God Wants You to Laugh

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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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.

To buy a copy of Brian’s book on Camp Caz: The Story of Camp Cazadero, please email him at [email protected] or Venmo him $45 at Brian-Wetzel-13

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

Rev. James interviews Stand-up Comedian, Vegan, and Pentecostal Christian Corde Snell.

“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: https://www.instagram.com/cordemadeyoday

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

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: https://www.patreon.com/GodWantsYoutoLaugh

Rev. James answers questions and introduces you to the God Wants You to Laugh Podcast, the internet’s premiere podcast on spirituality and humor.

Please consider supporting the show by becoming a patron at patreon: https://www.patreon.com/GodWantsYoutoLaugh

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, please visit her website at: https://aliciadattner.com/

Please consider supporting the show by becoming a patron at patreon: https://www.patreon.com/GodWantsYoutoLaugh

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: https://www.gibransaleem.com/ or start following him on his social media: https://www.facebook.com/GibranSaleem/

Please consider supporting the show by becoming a patron at patreon: https://www.patreon.com/GodWantsYoutoLaugh

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: https://www.bobalper.com/

To sign up for Rabbi Bob Alper’s Quick Laugh please email him at [email protected]

Please consider supporting the show by becoming a patron at patreon: https://www.patreon.com/GodWantsYoutoLaugh

Rev. James interviews Baptist Preacher and stand-up Comic Rev. Susan Sparks.

“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 at: http://susansparks.com/

Please consider supporting the show by becoming a patron at patreon: https://www.patreon.com/GodWantsYoutoLaugh