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Expand your world and realize every challenge that s ever been brought to me has made me more.
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I ve become more so I can serve more.
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So I can enjoy more.
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That s why we re here in this life.
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To bring more good, more great.
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To bring insight, to bring strength, to bring action.
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That s why we re here.
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Welcome to the Tony Robbins podcast.
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You re listening to an episode that is part of a special season on contribution called Force for Good.
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We re exploring the 10 gifts of life.
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Emotion, drive, growth, joy, gratitude, connection, consciousness, grace, presence, and forgiveness.
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You ll hear Tony and Sage Robbins explain each gift and hear stories of true heroes that illustrate how they show up in real life.
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We hope you enjoy this episode on the gift of joy.
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There have been a couple days that really stand out for me when Muriel just came alive and had full gut belly laughs.
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One of them was recently.
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We were outside.
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We like to go sit outside, get the breeze in our hair.
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And it was a little sunny, so I was wearing my sunglasses.
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And Muriel honestly seemed a little jealous.
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She kept reaching for them.
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She kept giving me a look like, where are mine?
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So I asked her pointedly, I said, Muriel, would you like to wear my sunglasses?
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And she said, clear as day, yes.
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So I go, all right, lady, let s do it.
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I put on my sunglasses, and we proceed to have the funniest 20-minute photo shoot of selfies that she was gut-busting laughing.
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She s giving me, like, West Side signals, doing, like, laying back in the chair like she s, you know, super hip.
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It was hilarious.
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At one point, I m taking a picture, I show it to her, she looks at the camera, and she just starts laughing.
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And she didn t stop.
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We got the best pictures.
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It was just one of those days where we both were like, oh, this felt so good.
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That s Michael Piper Uny.
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He s a comedic actor, writer, director, producer, and a caregiver for Alzheimer s and dementia patients.
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That story you just heard him tell is about a woman named Muriel, who has Alzheimer s disease.
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Two days a week, Michael comes to Muriel s memory care center and spends time with her.
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They go on walks outside, they do arts and crafts, they sing, she holds his hand.
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But a big part of what Michael does is make Muriel laugh.
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Michael works for a company called Laughter On Call, an organization that pairs comedians with dementia and Alzheimer s patients.
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For seniors that are struggling with the disease, one-on-one time with a comedian can ward off isolation and make them feel human again.
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It brings joy at a time that is extremely difficult for everyone, including their families and their caregivers.
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Joy is a short but powerful word.
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What it means and how we experience joy and happiness is different for everyone.
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You may feel joy when you re laughing so hard that it hurts, like Michael and Muriel did.
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There might be specific moments in your life that you felt extreme joy, like the birth of your child, or the moment you fell in love.
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Regardless of how you experience joy, one thing is for sure.
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Far too many people believe that joy is something that happens to them, instead of something that s created.
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Joy is a choice, purposefully made.
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In this episode, we re exploring the gift of joy.
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You re going to hear more from Michael and the founder of Laughter on Call, Danny Klein Modisette.
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You ll also hear from a remarkable woman named Roz Clark, who s helping others experience joy through classical music.
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But first, here s a message from Tony and Sage Robbins on the gift of joy and happiness, and how we can both embrace it and create it as we move into the new year.
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Our final session is on the power of joy.
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And when you really think about it, what does everybody want most?
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They just want to be happy.
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And yet the reality is, most people aren t.
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Most people have all these reasons why they can t be happy, when the truth is happiness is a decision.
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People are as happy as they re committed to being, but more people are committed to having their life be a certain way than they are to being happy.
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In our culture, we don t seem to value happiness at the highest level.
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It s crazy.
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We live in a world where there s so much available to us, so many freedoms, so many choices, but we forget the ultimate power is happiness.
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Happiness is a power.
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Happiness is an ultimate advantage.
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Happy people live longer.
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It s proven.
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Happy people have better relationships.
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Happy people have better parents.
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Happy people live more fulfilled lives.
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But what does it really mean to be truly happy?
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Most people think somehow happiness is out of their control, they have to try to chase it and find it somewhere, that something happens to us when in reality it s something we create.
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In fact, truthfully, most of the time we re getting in the way of our own happiness, aren t we honey?
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Yeah, we sure do.
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I remember as a younger woman, I was always chasing my happiness.
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I was waiting until this great event happened in my life.
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When I got married, or I had a child, or even as simple, I d be waiting for the weekend.
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I d be in my day-to-day life and thinking, oh my gosh, I can t wait till Friday.
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And I miss so much.
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I miss the joy of the moment.
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And you know, in this life of ours, it can be beautiful and painful and messy at times.
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I took myself out of the moment of the preciousness of the grace of the moment
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There s an intimacy when we step into what life is offering us.
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And it s beautiful because as I ve aged in life experience, if there s anything I ve realized is that happiness is now.
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Happiness is when we drop the expectation that life should be different other than what life is offering us.
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We don t have the privilege to repeat this moment.
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This very moment is precious.
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And I think that that s probably been the greatest gift of my own awakening or waking up to this moment of life and not wanting to sacrifice trying to chase it rather than living it.
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Our invitation to you is really simple.
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If you can t be joyful now, it s never gonna happen.
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You gotta try your chances on the next spinning planet.
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So do what all great human beings do that find joy.
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Make the decision to be joyful.
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Make the decision to be happy.
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Make the decision to find the good.
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Make the decision to appreciate as opposed to judge what s happening in your life.
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It s maybe the most important decision you re going to make in this lifetime.
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Because without it, everything else in life feels dull.
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But with it, everything in life is lifted.
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Why not go for causeless joy this holiday season?
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You don t need a reason to be happy.
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There s so much out there to be happy for already.
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Bring back that childlike awe and the wonder that comes from just being present in the moment and remembering how lucky we all are to be alive.
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You don t need an excuse to feel good.
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Give yourself the gift of pure joy, and if you give that gift to yourself, it ll be the ultimate gift you give everyone that you love.
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So thank you.
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Thank you for spending these weeks with us, checking in with us.
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It s been a joyous time to be with you.
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And thank you, my sweet love, for the joy you give me every day of my life.
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There s no greater gift in my life.
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Happy holidays, everyone.
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Love to you all.
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God bless.
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Happy holidays, everyone.
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Thank you for joining us.
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God bless.
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The number one negative emotion that people with Alzheimer s struggle with is fear.
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I mean, how could they not?
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Things are just not recognizable.
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So when we come in, we re just bringing like pure happiness and joy and good times and whatever it takes to do that.
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That s Dani Klein-Modisette.
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She s an actor, comedian, and the founder of Laughter On Call, a company that brings lightness and laughter to Alzheimer s and dementia patients.
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Dani didn t really mean to start Laughter On Call.
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In fact, the company was born out of Dani s own experience moving her mother Muriel, who was diagnosed with Alzheimer s disease, from her home in New York City to a memory care facility in Los Angeles back in 2016.
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So Laughter on Call really started probably back when my mother was still living in New York, although I don t think I had the idea in that moment, but she was living in New York City by herself and isolated.
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My sister lives in Boston and I live in Los Angeles.
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She had been diagnosed with Alzheimer s disease and we just knew that it wasn t gonna work for her to be alone there, even though we had round-the-clock care for her, but it was a very isolated life.
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So I made the decision with my sister to bring her out to Los Angeles where I live and I have two young children and the weather just seemed like a better place for her.
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I found this community called Silverado Beverly Place that is solely committed to memory care, which makes it unique.
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Because a lot of assisted living, they have like a memory care floor or a memory care wing, but Silverado is full memory care and that s their whole way of being.
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They have a very specific point of view which is fear into love.
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It s very accepting of the disease and there s no shame and all behavior is embraced and it s a joyful place.
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So I found that and I brought my mother there and initially she seemed really okay.
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It s very beautiful.
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But then I think within a couple months it became clear that she wasn t leaving.
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She became depressed and withdrawn and she wasn t really eating and I was very concerned about it.
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I was at my dentist actually and I was very upset.
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And because it s LA, my dentist is like a life coach.
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And I just was talking and I said, you know, like, I wish I could hire a comedian to cheer my mother up.
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I think that would make her laugh.
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I just wish I could hire a comedian.
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And she said, well, why don t you?
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And I thought, oh my goodness, can I do that?
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So I tried it.
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I went home and I posted on social media looking for comedian interested in gerontology paid gig.
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My phone rang like five minutes later and it was a friend of mine in New York City who was a comedian.
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And she said, oh my God, I just got off the phone with a friend of mine in Los Angeles who wants to work with seniors.
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Like this is perfect.
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So I called that person and she came over.
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She met my mother and she was so honest and real with her and she just sat down and she looked right in her eyes and she had like a New York accent, which was very familiar to my mother.
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And she said, I know you don t want to talk to me.
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You re probably thinking, who is this schmuck just sitting down and talking to me like this?
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there was something about the experience and the word schmuck that just like my mother just started laughing and laughing and it was so great and I was so thrilled and I was like okay you re hired like just come.
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So she started coming eight hours a week basically making my mother laugh and keeping her company and it just had this profound effect on my mother s life where she was
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eating again and she was laughing and singing and much more engaged with the community, even for the time when the comedians weren t there.
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And I just thought, wow, this is really remarkable.
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This should reach more people.
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Like, I think I ve stumbled on something.
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And then another family approached and asked if they could have someone for their mother and have the same experience.
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So that s pretty much what started it.
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It was so undeniable that I was like, okay, well, this
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was not my plan for my life, but I d love to bring this to everyone who needs it.
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Today, Laughter on Call provides a variety of services, including individualized comedy care, where a comedian comes in and spends one-on-one time with a client, giving them the connection and interaction they often long for.
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Beyond memory loss and general disorientation, one of the most devastating effects of these diseases is the feeling of extreme loneliness.
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Each comedian also gets to know the client s history from their family, so they re able to provide them with the best, most individualized care possible.
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I created a five-page intake form for the family, and it has all these questions about the history of their loved one, which is great because it s a joyful way for the family to get together and think, oh yeah, remember that crazy family vacation?
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I really want all the details of the person s life.
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Not just the happy stuff, but like the pet that they didn t like or a teacher that someone had that the loved one went to bat against or something, just really rich details about the person s life.
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So that the comedian comes in with all this information and knowledge and cultural touchstones and personal touchstones to communicate with the loved one about, and they just start talking.
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They probably weave in their own personal material because that s just how comedians connect with people.
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It s a way to draw a person out is to talk about, well, my own fear or my own problems.
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And, you know, I know you did X, Y, Z. And then you kind of keep throwing details of their life at them until their face lights up or singing.
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We ll basically do anything.
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I always like people to bring like a treat, their favorite food, because I really believe in breaking bread with another person to create connection.
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Because even though we re definitely there to make the person laugh, given the nature of the disease, I can t promise you re going to laugh every time.
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But we definitely will have cognitive engagement.
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That s what we re there to do, to really see the person and be with them and make them feel loved and joyful and not bring any sadness into the room.
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Because there s enough sadness and there s enough fear.
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Laughter on Call also does interactive storytelling shows where a comedian comes in with a story theme in mind and takes suggestions for details from care home residents.
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Together, they create a story that s compelling and very entertaining for everyone.
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My favorite experience going to this one senior residence last year, it turned out it was on Titanic Remembrance Day, which like, who even knew what that was?
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But they did.
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And so I came in with a comedian and we set it up that the ship was going down and we were friends on the ship.
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It was wonderful because there s so many places to go on a ship.
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We had to go to the kitchen and get snacks, go to our rooms and pack suitcases, and then you engage everybody in, what should we bring?
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The ship s going down, what should we bring?
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What was really interesting is you would think it would be really dark,
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But there was one woman there who knew every fact about the Titanic, and she just kept calling out all these specifics, which was so funny.
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We had to say goodbye to the band, we passed through the ballroom.
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Music is always so wonderful to connect a room of people, and so we decided that they were playing Amazing Grace, and the whole room sang Amazing Grace as the ship was going down.
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We got in a dinghy, and we made it to New York, and it turned out that my friend on the ship was really my long-lost sister, and our parents were there, and we lived.
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It was super, super fun, but finding out one person was really into cruises, so he played the captain, and he knew everything about being a captain, because there are still spaces in their brain that have information.
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So what could have been, like, really depressing situation was just, like, everyone had a great time.
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It was so fun.
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Michael Piberuni has been working with Danny s mother Muriel for the past nine months with Laughter on Call.
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You heard a little bit from him at the beginning of the podcast.
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Here he is again as he shares why he believes comedy and laughter have such a profound impact on people with Alzheimer s and dementia.
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Well, one, I am a comedic actor, writer, director, so on and so forth.
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So I ve known from day one the impact of laughter.
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But I don t know if I truly knew the impact of it medically and spiritually until I started working this job.
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The level of joy that laughter brings and companionship with humor is beyond something that you can even imagine.
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I personally witnessed joy being the catalyst of somebody staying alive.
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It sounds a little strange, but I saw somebody who I was saying goodbye to.
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I thought it was done.
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I thought their time was over.
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And I don t think they wanted to go yet because of this work, this companionship.
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I think this level of joy that they receive from having somebody hold their hand, make them laugh, put a smile on their face, keeps them going because I think it just reignites their cognitive mind and their hearts.
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For me, the impact of laughter is the ultimate.
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It brings joy to everyone around, the workers at these memory care homes, those that are doing the work.
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It s been something to where I now lead more with joy and gratitude because of these people and working with them.
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Laughter makes us all feel better.
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We know this intuitively, and science backs it up.
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But science is also starting to reveal the particular impact it has on people with Alzheimer s and dementia.
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In fact, according to research at the University of New South Wales in Australia, humor therapy can be as effective as some drugs in managing agitation in dementia patients.
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And another study conducted at the Osaka University Graduate School of Medicine in Japan found that the positive effects of humor can last for weeks after a therapy session.
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But comedy care doesn t just have an impact on the person with Alzheimer s.
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It has a profound impact on the comedian and the caregivers too.
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The impact that Laughter On Call and working with Muriel has had on me has been beyond something I can even really describe.
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There was some heartache that happened to me last year and beyond that really was sitting with me for a couple of years, and I knew I had to change it.
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This job fell into place right at the same time as well, where it just allowed me to stop worrying about silly things inside myself because I was seeing the bigger picture of what s going on.
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with Muriel, with these other patients, and just how they needed somebody who had empathy.
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And it s made my level of empathy grow to something I didn t even know was capable of.
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Because you have to go in there with a clear heart, a clear soul, a clear head, because there s so much going on for them that you can t bring your crap to the door.
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You have to leave it there and often by the time I m coming back to the door, by being there, my heart feels clear.
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It feels just good because I know I m getting that reaction and that smile or that laugh from them and it just makes me feel okay.
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To truly put into words how great this has been for me is hard to say because I think you have to see it on
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the outside.
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The outside of me is night and day.
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God, it s gonna make me emotional from when I started.
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You re listening to the Force for Good season of the Tony Robbins podcast.
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To learn more about the 10 gifts that we re featuring this holiday season, including emotion, drive, growth, joy, gratitude, connection, consciousness, grace, presence, and forgiveness, please visit www.TonyRobbins.com slash gifts, G-I-F-T-S.
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And to find Tony Robbins products and events that can help you identify your gifts, go to TonyRobbins.com slash shop, S-H-O-P.
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Welcome back to the Tony Robbins podcast.
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You just heard from Danny, the founder of Laughter On Call, a company that brings comedy to Alzheimer s and dementia patients, and Michael Piper Youni, a comedic actor and Alzheimer s caregiver.
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In this episode, we re exploring the gift of joy and how different people experience joy in their everyday lives.
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What joy means to you and what it feels like to you may be very different from your friends, your family, and coworkers.
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But for many people around the world, from all different backgrounds, joy is created through expression.
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In fact, one thing that Tony says is, true joy comes from being and expressing who you really are.
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You might express yourself through painting, dancing, or the written word.
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You may express yourself by fashion or the way you present yourself.
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But for some people, like Roz Clark, the best form of expression is through music.
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Roz is an opera singer, a classical soprano.
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She has a full and rich lyrico-sprinto voice and a commanding stage presence.
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But growing up listening to Motown music, gospel and jazz, never in a million years did Roz think she would grow up to be a classical musician.
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I am the quintessential African-American singer.
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I grew up in the church.
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I m from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, so I grew up in this working-class, blue-collar neighborhood.
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There was a program in Pittsburgh called Centers for the Musically Talented, and so I went to audition for them.
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And what I always thought was I was going to grow up and become either Patti LaBelle or Dinah Ross and change gowns every two songs.
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That was my plan.
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When I auditioned, after I sang my song, they asked me to run scales.
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And so they kept going higher and higher and higher, and so did I. And then they said to me, you re an opera singer.
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And I was like, and what are you talking about?
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You know, like, I was just like, who knows anything about that?
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I m from Pittsburgh.
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You know, I go to a Baptist church.
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I know how to sing alto.
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I really came to opera kicking and screaming.
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I m like, child, no, no, no, no, no, you don t understand.
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I need to do the gowns, the stage, the lights, blah, blah, blah, blah.
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Finally, when I got to college and I was auditioning for programs, every single college accepted me in the opera program.
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And I was like, okay, God, here we go.
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Let s do this.
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And so that s how I finally embraced my gift.
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Roz went on to attend the University of Pittsburgh, where she studied opera and journalism, and was part of the Heinz Chapel Choir, one of the most prestigious a cappella choirs in the world.
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She even had the opportunity to tour all over France with them.
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But there was one night in France, in particular, that she will never forget.
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As fate would have it, we were in Paris on my 21st birthday.
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So I turned 21 in Paris.
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Like, who does that?
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It was absolutely amazing.
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And so one of my other girlfriends who also was in the choir also sang jazz.
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So Lionel Hampton was in town.
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The choir was predominantly white.
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This was back in the late 70s, early 80s.
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If you re not familiar with Lionel Hampton, he was an African-American musician and bandleader who rose to fame during the 1940s and 50s, and whose achievements have made a major impact on jazz music.
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We just showed up at the theater and were these African-American girls coming to say, hey.
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And my girlfriend was like, yeah, we re here to see Lionel.
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We re from the States.
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And like, they just rolled out the red carpet, just let us in, gave us great seats.
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And then during the course of the concert, Lionel handed us the mic.
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We got to sing with Lionel Hampton in Paris.
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This particular night would end up making a lasting impact on Roz in a way she never could have imagined.
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It made her realize that all things are possible.
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So what I would say is, I mean, again, Pittsburgh was an amazing jazz town with a rich history.
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And so all the great artists came through.
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And so having been informed by those elders who taught me and nurtured me, and then to go over to Europe thinking that I m only going to be singing in Latin and Italian and German, and just happened to be in the same city with Lionel Hampton, and again, get to show up and say, oh, wow, yeah, I can sing jazz too.
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And I get to do this.
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watching this icon who was so kind and so open and so revered in Europe, that looking at that saying, anything is possible, all things are possible.
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It gave me the opportunity to be clear that I didn t have to take just one part of myself or another part of myself.
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I could show up fully and authentically as myself and say, wow, there s room for all of that and all of me in this business.
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Roz went back to Pittsburgh and started working while she got her career as a singer off the ground.
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But then, life happened.
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She got married, started a family.
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She and her husband had two children, one with special needs.
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He had his first seizure when he was eight months old, and you can t even imagine something that little shaking that hard.
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That was a turning point for me because I had to make the decision to let my career go for my son s health and well-being.
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I chose to support my then-husband s career, and so I moved clear across the country away from family.
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I ve got this baby who s having seizures and being transported by the paramedics every couple of days.
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And so I knew that I still had to find a way to feed my soul as an artist.
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Roz continued to feed her soul through music.
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But realizing she could never have the international classical career she d always dreamt of, she decided to do something even bigger.
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Concerned about the lack of performing opportunities for artists of color in the classical arts, Roz took action.
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She had always been inspired by Arthur Mitchell, the first African-American dancer with the New York City Ballet, and founder of the Dance Theater of Harlem, the first African-American classical ballet company.
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Growing up, like I said, I wanted to be the dancers.
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One of my cousins got the gene.
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And so she was the original firebird for Dance Theater of Harlem.
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So I had the pleasure and the honor of watching Arthur Mitchell make this amazing company and give little black girls and boys an opportunity to do an art form that they had been told, your body s not right for it.
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You can t do this.
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And so I was like, well, if Mr. Mitchell can do that for dancers, maybe I can do it for singers.
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So I made the choice to start giving.
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I knew I couldn t have that career, but I wanted to give every artist of color that opportunity to live their dreams.
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So Roz founded Opera Noir, a nonprofit that promotes cultural diversity in the classical arts and provides educational outreach, as well as development opportunities, to school-aged children and emerging artists.
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She s committed to presenting classical music from an ethnocentric perspective.
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So when you talk about an ethnocentric approach to the arts or ethnomusicology, it s letting your history and who you are, where you come from, inform how you approach the arts.
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But more than anything, Ross realizes the role of music in helping people heal and connect, regardless of race or ethnicity.
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What I really believe is that the arts heal and that we re going to create hope and healing through the arts because there s a common bond.
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I don t care what nationality you are, what faith you are, where you come from, music is an integral part of life.
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I think if we can come together on what s common, what we can agree on, how we can celebrate one another, how we can take the time and say, oh my gosh, I see you.
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That song makes me cry too.
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Especially when you re singing classical music, people are like, I don t know what you said, but I felt it.
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I think one of the most rewarding things about this journey with Opera Noir is we do a lot of work in underserved communities.
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So we do free dress rehearsals and free performances.
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You know, we partner with Boys and Girls Clubs and kids who would never see classical artists or know what that is.
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And so just having their jaws drop and them looking at you with these beautiful wide eyes saying, how do you make your voice do that?
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You would think that in this hip-hop era, kids would not be open to it, but they are.
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And we actually created a program called From Hyden to Hip-Hop.
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Many of the children that Roz works with have had a history of behavioral issues, and use music as a way to express themselves in a productive way.
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There was one young woman.
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of behavioral issues and they warned me about her ahead of time and whatever and it was just a safe place for her because she had had a horrible history so there was a reason for her acting out.
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One day we let her sing and she opened her mouth and it was like
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Like, you never knew that this child, you know, who everybody else is like, she ll tantrum and she ll da-da-da-da.
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She just opened her mouth and just beauty came out of it.
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Just absolute beauty.
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And it was just one of the most touching moments of my career.
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As you can probably tell, Roz is the type of person that will light up a room, and not just because she s charismatic and talented.
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She s just someone you can feel.
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She radiates warmth and joy.
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But at the end of the day, the way Roz shows up in the world, to her family, to the kids that she works with, and to her loved ones, is a conscious decision that she makes every day.
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I think joy at the end of the day is a choice.
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For me, my theme and the way that I show up in the world is joy and vibrancy and purpose.
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You have a choice of whether or not you tell that really sad story.
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My story could be really, really sad.
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But I chose to find the joy, and then I choose to bring the joy so that when I show up in a room, the atmosphere should change.
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And so I think that that s what joy is.
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Joy is the choice that you make to live the highest version of yourself and then give the best that you can to mankind.
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The Tony Robbins Podcast is directed by Tony Robbins and produced by the Tony Robbins editorial team, with audio editing and sound design by Jeremy Enns.
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Today s first guests were Danny Modisette-Klein, the founder of Laughter on Call, and Michael Piper Uny.
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To learn more about the work they re doing with Alzheimer s and dementia patients, visit www.laughteroncall.com.
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Our second guest was Roz Clark, the founder of Opera Noir, a nonprofit with a mission of promoting cultural diversity in the classical arts.
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To learn more, visit www.operanoir.org.
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That s www.operanoir.org.
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Copyright Robbins Research International.