end up getting involved in the World Laughing Championships?
Albert N.: We organized the Canadian Laughing Championships on Zoom to see if it work and it did. We were amazed how fun it was. So we thought why don’t we go big and try the first ever world champs?
Cliff T.: Are there different levels of competition or do you just have one and everyone gets a crack at the title? And, how does the winner get determined?
Albert N.: I should probably explain how it all started I had just finished a documentary Laughology for CTV, the Canadian TV network. It was the first feature documentary on laughter at the time and I was kind of blown away by what I found out. Anyway, one idea a friend bought to a MMA fight. A mixed-martial arts fight. Anyway before the fight, the two opponents squared off and did a stare down. At one point even though they were trying to intimidate each other they both cracked up. I was reminded if the old game where two people have to stare at each other. The first one who smiles loses. It’s actually quite hard to win. What was interesting was I thought I was looking at the two sides of humanity right there. When two humans confront each other it either turns into smiling and laughter or it can turn into hostility and violence. The violence side has been heavily explored. That’s boxing or MMA etc.. But what about the other side. What if you elevated some of our positive qualities into a sport. If punching people in the face can be a sport, what about elevating human joy.
Officially you have to win a national championship to make it to the worlds. In most cases that was true of the contenders with a few exceptions.
When we first starting holding championships the loudest boldest people tended to win. But when we made “Who is the most contagious” as judged by the audience. Everything changed. Having a contagious laugh is tough. You must be bold, loud and let go and release a true joy or hilarity. That’s when laughing championships really took off.
Cliff T.: Albert how does one go about entering the competition? What is the process?
Albert N.: Win a local championship. Then a national championship. Then go to the worlds. It’s more developed in some places more than others. Quebec has actually had both a Montreal and Quebec championship.
Cliff T.: Besides bragging rights what else does the winner get?
Albert N.: You get a big Cup award but usually a ton of publicity. The guy who won the World’s Dmitry Efimov has become a national celebrity in Russia getting tons of press. In fact almost every contender got press. The Iranian, the Malaysian and the contender from Uruguay who won Sexiest Laugh in the World naturally.
Cliff T.: Have you competed in the contest and how did you do if you did?
Albert N.: Yes. At the early stages but because I’m often a host a stay out of it beyond demonstrating laughs.
Cliff T.: What role do you play in the competition today?
Albert N.: I guess I’m currently the head organizer and often host.
Cliff T.: I am assuming that this year was different because of the pandemic I saw fro m your site that you did it via zoom, how did that go?
Albert N.: In a weird way, the World Championship would never have been possible without Zoom and the Pandemic. But, we plan and doing it every year now.
Cliff T.; Besides the competition I see that you are a film maker Journalist Hypnotist and Laughologist. A lot of hats for sure. Can you describe what a Laughologist does?
Albert N.: Laughter is more important than
we realize and is somewhat repressed. I am often brought into to
animate events for companies, schools etc.. where I demonstrate you
can laugh really hard just by sharing laughter behaviors without
jokes. I am also asked to comment in media about laughter in the
news. I also try to promote research which demonstrates how healthy
laughter is and how it’s important to laugh more. Which is also the
point of laughter championships.
I also directed several
documentaries about laughter including Laughology, Extreme Laughter
and You Are What You Act. Did a lot of research.
Cliff T.: What is the reaction you get when you tell people what you do and what the contest is about?
Albert
N.: People
often laugh!
But
people think it’s a crazy idea until they understand how it’s
done. I think people think it’s a bunch of people sitting around
laughing until someone decides who is the funniest. It’s actually
quite structured and sport like. There are several rounds of laugh
and many kinds of laughs included the Diabolical, The Snort Laugh,
The Alabama Knee slapper etc…
Cliff T.: Albert it sounds like a whole lot of fun, along with a lot of hard work putting the competition together and doing other things along the way. Thanks for taking the time to do a Candid Conversation.
Albert Nerenberg, Film Maker, Author Hypnotist and one of the team behind the World Laughing Championships.
You can find out more about him and the competition below.
Alberts Laughology and Hypnosis pages https://www.laughologist.info/
World Laughing Championships https://www.worldlaughingchampionship.com/
Albert wrote to us from somewhere in Canada.
Candid Conversations is like a radio show in email format. We feature stories and people from around world on this blog. My name is Cliff and I am the creator and blogger behind Candid Conversations. Want to do a Candid Conversation about what you do, your company or product, book event etc. Write me at candidconversations@hotmail.com and we'll get your tale out.
