Craig Shoemaker, widely known as “The Lovemaster,” is not just a comedian; he’s a pioneer in the art of laughter therapy and healing through humor.
Craig Shoemaker has performed comedy for four US Presidents, has specials on Netflix and Showtime, and won Standup Comedian of the Year at the American Comedy Awards.
Craig is a prominent speaker and coach; the founder and creator of the Laughter Heals Foundation, as well as the Winning With Laughter live events, one-on-one coaching, and training system. Shoemaker has been included on the IMDB “Top 100 Stand-Up Comics” list.
Born out of personal struggles, his journey to becoming one of the most respected figures in comedy is as inspiring as humorous. Shoemaker’s comedic career took flight at the tender age of 17. Since then, he’s soared to great heights, earning numerous accolades. In this interview, we talked about ex-wives, cancel culture, social media obsessions, and living with a mask on to navigate the pandemic, all leading to Craig’s latest online course, life philosophy, and upcoming book.
What was your original reason for starting with comedy?
I can share a powerful moment from my past that changed the purpose of laughter and its healing properties. Despite facing significant pain in my childhood due to poverty, parental absence, and abuse, I experienced a transformative moment. As I recounted a painful story to my classmates, I witnessed their animosity turn to empathy and joy as they laughed with me. Even when punished for my antics, I heard a divine voice urging me to continue spreading happiness and sharing my pain to help others.
This experience led me to embrace comedy as my profession, earning recognition and awards along the way. Rather than succumbing to victimhood, I chose forgiveness and empathy, recognizing vulnerability as strength; inspired by this journey, I established a coaching program called Winning With Laughter to empower others through laughter and resilience.
How do you use comedy daily and share your personal journeys on your podcast Still Standing Up and during your speaking engagements?
It is all about personal growth and self-discovery. In my comedy, I search into these themes, creating a space where my experience is invaluable and no one can cancel me, which happens often nowadays. By sharing my authentic self, I invite others to embrace their own truths, free from judgment or anger. Mistakes become a story, opinions are respected, and authenticity reigns supreme. This, I believe, is the essence of genuine expression.
Do you wish there was more genuine dialogue and understanding in the world?
Why not learn? I have an acronym for ego. It’s Evading Growth Opportunity. Every time you let your ego run, it shows that you must be correct, dominate, and control. You must try to manipulate results, anytime you do that, you avoiding growth. Instead put your ego aside, step back, and listen to a different perspective. I have a new book called Winning With Laughter. It’ll make you laugh. Laugh at the ironies, laugh at the hypocrisy, laugh at our failures, laugh. There are rumbles, stumbles, fumbles, crumbles, and tumbles- laugh at it all.
What is a comedian’s intention?
A comedian’s intention is a great intention. We want to uplift, inspire, and make you laugh. Period.
Sometimes, people get offended by a comedian’s humor, but honestly, the key is going on a search to find yourself. And in finding yourself, you won’t want to take anyone else down. You’re actually going to be curious and ask them what they meant. Go into yourself. And this is something I did to the maximum.
With all that is going on in the world, let’s try to embrace one another and work towards unity instead of seeing such division where you’re being labeled and put out to pasture because someone decided this for you.
Regarding your comment on being in flow, what is your definition of flow?
Energy flow is everything. It’s who you are authentically. We are all born this way until we get programmed and conditioned by our leaders and thoughts based on fear, doubt, and limitation. There are many things on my resume because I believe in abundance. And I live it. It’s not just something I’d say, “Oh yes, I wrote a book.” No, I live daily with “You’re not going to label me and put me in a box.” For example, I came up with a food concept, and I am a comedian. Now working with one
of the most prominent chefs in the world, who is partnering with me based on something I had envisioned. So, I went with the flow with my creator, whom we tap into; it’s filled with potency.
What inspired you to start Laughter Heals Foundation?
This might sound funny but during my Lovemaster days, several people told me that they couldn’t conceive a child, and after seeing my show they went home with the husband acting like my character The Lovemaster. I would later hear that they then conceived. And when my friend Michale “Golds” Goldberg and I were filming the movie, he said he and his wife were also challenged so he tried it, and baby Kayla was born.
Michael and I first bonded with our Philadelphia roots, and the love of comedy, our connections with friends, and creating the “family” that we were not born into. Needless to say, we forged a very deep friendship that evolved into our chosen family, creating a tight-knit and supportive circle.
When Golds announced he had brain cancer, that moment was transcendent for me. Contemplating my options, I recognized urgency and commitment were vital. This became my “aha” moment or in my case perhaps a “ha ha”moment. The question arose: Is laughter truly the best medicine? While I lack professional qualifications, I can attest to the transformations that occur when I make people laugh. There’s a visible and palpable change. It struck me that I might utilize laughter to help my friend.
I worked on creating ways to use humor with people to assist their healing process. I was motivated by the people who were going through illnesses with Guided Laughitations, (another exercise I created
as a combination of meditation and laughter) to help relieve symptoms in the healing process. Comedy is individual, and so is the healing process.
Gold showed up to participate. One prescription was to share favorite comedy shows. Letting go
of the fears that were being offered by the medical experts. When I would see him laughing in the audience, it warmed my heart. We laughed at how many times we said goodbye. He lived way past the 3 months prescribed by these “experts.” Instead, he lived 15 years, and got to know his daughter.
When Golds died, we gave him a FUN-eral. We ripped on him, and everyone would laugh and cry. We expressed our sorrow and showed how much we loved him. That’s what I believe healing is all about. We should be more expressive with our feelings, let people around us know we love them. Imagine we made that our stamp and our legacy.
How has your personal life contributed to your growth and healing?
If you want to go deeper, you’ll find yourself. This is something I did to the maximum. Such transformation is taken. It’s not just the word transformation people banter about. This is a literal transformation: I’ve had healings with my mom. We only spoke for six years.
I was bleak. I was done. I’ve done everything I can. Then, I got into this real state of radical acceptance and gratitude for who she was and what she gave me. She has an enormous sense of humor, and how to look at all the money I made being funny. We have the most significant relationship; she could still say something, pushing buttons.
She can still do all that motherly stuff that they do. And it doesn’t matter. It is meaningless; It is just her being her, and it is all OK.
And that radical acceptance because I made this new space. She is safe now with me. Another word I like to use is magnificence.
And I can’t wait to talk to my mom now. These are the experiences I have. How did I get there? It’s from not living in these boxes that you were talking about. Just live in the infinite. And how beautiful is that? That’s what we’re meant to do.
How do you ensure you do the right thing when dealing with people who upset you?
Have integrity, but integrity and accountability are lost art forms.
All I know is that my process has been beautiful in being accountable, really looking within, and making sure that I find my own faults and not the faults of others. Even if my fault was that I didn’t vet the process, then that’s my fault.
Let’s talk about your course Winning with Laughter, it has exciting and unique modules. Why did you create it, and what are the expectations of people going to get?
Everything that I do comes out of life experience. I will tell you something I have gone through myself, and here are the results. I’m going to share that with you. It’s like sharing grapes. I have these delicious grapes that I find delicious. I will share them with you. It’s your choice whether you like the grapes or go for the grapes or not. I share these life experiences with people and can’t say anything about what they do with it. You asked me about homework. I call them Funsignments. Words have a lot of meaning for people. That’s what happens also when you laugh. We have joy, and it is such an amazing experience again that I’ve seen how people have transformed before my eyes by doing some of these things.
Is that why everybody loves laughter yoga?
Yes, but it goes further. I teach a form of that I called Guided Laughitation. You could meditate here to Laughitation. And you end up Laughitating. It’s like a bullet train to your higher source, God, light, or whatever you want to call it. Once you laugh, everything’s removed; all your fears, doubts, worries, diseases, illnesses, and pain are relieved when you’re laughing. Depression and laughter can’t exist in the same space. So whatever you’re doing, it is through comedy, and again, you are telling your story in many ways.
You have speaking engagements and courses, write scripts, produce movies, and have your own parts. How do you manage it all?
Yes. I’m doing a TED talk this weekend. I do have a team and people loyal to the team.
Lastly, how do you define yourself in three words and/or your life mantra?
Love, light, levity. I am those things. We all are. I like your word, amplify. I amplify, share, and present it to whomever I’m with, whether it’s a large crowd or one other person if I can be those things and live my life in this light with great love, divineness, levity, and laughter that I win in my life.
