Laughter is the best medicine as Project Comedy veterans perform at Edinburgh Fringe
A group of veterans using stand-up comedy to help their recovery are performing two shows during this year's Edinburgh Fringe.
Project Comedy is putting on Should Have Tried Harder At School – Veterans v Civilians and its Gags Army showcase throughout August.
The charity helps those who have served in the Armed Forces who have suffered mental or physical injuries by using comedy to aid their recovery.
It began with online sessions during the Covid pandemic when parent charity Project RECCE – which helps veterans enter the construction industry – was shut down during the lockdown.
The sessions proved so popular that Project Comedy was born, and those taking part began entering the stand-up circuits across the UK.
The routines of the comedians all draw on their military experience to some extent, and while they've all left the forces, they are getting a taste of their former careers by staying in HMS Caledonia during their time at the festival.
Lead ambassador and Royal Navy veteran Jay Saunders said: "I've actually started to look at myself in the mirror and actually go 'that's a fairly decent person if they're laughing with me'.
"I'm the first one to admit it because I have to talk about PTSD.
"I've tried to hurt myself multiple times, and I'm delighted by this process.
"It's been over three years now since I've tried to hurt myself, and it's purely because I'm doing comedy and engaging with people and feeling some value."
He added: "I've stopped existing, I've started to start living again."
Army veteran 'Jim Bob' said: "When I'm up there, I just feel so great – it's turned my life around.
"My first-ever gig was 340 people, and it was huge, and there was a number of friends and family in the audience.
"And I just walked out on that stage and I just went – oh god!
"But then I delivered my first joke and it landed, and the uproar from the crowd, my life has been different ever since.
"I just felt it inside me – the buzz."
As well as providing the confidence of performing on stage, the programme aims to equip the veterans with practical skills to aid them in their recovery.
Former Royal Navy submariner Nick Cheng said: "If you can do five minutes on stage, you can do a job interview, so that is how it is.
"Whether you want to be a comedian or not doesn't matter, the skills, the soft skills, you learn through comedy, you can use in everyday life.
"I got on stage, I told a story that happened in my life, [the] audience laughed, and it was the best feeling in my life.
"Rush of adrenaline tingles up the neck. It felt absolutely amazing.
"I've now been doing comedy for 10 years."
Project Comedy's show Should Have Tried Harder At School – Veterans v Civilians is on at Bar 50 (venue 151) on Blackfriars St every day at 12:30, while Gag's Army is at Kick Ass Hostel (venue 89) on the Cowgate daily at 17.45.
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