Laughing Through the Pain of AIDS

When Susan Oglesby learned that her husband, Steven, had AIDS, she found herself dealing with the trauma through humor. She’d laugh at the doctors and the government and the stupid things people said to Steven.

So when AIDS Project Los Angeles offered a stand-up comedy workshop, Oglesby decided to attend. She and Steven worked on material together at home.

“For my act, I didn’t have to make things up,” Oglesby said. “I just talked about things that happened.”

In class, speaking to the microphone stand as if it were her thin and ailing husband, she did an impression of visiting friends: “Oh, you look so-o-o great.”

On Monday night, Oglesby and 15 other new-found comedians will take the stage at L.A. Cabaret Comedy Club in Encino. All of the stand-up students performing in this showcase have been affected by AIDS: they are people with the disease, friends, family or APLA staff and volunteers.

“It’s a terrific mixture of comedy and poignancy,” said Judy Carter, a professional comedian who taught the workshop. “These people are getting their revenge through humor.”

One student, who is blind and Jewish, begins his monologue: “I know what you’re thinking . . . another blind Orthodox Jewish gay with AIDS comic.”

Another recounts visiting his mother at Christmas and revealing that he is gay and has AIDS. The next thing, he tells the audience, she has wrapped everything in the house in vinyl. Friends come over to admire his gifts and inquire about his will.

“It’s all about their lives,” Carter said.

Carter agreed to teach the seven-week class at the suggestion of a friend who is an APLA volunteer. The comedian--who works the stand-up circuit and has opened for such rock ‘n’ roll acts as Kenny Loggins and Prince--has been teaching comedy for years, but approached this workshop as an entirely new experience.

“I was absolutely petrified because one of the rules of comedy is, ‘Don’t talk about cancer and don’t talk about AIDS,’ ” she said. “I thought, ‘How can we take one of the biggest tragedies of the 20th Century and convert it to humor?’ ”

The students, too, were shy about the subject matter.

“At first they were doing stuff about being tall or shopping at K mart,” Carter said. “After the third week, I got mad and told them ‘You’ve got to talk about AIDS.’ ”

The result was a comedy-writing support group. There were tears mixed with laughs, jokes with words of sympathy.

“In clinical terms, we would call it a cathartic experience,” said Carl Lukes, who is APLA’s community mental health specialist. “If we really sat down and thought about the horror of AIDS, it would be too much for most of us to deal with. You need an outlet. . . . Comedy or creative avenues are a good way to deal with the emotions.”

In class, the students ran through exercises: Carter would ask them to recite lists of things they liked or hated. She’d give them a topic and have them stand in front of class and talk, ramble.

From such train of thought and free association, jokes were born.

“I thought, ‘Oh, it’s going to be fun,’ ” said a student with AIDS who asked not to be identified. “But I wrestled with it. Judy teaches you to draw on the difficulty and pain in your life.”

So he told jokes about the endless doctors appointments and medical tests: “I don’t have time to have a life-threatening illness.” He talked about co-workers: “All the ladies in my office think it’s so wonderful that I can eat so much and stay so thin.”

Amid the laughter, though, a harsh reality hit home several weeks ago when Steven Oglesby died.

“I kept on going to class,” Susan Oglesby said. “It was a place where I was understood.”

Other class members offered support and said they took inspiration from Oglesby. She turned her routine into a tribute.

“Now half of my act is about the cremation process,” she said, “which is not a knee-slapper, but there are some things about it that were so ridiculous that you have to laugh.”

She is looking forward to Monday night’s performance, the proceeds from which will benefit APLA.

“If you don’t find the humor in these things,” she said, “you go insane.”

LA Cabaret Comedy Club is at 17271 Ventura Blvd., Encino. The show begins at 8 p.m. Admission is $10 with a two-drink minimum. For information, call 501-3737.