Morning laughter

To most students, having to be awake at 8 a.m. is not a laughing
matter, but there are others who gather around in the sculpture
garden to do just that ““ laugh.

And laughing is not as simple as it might sound.

The laughing club does different laughing exercises, and each of
these exercises come with their own unique and “funny”
story.

The club gets together on Mondays and Thursdays for about 15 to
20 minutes and does laughing exercises accompanied with
stories.

An example is when group members release stress by laughing
loudly while imagining they are releasing an arrow.

The stories alone are enough to make those in attendance smile,
but the concept of physically acting them out and forcing out
different sounds of laughter often gets a real laugh out of
everyone present by the end of the exercise.

The tradition was brought to the UCLA campus from across the
world, more specifically, India.

Scot Pipkin, a fourth-year geography student and a regular of
the laughing club, heard about clubs of this kind from a friend who
had traveled to India.

On a crisp morning, Pipkin stands in a circle with five others,
feet bare on the wet grass.

This is considered a good turnout for the club that started last
spring with only two people present at their morning events.

Pipkin said there are laughs other than the ones exercised at
the meetings that require a larger group of people.

“It can get really powerful with the bigger group,”
he added.

Pipkin first tried out these exercises when he was leading a
trip for the outdoor adventure program in Death Valley.

“We woke up everyone early and made (the students) do
it,” he said.

Now, Pipkin is the one often explaining the laughing exercises
to the group.

“I know the laughs better than anybody … so I try to
come here and share,” Pipkin said, adding that the group is
not led.

“It’s a group effort and I don’t want to
separate anyone from that.”

The laughing club draws most of its participants from the
California Students Sustainability Coalition, a student group
focused on the implementation of sustainable practices on
campus.

This is how Karina Smith, a second-year anthropology student,
heard about the club.

She went to her first meeting last Thursday and said it is
likely that she will go back in the future.

Smith said her first experience was not what she expected,
mostly because no one would give her any details about what the
activity was going to entail.

“I like to build up a mystique about it,” Pipkin
said, adding that it’s hard to explain to people what
it’s going to be like.

“It’s for people to cut loose in front of others and
in front of people they don’t know,” Pipkin said.

The comfort factor can be an issue for anyone who is not used to
the crowd.

“The more comfortable you get, the more beneficial it
would be,” Smith said about her own experience.

Another regular of the club, Michael Cox, a fourth-year
political science student, sees laughing as more than just a great
way to start the day.

“I see it as a really positive ritual … and humans
really need rituals in their life,” he said, adding that many
people have rituals such as drinking and smoking, and that this is
their equivalent of that.

“We need more positive rituals in life,” Cox
added.

Pipkin explained that he is involved with this for the personal
satisfaction that comes from seeing people go from grouchy to
energized.

“I dig it,” he said.

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