“Grief is a gift. Right now, it may feel like a curse. It burns every fiber of your being, leaving you feeling lost, alone, and untethered,” says Jessimae Peluso, remembering the period when she lost both of her parents. She does not say it for effect. She says it because she earned it. She says it the way people speak when there is no filter left to protect them.
Peluso is known for stand-up comedy, MTV’s Girl Code, a long relationship with humor and weed, and the kind of irreverent timing that makes even the mundane absurd. But somewhere between growing an audience and after her parents got sick and eventually passed, she found herself holding something heavier than jokes. She found grief.
Most people run from pain, but Jessimae turned toward it with a microphone.
After her parents passed, something strange happened: people online began messaging her about their own losses. She did not ask for that responsibility, nor did she brand herself as a guide for emotional collapse. She was just openly grieving, and her audience recognized something familiar.
In her words, the response clarified the work that needed to be done: “After losing both of my parents, I was struck by how many fans reached out to share that my grief also touched them. I had always included my parents in my stand-up and on my podcast, so when they got sick and eventually passed, my audience felt like they knew them and felt connected to the loss.”
That is where Dying Laughing was born. Not in a meeting or as a pitch, but in the simple fact that loss had made her transparent and her audience felt safe enough to respond.
Jessimae says she did not jump into the concept right away. “It actually took …
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Author: Javier Hasse / High Times
