Silver Comedy encourages care home residents to always look on the bright side of life

Laughter is beneficial for the body, mind and the emotions and has been known to improve symptoms of depression, lower blood pressure and improve mental health.

Which is why the Silver Comedy team is the perfect antidote for residents in care homes, needing some fun in their lives.

Silver Comedy, which works extensively with people over 55 as well as more broadly, offers comedy workshops where the focus is very much on interaction and improvisation.

“Everyone has an ‘inner mischief’ inside them,” says George Baddeley, co-founder of Silver Comedy. “We find that comedy is a great way of getting to this and bringing people out of themselves, as well as boosting their minds and imagination.”

Mr Baddeley set up Silver Comedy with comedy trainer Chris Head back in 2009.

With a background in community development and a course in comedy stand up under his belt, Mr Baddeley realised he could marry the two and offer comedy workshops for older people, where the focus would be very much on “making people active rather than sitting there passively”.

Comedy enhances people's lives

“Comedy is a perfect way of engaging people. It is all about enhancing people’s lives,” he says.

The social enterprise has a network of comedy trainers spread across the UK, who also work as professional comedians and actors.

“We have done lots of work with older people including those with dementia and also with the LGBT community. We put on two hour sessions which are generally made up of interactive games and the groups are made up of anything from five people up to 40. There are also sketch writing workshops and filmed productions, which culminate in a performance put on by the residents.”

Silver Comedy works in care homes, housing associations, supported living and day centres and the response from both staff and residents has been very good.

Residents grow in confidence

A carer who attended the Open Age’s Time For Me project, said: “I was able to laugh and forget all the problems for a little while.” While a care home resident said: “It was a fun and pleasant occasion – they spoke with all individuals, most of us were shy but they are so charming and made us feel utterly at ease.”

The games are tailored to the people taking part. “So we will have the simple Yes or No game where you are not allowed to say Yes or No,” explains Mr Baddeley, “then we also have improvised murder mysteries.” Silver Comedy also visits care homes with the purpose of training up the staff so they can run the sessions themselves.

“We find it is never hard to get the residents involved. They end up making their own fun and we find the interactive games bring people out of their shells.

“We play a game where they have to imagine their lips are sealed and they have to communicate with their hands and their body. Then they are told their hands are tied and they have to communicate using nonsense language. Then finally they have to communicate using their hands and with nonsense language. We find this works really well with people who are shy and with people with dementia.

“We also do a version of Blind Date which is very popular,” reveals Mr Baddeley.

“We saw one woman with learning difficulties grow so much in confidence over the weeks we ran the workshops. She was very timid and kept saying she didn’t want to join in, she just wanted to watch. We did a speed dating session which she really enjoyed and then they went on to hold a show and she appeared as a belly dancer.”

Changes staff's perceptions of residents

He has also found that the workshops have changed the staff’s perceptions of the residents, as when they see the residents getting involved in role plays and losing their inhibitions, they see them in a different light.

To see Silver Comedy in action go to see their video at www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxVGGZQ6b80

Silver Comedy also runs the national Silver Stand Up of the Year Competition in partnership with Dave’s Leicester Comedy Festival. Following huge success in 2013, the event showcases the shortlisted entrants aged 55+ vying for the Silver Stand Up and Silver Stand-up Newcomer awards, with comedian Alexei Sayle commenting: “Anything that provides an antidote to all the young upstarts taking over the comedy scene has to be a good thing”.

For more information on Silver Comedy, go to silvercomedy.co.uk/