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Home › Articles › High Profile › Craig Shoemaker

Craig Shoemaker

Conquering Fatherhood with Laughter

By Donna Smith

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Books are not all that's in Shoemaker's future plans. "We also are pitching a TV show based on the one-person show," he says. "What happens in the show is I move away from show business in California and move back to where my father is with the attempt to bond with a guy I never knew and also have him know his grandson – and have a simple life." Shoemaker hopes to sell the sitcom next year.

A Different Perspective
Many people found it hard to laugh after the terrorist attacks on September 11, but Shoemaker says that after a few weeks, people came to comedy clubs as an outlet. "God gave us tears, and he also gave us laughter," says Shoemaker, who is also a caregiver for his best friend who is battling cancer. "They're not very far apart – laughter and tears." He feels that people can heal through laughter and was inspired to form his Web site, LaughterHeals.com, a nonprofit organization whose goal is to promote healing through laughter. It is his way of being of service to the country. "I think it's important to families who are trying to find more laughter as opposed to more sadness," Shoemaker says.

Shoemaker feels television is bombarding families with bad images. "If we are into watching the TV – whether it's th memorials or Jerry Springer or CNN with that scroll that comes across, who was kidnapped, who has anthrax – if I buy into that, then I lose," he says. "Then I'm not a productive member of society." Shoemaker's family cancelled their newspaper subscription and try not to watch most television programs because he says it's just exacerbating the problem.

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