Not long ago, I went to my first Fungus Fest, a celebration of all things fungi hosted by the New Jersey Mycological Association. While I am not an avid mycophile, I spent a delightful afternoon seeing new things, among them mushroom-dyed yarn in various hues and a purse made of tinder fungus, which felt like suede.
I was following the advice of Chris Duffy, a comedian and the author of the new book “Humor Me: How Laughing More Can Make You Present, Creative, Connected and Happy.”
He has found that one way to bring more humor into your life is to say yes to anything unusual. “Humor and laughter often come from pushing yourself to have new experiences,” he said.
We often laugh the hardest, Duffy explained, when we’re surprised or we’re seeing something in a new light. Specialty festivals, he added, are fertile ground. “I would travel across the country for Fungus Fest,” said Duffy, who also hosts the podcast “How to Be a Better Human.”
He has attended events such as a Halloween costume contest for wiener dogs (“No, I do not have a wiener dog”) and a past-life regression festival (“As far as I was aware, this is the first life in which I’ve attended the festival”).
A number of studies suggest that laughter is good for your health: It lowers stress, alleviates anxiety and gives you energy to finish a task. It can also reduce inflammation and improve blood flow, said Dr. Michael Miller, a professor of cardiology at the University of Pennsylvania, who has researched laughter’s effects on the heart.
But it can be hard to find humor “in a world that often feels profoundly unfunny,” Duffy writes.
So I asked him to share ways to incorporate laughter and playfulness into your life.
Take a cue from 9-year-olds.
Studies suggest that children laugh more often than adults. Duffy, a former elementary-school teacher, saw this firsthand. Kids approach the world with much more openness and curiosity than most adults do, he said.
To unlock your playful, imaginative side, Duffy said, ask yourself: What would a 9-year-old do?
Duffy said: “If you’re making breakfast and you have pancakes and a banana, what is the 9-year-old going to do? They’re going to make a smiley face on their pancakes.” A 9-year-old taking a bath, he said, is “going to make sure it’s a giant bubble bath.”
Be on the alert for fresh material.
Comedians are constantly scanning their environments for nuggets of humor, Duffy said. That means looking up from your phone and paying close attention to anything that strikes you as a bit odd or surprising, he said.
Recently, Duffy spotted a CPR sign in a bagel store. “But instead of people in the illustrations, it was a container of scallion cream cheese trying to save an everything bagel’s life,” he said. “The cream cheese, honestly, seemed like it was resigned to witnessing a death.”
“The more you make a practice of looking for things that make you laugh, the more you’ll see,” he added.
You can store those nuggets and tell friends about them later, he said. Research suggests that we are much more likely to laugh when we are with others.
Duffy also likes to ask people offbeat questions such as: What’s the weirdest food that you liked to eat as a kid? “I used to love the skin off a chocolate pudding,” he said.
Make a ‘laugh folder.’
When you see something that makes you laugh — whether it’s a cartoon, a meme or a short story — store it in a “laugh folder,” Duffy said. It can be physical or virtual: Duffy has a box of Post-it notes where he stashes anything that amuses him.
He and his wife started a nighttime practice of sharing things that cracked them up that day. “I get to laugh twice,” he said. “And this small ritual keeps us connected.”
Look for a ‘callback.’
In stand-up comedy, a callback is a reference to material or a joke made earlier in a set — and it’s a good way to weave more humor into your day, Duffy said.
You can do this, he added, by listening closely to what people are saying during a conversation so you can bring back a topic, idea or joke later on.
Earlier in our chat, I told Duffy that I, too, was constantly on alert for funny little nuggets — such as a party where someone told me that they “kept” turtles. He agreed that the phrase “I keep turtles” was appealingly off kilter.
As we wound up our conversation, Duffy signed off by saying, “I wish I could talk longer, but it’s time to go feed my turtles.”
“I see what you did there,” I told him.
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Jancee Dunn, who writes the weekly Well newsletter for The Times, has covered health and science for more than 20 years.
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