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.” 

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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