Mental As Anyone

Interview with Melbourne based Comedian Doug Chappel who has been on the comedy scene for nearly 19 years and, among other gigs, MCs at the Comic’s Lounge every Monday. Doug is also passionate about studying Psychology. He has several degrees, including Youth Work, Psychology and Psychology Honours, and a Masters of Counselling. He’s also looking at further post-grad studies (maybe another Masters or a PhD).    We discuss: Doug not planning to be in comedy but finding himself to be a natural one random day at the Espy, making mistakes and learning as he went, the psychology in comedy and reading the dynamics of a crowd, stage therapy, dealing with depression, the issues he faced growing up in Footscray, calling for more education and awareness about mental health issues, supporting a friend with anxiety, the violence of growing up in Footscray, the cycle of bullying, generational violence, how comedy and his partner changed him, Doug’s thesis on family violence, Sarah Ferguson’s Hitting Home documentary (on A