When you’ve experienced trauma, anxiety or upset, laughter can be an effective way to distract from the issues you are facing.

And with US ventriloquist/entertainer/comedian David Strassman’s home town of Ojai, California, devastated by storms in mid-January, causing widespread flooding, slips and several deaths, with homes destroyed and people displaced, he has full empathy for what New Zealand is going through after its own recent foul weather.

It’s led him to offer free tickets to his upcoming shows – The Chocolate Diet – for those areas he is performing in that have been hit badly by our recent weather events. There are two Whangārei performances on Saturday .

Strassman said he knows just what the country is going through after some people in Ojai lost everything in the town’s devastation. So he’s putting up 100 free tickets for the second Whangārei show on Saturday, and all people who have been effected by the recent foul weather have to do is go to his website – www.davidstrassman.com – to register and it’s first in first served.

Strassman said at times of stress and upset laughter is a good distraction and he hoped that giving away free tickets for the recently-announced second show – the first one on Saturday was sold out weeks ago – would provide some light relief for those hit hard by the weather.

‘’I have empathy for what New Zealand is going through. It’s a country that I love and know very well, having lived at Petone while I was filming my TV show here (Strassman in the 1990s),’’ he said.

‘’I wanted to do something to hopefully help people and thought free tickets to a very funny comedy show might be a good way. Seeing the destruction caused reminded me of the impact on Ojai and I know what people here are going through.

‘’The (Covid) pandemic taught me there are two things we have to do in this planet. One is to make people happy as much as you can, and two is that we have to leave this place a little better than how we found it. That’s been my motto these past few years.’’

Strassman reckons The Chocolate Diet is his funniest show yet, after first performing here in the mid 1990s, and, as usual, it focuses on some topical social issues.

‘’In it Ted (E. Bare) eats only chocolate. He loves chocolate, but I have to tell him that eating chocolate exclusively is not the best for his heath. He becomes really huge so determines to go on a diet – a chocolate diet. Like many he gained a few pounds during the pandemic so needed to go on a diet.

‘’And Chuck Wood is having gender identity issues. It’s another issue that’s very relevant at the moment and this is very sympathetic to the LGBTQI+ and transgender communities. Again it’s an empathetic look at the issue, with a bit of humour there too.’’

As well Grandpa Fred is having addiction issues with the drugs he’s given at the rest home he’s in and Kevin the Alien offers another view of Earth and its foibles from an extraterrestrial perspective.

’’I’m sure people will get another great show from me and the cast. We’ve got a great lighting and sound display with six tonnes of equipment trucked up for the show. I want to bring some light relief to Northland and those other regions badly hit by the recent weather events.’’

■ The Chocolate Diet is on at Forum North, Whangārei, on Saturday with the first who 7pm – 8.45pm and the second show 9.15pm – 11pm. It has an R15 age limit.