‘Laughter saved my life’: B.C. man crowned world laughing champion

Adam finds out the story behind a B.C. man crowned World Laughing Champion.

VANCOUVER — When Kelly Podlubny was growing-up, his dad would dress-up in a white beard and red suit to play Santa Claus.

“He was a very jolly individual,” Kelly smiles. “That’s where I got all my joy from.”

While there were a whole lot of ho-ho-hos, Kelly’s childhood was filled with even more ha-ha-has.

“There was a lot of laughing,” Kelly says. “That really taught me that it’s OK to have joy in my life.”

But Kelly’s life took a couple unexpected turns, and along the way, he lost that joy.

“I wasn’t living life,” Kelly says. “(I was) a shadow of a person.”

After hitting his rock bottom, and finding the courage to get help, Kelly happened upon a video about a woman discussing the health benefits of laughter.

“(She said), ‘I have cancer,’ and then she started laughing,” Kelly recalls. “I thought that was the strangest thing I’d ever seen.”

So, Kelly started doing research, discovered a local Laughter Yoga group, and began practising it.

“I breath in and laugh out and I can’t stop laughing,” Kelly demonstrates. “That dopamine gets released and I start feeling better.”

When he wasn’t cracking up during traffic congestion while working as a transit driver, Kelly was chortling through life’s inevitable challenges.

“Laughter saved my life,” Kelly smiles.

So, Kelly decided to pay it forward by becoming a Laughter Yoga teacher, before being encouraged to try competitive laughing.

“What if there was a sport dedicated to spreading contagious joy?” a Laughter Championship video wonders.

Kelly was invited to participate at the nationals. After competing in eight chortle challenges, include diabolical laugh, Kelly earned the most votes from the audience and won the Canadian Laughter Championships, before qualifying to compete at the worlds.

After facing off on Zoom against a gang of global guffawers from Russia to South Africa in categories ranging from sexiest laugh to crying laugh, Kelly made it to the final round, and after laughing at himself for more than 55 seconds, was crowned World Laughing Champion.

“It was very gratifying to find out my laughter is the most contagious in the world,” Kelly smiles.

While Kelly’s dad didn’t live long enough to see his son’s success, he’s no doubt proud his boy grew-up – likeSanta Claus – to share his joyful gifts with the globe.