Episode 8 - Bishop John Selders

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Rev. James interviews Bishop John Selders the Bishop who loves to tell yo’ mama jokes. Bishop Selders is both deep, hilarious, and a huge fan of pop tarts! Listen to this week’s episode as he gives advice on how to make it through the COVID-19 pandemic with your hope in tact along with how he experiences church in a Keenen Ivory Wayans film.

“When we laugh we open up the possibility to be changed and to be different on the other side of the laugh. Again, that is connected to hope and joy and transcendence.”

“The sojourn for black folks living here in the last 400 years ain’t been no cake walk. So there is a resilience that is embedded in surviving generational trauma and struggle and oppression. I will couple this with a universal.  Any people’s group has had struggle, oppression and trauma in their sojourns. In order to persevere and get through, you got to find ways both to not take yourself so serious and take the world that serious. Right? For me and my family we teased each other a lot. There was lots of playing the dozens with the skills you learned in the hood. Right? In my time, we called it joning; if you couldn’t jone then you was probably going to be a pitiful cat in the hood. If you didn’t have a couple of ‘yo mama’s’ in your pocket, you wasn’t going make it in the hood.” 

To support the show please considering becoming a patron on patreon: www.patreon.com/GodWantsYoutoLaugh

Episode 7 - Brian Wetzel

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Rev. James interviews Stand-up Comedian and Church Camp Director of Camp Cazadero Brian Wetzel. Brian Wetzel makes us laugh as he discusses his love of church camp (especially Camp Caz), his one man show Side-by-Side: A Journey with Depression (which is a funny show about a serious topic), Elvis, and what the Band Kiss has to do with all of this. In addition to the spiritual importance of staying true to your convictions.

“Otto Griebling, a famous circus clown said: ‘if you are able to truly make people laugh, it’s a gift from God, and do it whole heartedly and think of it as the highest art form.’” -Brian Wetzel

To buy a copy of Brian’s book on Camp Caz: The Story of Camp Cazadero, please email him at campcaz@sonic.net or Venmo him $45 at Brian-Wetzel-13

To learn more about Camp Cazadero please visit: https://ncnc.dreamhosters.com

To support the show please considering becoming a patron on patreon: www.patreon.com/GodWantsYoutoLaugh

Episode 6 - Corde Snell

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Rev. James interviews Stand-up Comedian, Vegan, and Pentecostal Christian Corde Snell. Corde is both hilarious and inspiring as he shares about graduating from UCSB after getting kicked out, becoming a Vegan after dangerously gaining a lot of weight, and about his faith as a Pentecostal Christian.

“In that moment I was like if I don’t switch up my diet now I am going to end up on ‘My 600 Life,’ which would be dope because I’d have my own show. That’s a TV credit! But I don’t want to be 600 pounds in order to get on TV so I was like, I think I need to make a switch. So, I am vegan now.”

To learn more about Corde and his stand-up comedy please follow him on Instagram: www.instagram.com/cordemadeyoday

To support the show please considering becoming a patron on patreon: www.patreon.com/GodWantsYoutoLaugh

Episode 5 - Rev. Dwight McCormick

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Rev. James interviews Presbyterian Minister and Stand-up Comedian Rev. Dwight McCormick.

“I make the case that laughter is prayer. We have contact with God when we are laughing.” - Rev. Dwight McCormick

To support the show please considering becoming a patron on patreon

To find out more about host Rev. James or to see him perform stand-up live please check out the links above

Episode 4 - Alicia Dattner

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Rev. James interviews award winning spiritual comedian and founder of the spiritual comedy festival Alicia Dattner.

"Comedy is my soul’s favorite way of dancing with what is so big and so challenging. This material reality, it’s very dense and comedy is like Judo to material reality. With comedy you are able to flip material reality around." -Alicia Dattner

To find out more about Alicia Dattner please visit her website

Please consider supporting the show by becoming a patron at patreon

Episode 3 - Gibran Saleem

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Rev. James interviews stand-up comedian Gibran Saleem.

Gibran was raised in Virginia a Pakistani Household. He has won numerous accolades as a stand-up comic and has been on MTV along with many other TV credits. He performs with Rabbi Bob Alper and Rev. Susan Sparks as a part of the Laugh in Peace Comedy tour. He was raised Muslim and that, along with the poetry of his namesake Gibran Khalil Gibran, influences his spirituality.

“Laughter is a tool that can help galvanize a sense of positivity and kindness throughout the world. If you utilize it right.” –Gibran Saleem

To find out more about Gibran and his stand-up comedy please visit his website

You can also see a trailer for his movie Gibranistan and support it’s Indiegogo campaign

To learn more about Gibran Khalil Gibran (aka Kahlil Gibran) please visit this website

To support the show please considering becoming a patron on patreon

To find out more about host Rev. James or to see him perform stand-up live please check out the links above

Episode 2 - Rabbi Bob Alper

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Rev. James interviews Rabbi Bob Alper: Rabbi, Stand-up Comic, and the Official Comedic Advisor to Pope Francis.

“In sermons I use humor as a Rabbi. For Rosh Hashanah a few years ago, I began my sermon by saying: ‘for the past two weeks my wife and son were in Peru on Vacation. I stayed home to write sermons and prepare for the High Holidays. YOU’RE WELCOME.’”

To find out more about Rabbi Bob Alper please visit his website

To find out more about the Laugh in Peace Comedy Tour visit their facebook page

To sign up for Rabbi Bob Alper’s Quick Laugh please email him at bob@bobalper.com

To support the show please considering becoming a patron on patreon

To find out more about host Rev. James or to see him perform stand-up live please check out the links above

Episode 1 - Rev. Susan Sparks

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“I was a funny little kid who wanted to be a preacher . . . and the world and the church tried to beat it out of me. So my whole life story has been reclaiming it and fighting back. And that’s really everybody’s life story. You have this little glimmer of who you are truly in your heart and the world tries to take it away. You fight back or you don’t or you find a happy medium.”

-Rev. Susan Sparks

To find out more about Rev. Susan Sparks visit her website

You can buy her latest book Miracle on 31st Street at Amazon.com

To learn more about The Laugh in Peace Comedy Tour visit their facebook page

To support the show please considering becoming a patron on patreon

To find out more about host Rev. James or to see him perform stand-up live please check out the links above

You can learn more about Rev. Fred Craddock at his webpage at the Emory Candler School of Theology