Linda Mary Montano and Nicolás Talk About Laughter

Linda Mary Montano: Laughing people always amazed me!  How do they do it? Why do they do it?  When do they do it?  Who taught them to do it?  I grew up almost Zen-monkishly in a Catholic household with parents fresh out of the 1930s depression and an aunt dead from the Spanish Flu, 1918. Also Catholics know that Sin is just around the corner so it was mentored that I better not have fun, or pleasure, or enjoyment or play. After my husband, my mother, my adopted mother and then my father, Henry Montano died, my joy-fulcrum was buried and I knew that I needed an intervention so when I was made aware of a Laughter Course with Steve Wilson, I signed up immediately, drove to Atlantic City for the 2 day training and slept in my Outback at night. Since then, Laughter has been a material, methodology and practice that I use in workshops/performances and my volunteering with children, elders and the incarcerated. I still don't smile much but I know how to raise my laughter endorphins when needed or wanted. Try it. Most likely you can learn for free from YouTube. It is magic. 

Nicolás: Upon concluding our dinner at Critical Practices Inc., I asked the group to laugh, laugh and laugh, as an homage to Linda Mary Montano my friend and mentor of many years and her teachings. One of the guests went to the bathroom in the hallway and got locked out. She sat on the steps. When she was able to get back into the loft, she told us that our laughter carried out into the hallways of the building. Linda was not with us in person but she kindly e-mailed this text on laugher for this publication. 

This piece was first published in a limited edition publication produced by Critical Practices Inc. (CPI), as part of The P Word, a solo-collaborative exhibition by Nicolás and Friends, 2017