Podcasting changes everything: Paul Gilmartin Talks Mental Illness Happy Hour

"There's no other medium where you can take your soul out and put it on the table and say: This is me," says Paul Gilmartin, host of The Mental Illness Happy Hour. "Before I started doing the podcast, Graham Elwood told me, 'It is so empowering.' And, I was thinking: How could something be empowering if you aren't making money? I didn't know yet; I hadn't tried it."

Gilmartin created a podcast that most people wouldn't expect from a comic. "We're listed in iTunes under Self-Help," says Gilmartin, who has opened up about his own struggles with depression and substance abuse.

Through The Mental Illness Happy Hour, Gilmartin eliminates the ignominy of discussing the spectrum of mental health and substance abuse issues, and produces a rare show that employs very personal stories without exploitation. Gilmartin’s comic sensibilities mesh with his personal insight and aspiration to improve listeners’ lives through shared experience.

Family and colleagues all advised Gilmartin to go into podcasting, but an email from Patton Oswalt proved to be the catalyst. However, Gilmartin was opposed to contributing just another drop to the existing sea. “I wanted to have something to say before I did it. I didn't want to do just another comedy podcast. Because I can't be as funny as Never Not Funny is.”

The show's central theme is deeply personal for Gilmartin. "I was diagnosed with clinical depression in 1999. I was in a very, very, very dark place. Since then, I've gotten help and I've addressed the fact that I'm an alcoholic, a drug addict. I've been clean for 8 years now, but that process has forced me to look at myself, look at my childhood, look at all the stuff that I just wanted to drink away.

“The other side of that has been beautiful moments of clarity that I feel like I want to share with the world. I'll think that I can go off my meds, and so I'll go off them, and I'll go into this really dark place again. It reminds me of what that place was like before I got help. The last time I did this, 9 months ago...I was reminded of how hopeless I felt. I thought: This is what you should do a podcast about.

“I kind of just had this moment of sitting in that darkness, and saying: ‘Aha! That's what I should do.’ And it will hopefully help people, and I know it will help me.”

Gilmartin wants his podcast to provide an alternative to the style of media-driven self-help disseminated by Oprah and Dr. Phil. "A lot of people are turned off by somebody telling them what's wrong, telling them what to do. I think what people need is a buddy, somebody that is one of them, that doesn't have all the answers but knows how they feel and can talk about it in a way that's maybe entertaining.”

Gilmartin on Maron: "I don't think I would be doing this podcast if I hadn't heard his."

MENTAL ILLNESS HAPPY HOUR, EPISODE 2 with MARC MARON

Gilmartin has an abundance of personal experience and insight from which to draw, but makes it very clear that neither he nor the podcast should be a primary source of help. “Mental illness is life or death for a lot of people. I have to clearly deliniate that and be careful that I don't start buying into my own bullshit in thinking that I'm a guru. While I do have insights that can help people, I think I can only do that in a general way by relating it to what I've experienced, and I really have to resist the temptation to try to fix anybody or get too involved in their lives.

“Frankly, part of me is a little afraid if this gets bigger, of people that want me to give them answers that I'm not capable of giving them. I try to stress that every couple of episodes: I'm just a jackass that tells dick jokes, that's gotten a little bit of clarity, that's less of an asshole than I used to be.”

Gilmartin's comedy idol/basket of issues Albert Brooks

The majority of Mental Illness Happy Hour guests thus far have been fellow comics, which makes the personal narratives of struggle unexpectedly entertaining. Gilmartin has also spoken with people outside of the industry, like Murph (“a retired serial felon who opens up about prison, the guilt of his crimes and leaving it all behind”) and Tom (a Stanford-educated lawyer and recovering crack addict who nearly died of his addiction).

His wish-list of guests share a commonality that quietly bonds millions of people worldwide. Gilmartin mentions Howie Mandel, Maria Bamford, Catherine Zeta-Jones, “and, my comedy idols, people like Albert Brooks and James L. Brooks. Anybody named Brooks.”

His dream interview: Jaycee Dugard.

Jaycee Dugard's smile makes
"life comes into perspective."

“Reading her book and seeing her interview with Diane Sawyer...this person is a gift from the universe. There are people who come along every once in a while: you hear their story and you see their smile and your life suddenly comes into perspective. And you realize what your priorities are, that you've been in self-pity or whatever. And those are the kinds of guests that I would like to get.”

For Gilmartin, his minimally-edited show embraces a specific pleasure of podcasting. “Media has just become so airbrushed. I've always loved art that has mistakes in it. Like the song "Gimme Shelter"by The Rolling Stones, where the woman is singing and her voice cracks. You wouldn't hear that nowadays. It's my favorite part of the song. And, that's what podcasts are to me in a nutshell: that voice cracking.”

After 20 years in stand-up, Gilmartin is ready to move on to a more genuine and meaningful chapter in his professional life. "It's come at a point in my career where I've kind of consciously said that I don't want to go and do straight stand-up anymore. It's not enjoyable for me ... I feel like I've outgrown my act."

“The show is something I want to do for the rest of my life. That's how it feels right now, but I have to resist the temptation to get that far ahead. I might find 2 years from now that I've said all I have to say. I hope that's not the case. My hope is that I'll continue to find interesting guests who have something to say."

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