73. "Mortified" Producer's Journey: a Dual Life of Laughing and Healing

Cinthia Varkevisser 0:00

Hi, we're Cinthia Varkevisser And Michelle Walters, co hosts of Mind Power Meets Mystic.

Michelle Walters 0:06

Our weekly show is here to expand your mind to what's possible to

Cinthia Varkevisser 0:12

uplift your spirits to move forward with confidence and joy,

Michelle Walters 0:17

and to create a space for your collaboration with the invisible. Welcome to Mind Power Meets Mystic.

Cinthia Varkevisser 0:30

Hey, hey, everyone, thank you so much for joining us Mind Power Meets Mystic with Cinthia Varkevisser Mystic, Michelle Walters, our Mind Power pal is not on today she's taking a well deserved day off. With me today. I'm really excited to introduce David Black. I got to see him here in the Bay Area. David is an acupuncture and massage practitioner in Denver. But the reason I got to meet him is he's also the producer of mortified in Colorado. If you haven't seen mortified, I highly recommend you checking it out. It's a storytelling show where adults share the hilarious and embarrassing things they created as kids. So thank you so much for taking time out to chat with me for a minute, David, of course.

I loved watching you and listening to your story when you did Mortified in in the Bay Area, sorry, like four years ago.

David Blatt 1:34

Gosh, could be I've I've come back out there quite a bit to read again. Because they they love overplaying me out there. I

Cinthia Varkevisser 1:46

don't blame them, you got it, you're amazing. I would love for those of you who haven't heard about mortified, I'd love David to describe it. It's, for me, it was great, because I got to look back on my teenage years, and not feel so weird and awkward, and laugh at things that felt so tragic, you know, back then. So there was a healing. It was a healing piece for me. So tell me about mortified and how you got into it. And you know, because it's definitely your baby.

David Blatt 2:21

s. And it's been around since: 2002

Cinthia Varkevisser 3:36

Now, I loved it. Because well, when I happen to know you, you had a my friend had a little cameo in your in your monologue, which is freaking hilarious. But I'd love to know, how did you get involved? Because I think you were in the Bay Area when that happened, right when you came across Wi Fi.

David Blatt 4:00

Yeah, I was living in San Francisco and Nick Whiteman and I, who's who's a good friend of yours have known each other since, gosh, sixth grade. So we were 11 years old. And Nick wanted to go to one of these mortified shows for his birthday. And I think I told you, he told me about it and told me the premise and I was like, Oh God, that sounds like a nightmare. I don't want to go hear people reading from their teenage journals. And then I just I got to that show and I had not laughed that hard. And I don't even remember how long it was like, belly aching tears streaming down my cheeks. Laughter And it's funny. I mean, it's it's funny, because, you know, the premise is sort of just like a raunchy show where people dig up the stuff from their teenage years or, you know, when they were even younger than that. But what is what's really special about the show is that it really ends up being kind of this community building thing and it's Just so humanizing, and it makes people feel like all the awkward stuff they went through when they maybe felt so isolated and so alone, and like nobody could understand what they're going through, the show really puts a spotlight on how we all go through that stuff. And we're way more connected, even in our darkest moments, and our most private moments, the stuff that we tend to not share with other people. And it's, it ends up being so connecting in that way, which has been the thing that's made me really fall in love with the show so deeply. And what's that's what's what's made it so exciting to, to continue out in Colorado.

Cinthia Varkevisser 5:39

And I wanted to talk about that, because you said it is a community builder. So what happened is that you moved out to Colorado, and and then started your own chapter, I think, is what, right, and tell me how did how was that from participating to becoming a leader and then creating this amazing community? Yeah,

David Blatt 6:00

so I think by virtue of reading in San Francisco for a few years, so I was reading with the San Francisco and Oakland chapters for about four years. And during that time, I realized kind of what a community event it really was, and how, how passionately people responded at the events. So I got a real sense of kind of the power of the show, as funny as it kind of is to describe it in that way. But there really is a special sort of power to the show. So I think I was blessed in having that kind of years long experience, and really kind of getting a sense of the culture of the show. And just how the audience, it's wild. I mean, the audience, regardless of whether it's people who have been to the shows before, or people who are just seeing them for the first time, there is this like support net that the audience provides. And there's like, so much love in that room. So I really got to experience the culture of the shows out in the Bay Area, and see kind of what made it work as far as how many folks to present it a night and what really lands as far as the material that people tend to share. So all that stuff that I learned in the Bay Area I was able to bring to Colorado, and I have a performance background and kind of a presenter background as well. So that really helped. But it's honestly the audience's that make it so reliably great as an event because the folks who come to the shows are just right there and so supportive, and it's truly like a bear hug from hundreds of people that you've never met before.

Cinthia Varkevisser 7:57

You know, it's funny is going to when I I just found out that my partner didn't go to your event. So I need to go back. Not just for me, but just for other people to share. And you're absolutely right. So we went for you. And what I found is I identified with everybody with all the different backgrounds and and so I know that you're saying it was a great big bear hug from the audience. For me it was someone who is so brave to go out there hear themselves that you can't help but just cheer cheer them on to to be your voice right. You know, help you heal some of that really awkward shit that's,

David Blatt 8:41

that's on there. 100% Yeah, so

Cinthia Varkevisser 8:44

there's a method to my madness to this, I promise you, which is that you have this, you have this baby. And it's going really well you're still a part of it. And you also have this other life, as you know, in acupuncture. So I'd love to hear about what drives you to be an acupuncturist.

David Blatt 9:10

Yeah. So I think I shared with you before that. Prior to acupuncture school, I really mostly had just a background in the arts. So I was making music. I was in a band with Nick Whiteman growing up and was doing a bunch of theater in Chicago and doing voiceover work. And that was my passion and, and writing plays. And so I was super fortunate to have met with some pretty great success in Chicago doing theater and voiceover and playwriting. And then my mom passed really unexpectedly when I was 26 years old, and it just kind of I'm had me take a big pause and look at what I was doing with my life. And just reflect on what had been most powerful in my life up to that point and what had kind of been the strongest sort of through line in my life. So I decided to leave Chicago, I just realized, you know, as much as I was enjoying the theater stuff, and voiceover stuff, that it just didn't have the kind of resonance that I that I was realizing I really wanted for myself. So I had visited the Bay Area, right around the time that my mom passed, and there was like an energetic pole, big time when I came out there. And Nick was living out there who's always been such a great, you know, support in my life. And we just have such a rich history. So he really encouraged the move. And he was connected to CIIS, the California Institute of integral studies out there, he got me connected to this sound voice and music program at CIIS because I really wanted to start looking more at music as a healing modality. And while I was in that program, a couple of acupuncturists came in who were doing really interesting stuff with sound work. And it really floored me and I started investigating more about what acupuncture could address, and I was even more floored, because it's really, I mean, acupuncture is magical stuff. So, you know, everything from fertility issues, to anxiety, to insomnia, to pain of all kinds. I mean, I've truly had people come into my office who could not get through a day without debilitating pain for years, right. And you're after a handful of acupuncture treatments, they're able to live their lives again, in a way that's, you know, not not just a challenge, minute by minute. So, yeah, I just I was so moved by all the things that acupuncture could address. And right after I got out of that sound program at CIIS, I just jumped right into the acupuncture program at the acupuncture and integrative medicine College in Berkeley. And it's funny, I mean, I, I never expect if, if someone told me when I was, even in my mid 20s, that I would be an acupuncturist, I would have laughed hysterically. I never would have seen that as you know, something that called me. So it was a total surprise twist. But it's so rewarding. I mean, I truly, you know, when people come to my office and tell me the differences, you know, like, oh, my gosh, I finally was able to get a good night's sleep for the first time in years, I'm finally not having to pull over to the side of the road, because I'm having panic attacks for who knows why I'm finally able to get through the day without these debilitating headaches. It's so so, so rewarding. And it's such a lovely marriage of both the physical medicine that I do at my acupuncture practice, and then sort of the spiritual medicine with mortified where laughter is the healing vehicle. And, and also where there's the just humanity. That's the healing vehicle. I mean, I think just like you were saying, going to the shows, and witnessing people getting on stage and being brave, brave enough to share this stuff that they never thought they'd share with anybody. It's like, it's, it's this thing happens where you might see somebody on the stage. And when they walk to the microphone, you're like, Oh, my God, this looks like somebody I could never relate to in my life, and might might never want to relate to and then and then they share this stuff. And you're like, I am this person. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. So it's really it's, it's such a special way to get to know somebody and it's what's what makes it extra special. Again, is that like, none of the stuff that people are sharing was ever intended to be seen by anybody. So there is like this sacred personal quality to it. That makes it you are just that much more potent and moving.

Cinthia Varkevisser: 15:04

Right? Well, let me remind everybody that they are listening to Mind Power Meets Mystic with Michelle Walters and Cinthia Varkevisser. And today we have David Blatt, who's an acupuncturist as well as a producer of mortified in Colorado. Now, you totally are right where I wanted to ask this question. In one of our previous episodes, I talked about that there are two types of people, people who live to work, and people who work to live. And I say that you don't have to be this person all the time. But you know that there, you know, there are people who do their work, they leave their job at five o'clock, and they have their real life. Do you agree with that? Because it seems like you're one of the people the reason that you're so fascinating to me is that you're so successful in both camps.

David Blatt: 16:06

Yeah, I mean, I think maybe, because I always thought that my life was going to be professionally in the arts. And because my parents always sort of instilled in, in my brother and me, like, do what do what you love to do professionally. I've never even for a minute thought about doing something professionally, that didn't speak to my heart. Do you know? So for me work? I mean, sure, sometimes when I wrap up at the office, I'm grateful to be done for the day. treating patients, but yeah, the work that I do is my passion. So I don't think that work for me is not really like a burden, you know, work like work is an expression and an extension of me, I that's how it shows up for me. So it's wonderful. I mean, I've I feel like I'm pretty ferociously territorial of my, my personal time, too. I know how important that is to take time for myself not doing things that I'm doing for, you know, income. But this stuff, I'm so fortunate to have two careers that really like feed my spirit, right. So I feel like I'm, I'm my work does feed me. So work is kind of play, and especially with mortified work is absolutely play. And it's such a gift to be able to say that. I mean, that that is when anybody in my life will tell you that when I'm at the theater, doing mortified, that is 100% When I'm most alive, right?

Cinthia Varkevisser: 18:12

I when I'm listening to you, I believe the through line is that you're that you're healing, so you're feeding yourself as you're healing others, and that you're healing others through acupuncture, and then you're healing others through laughter and can connection and community. Right, all that. And so. And so, I like to think that you are worth your see, live to work, work to live. You are, you're living to work, but you have the added bonus that it gives you so much pleasure that it's really not work. Right. Does that make sense? Am I Am I pretty accurate in that?

David Blatt: 18:51

Oh, 100% Yeah. All right.

Cinthia Varkevisser: 18:53

So one final thoughts were because you have this beautiful combination. Our our theme today on mind power meets mystic and actually not today this year is flipping the switch, right? Which, you know, what, how can you reframe things so that it can be more in alignment with your heart or your purpose? Any pieces of any advice that you'd like to you'd like to share so that people can have a robust and fulfilling life that you have?

David Blatt: 19:29

Yeah, so you know, I'm, I'm, again, so lucky. And I think I'm not in the majority and that I do feel so passionate about the work that I do. I think a lot of people really, you know, they're, they don't have they don't maybe even have the fortune to be so so maybe picky about what they're doing. Do you know I'm saying? A lot of folks just have to like, make that check. It's an especially, I don't have children. So I have the leisure of sort of creating hours as I want to. And I know a lot of parents don't have that, that luxury. But I think even if you even if you are in a position where you're maybe not able to do what you're most passionate about professionally, whatever, lights you up, whatever makes you feel a little bit electric, hold on to that, find other people who are interested in that. There's, there's a group of friends that I have, we're always just sort of looking out for each other to make sure that we are staying on top of the things that make us feel most alive and electric. So I think the things that make, make this work in my life, structure and accountability, right. So find some people who are passionate about doing what they love doesn't even need to be the same stuff that you're doing. But just keep each other accountable. So I'm actually about to launch into this with Nick, again, where we have a group, we're meeting monthly, to create creative goals for ourselves, and just keep each other accountable and create that structure so we can be doing what we love. So you know, even if that's a book club, if that's a cooking club, if that's anything, even if you just have one friend who is passionate about making sure they're doing what they love, and making sure you're doing what you love. Hold on to that person, and just create that kind of lovely, you know, nest and network with the people who bring you joy and want to see you doing the things that you love. So I guess that's my that's a little tidbit.

Cinthia Varkevisser: 21:56

That's a big nugget. I'm so grateful that you share that. Thank you so much. And I know that you've got to get going so thank you so much again for time, and that for being on mind power meets mystic and everyone. David Blatt. If you ever have a chance go see mortified, and if you're in the Denver area, check out David Blatt mortified production All right. Take care everybody.

David Blatt: 22:23

Take care.