a very special medicine. Howard Silberstein, Director--National Children’s Hospital Foundation

René Hicks is not a medical doctor, although she says that one day she would like to play one on TV. However, as an internationally known comedian, she recognized very early on the healing power of laughter. Often categorized as a comic with a social conscious, René was determined to use her comedy to make a difference in people’s lives. By addressing societal ills through humor, she was very successful in providing quality entertainment that was not only hilarious, but contained a message to her audience that something as simple as laughter could aid in the breaking down of barriers that contribute to social isolation and intolerance, thus resulting in an overall healthier society. “There was so much ‘politically correct’ rhetoric about diversity and multiculturalism, with very little result of actually bringing people together on a lasting basis. I knew firsthand that laughter can form a powerful bond. Laughter brings us together. We need a lot more laughter in this world and a lot less of the stupid crap that divides us.” Her positive message received a heartfelt response from audiences across the U.S. and abroad.

René has now taken her comedic talents to the lecture circuit, with an expanded concept of healing humor, developed after she recently survived a major health crisis--lung cancer and found that her God-given gift for creating laughter was instrumental in helping her heal and others around her cope with such an unexpected and uncertain life altering situation. “I never smoked, but I got lung cancer. However, I never had to ask God why, because I knew why. God apparently thought I could use some new comedy material, because it immediately occurred to me that it couldn’t just be a coincident that ‘humor’ rhymed with ‘tumor’ and in comedy, comics look for words that sound funny and ‘tumor’ is a funny sounding word. ‘Two tumors go walking into a bar’...see you don’t even need a punchline, it just sounds funny.”

It has now become René´s passion to be an example to others, through her laugh filled lecture, on how to effectively enlist humor in their own lives, as an aid in overcoming major obstacles and upheavals that everyone is bound to face in the course of a lifetime. “Whether those obstacles and upheavals be of a life threatening nature or just life impeding, if you can find humor in a difficult situation, you’re well on your way to finding an easier solution. They say that love is so powerful that it can move mountains, but laughter is equally as powerful, because it will help cure your depression after you break up with the person you moved that damn mountain for in the first place!” René has aptly coined her unique brand of humor “curative comedy” and as a preventative measure, she prescribes a healthy dose of laughter to be taken at least 20-25x a day or more if needed, i.e. you’re a LA Clippers fan; telemarketers have your cell phone number on speed dial; after you get a tattoo of your girlfriend’s name, you realize it’s misspelled; your college GPA is a negative number; you rear end a police car, while driving your new $50,000 Lexus you couldn’t afford in the first place; your family submits you to be a guest on Dr. Phil’s show on “Family Freeloaders”; your father tells you that in effort to get in touch with his feminine side he’s becoming a cross dresser.

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