David Granirer bio

David Granirer is a counsellor, stand-up comic, speaker, and author of The Happy Neurotic: How Fear and Angst Can Lead To Happiness and Success. He discovered personal growth at 18, and made it his life goal to by age 50, move out of his parents basement.

He has taught stand-up comedy to recovering drug addicts and cancer patients, and is the founder of Stand Up For Mental Health, a project teaching stand-up comedy to people with mental illness. David also gives laughter in the workplace presentations to hundreds of organizations across North America, helping them use humor to decrease stress, increase wellness, and cope with change.

For the past 9 years he has taught Stand-Up Comedy Clinic at Langara College in Vancouver, B.C., turning hundreds of people with no experience into stand-up comics. Many of his students have become professional comics, appearing on television, radio, and at major comedy festivals across Canada.

Granirer got the idea for Stand Up For Mental Health from watching students in his Langara Stand-Up Comedy Clinic course. “I've had students overcome long standing depressions and phobias, not to mention increasing their confidence and self-esteem. There's something incredibly healing about telling a roomful of people exactly who you are and having them laugh and cheer.”

His work has been featured in media across North America, and was the subject of the Global TV documentary Laughing Through The Pain as well as the CBC Passionate Eye documentary Cracking Up.

He lives in Vancouver with his wife, 15 year old daughter, and 8-year old son Jonathan who has been doing stand-up comedy since he was 5 years old and has done over 200 shows since then.