{"id":236106,"date":"2013-04-02T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2013-04-02T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sdnews.com\/laughing-out-loud-in-san-diego\/"},"modified":"2013-04-02T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2013-04-02T07:00:00","slug":"laughing-out-loud-in-san-diego","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/laughing-out-loud-in-san-diego\/","title":{"rendered":"Laughing out loud in San Diego"},"content":{"rendered":"

America\u2019s first laughing championship comes to America’s Finest City<\/strong><\/p>\n

Alex Owens | Downtown News
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

San Diego is known as America\u2019s Finest City. On April 6, it could also be the funniest, when the Westin Gaslamp hosts the country\u2019s first-ever national laughing championship \u2013no joke.<\/p>\n

Between 10 and 14 of the best chortlers, guffawers and gigglers will be competing against each other to see who has the most contagious laughs, according to contest organizer Albert Nerenberg.<\/p>\n

\"Laughing<\/a>
A laugher gives it her all during a contest (Courtesy UltimateLaughter.com)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cHow much you can get an audience laughing is key,\u201d according to Nerenberg, a Montreal-based filmmaker who started organizing laughter contests a few years back while working on \u201cLaughology,\u201d a documentary about the power of laughter.<\/p>\n

\u201cDoing the film changed my life,\u201d he admitted. \u201cI was a very grim filmmaker, but working on this documentary showed me how serious laughter is.\u201d<\/p>\n

The contest is being held as part of the 26th Annual Association for Applied and Therapeutic Humor (AATH), taking place April 4-7 also at the Westin.<\/p>\n

The organization promotes how humor and laughter can improve health and happiness, but Nerenberg said one aim of the contest is to demonstrate the very distinct difference between humor and laughter.<\/p>\n

\u201cLaughter is universal, but humor differs between countries and cultures,\u201d he said. \u201cComedians are not usually laughers, and are often miserable, but when you laugh at things, things become funny.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nerenberg actually got the idea for the contest while watching Ultimate Fighting Championship bouts.<\/p>\n

\"Laughing<\/a>
Two laughers duel it out in the Czech Republic (Courtesy UltimateLaughter.com)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cBefore all these fights, there is a stare-down, and many times, the fighters begin to spontaneously laugh,\u201d he said. \u201cThey triggered laughter through eye contact and their proximity to each other. This is not uncommon.\u201d<\/p>\n

The laughter contest is very serious to Nerenberg, who did a statewide competition two years ago before attempting a national event this time around.<\/p>\n

Contestants are prequalified and the event is highly structured around some basic laughs, such as the belly laugh, the best Alabama knee-slapper, the maniacal laugh and the diabolical laugh.<\/p>\n

The last one is the most challenging to Nerenberg.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a solo laugh that requires a good diaphragm,\u201d he explained. \u201cWhereas the other laugh styles require someone to get the audience laughing, a good diabolical laugh requires the laugher to infect himself and start laughing naturally.\u201d<\/p>\n

Just like basketball favors the tall, gymnastics the flexible and wrestling the brawny, laughter contests also favor certain types of people.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt does favor people who laugh at everything,\u201d Nerenberg said.<\/p>\n

Holding a laughter contest at a Humor Therapist Convention is a natural, but Nerenberg believes San Diego is the perfect location for such an event.<\/p>\n

\"Laughing<\/a>
The key is to get the best audience response (Courtesy UltimateLaughter.com)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cA lot of breakthrough phenomenon comes from the area, such as Jason Mraz and the Kony video,\u201d he said, referring to some of San Diego\u2019s newsmakers.<\/p>\n

The winning guffawer will win bragging rights over lesser laughers and a giant \u201cCup of America\u201d to take home.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not at the point where we can get cash,\u201d he laughed.<\/p>\n

Doors open for the laughter contest at 5:30 p.m. in the main ballroom of the Westin Gaslamp Hotel, 910 Broadway Circle, Downtown. Tickets are $20 at the door. For more information or presale tickets (it may sell out according to Nerenberg) email hey@laughology.info<\/a>. Interested contestants must prequalify by submitting a tape to info@laughercize.com.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Alex Owens is a San Diego-based freelance writer.<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

America\u2019s first laughing championship comes to America’s Finest City Alex Owens | Downtown News San Diego is known as America\u2019s Finest City. On April 6, it could also be the funniest, when the Westin Gaslamp hosts the country\u2019s first-ever national laughing championship \u2013no joke. Between 10 and 14 of the best chortlers, guffawers and gigglers […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":236107,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"Laughing out loud in San Diego","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11549,11600,11550],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-236106","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-entertainment","category-sdnews","category-top-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236106","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=236106"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236106\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/236107"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=236106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=236106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=236106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}