Thinking Out Loud:
A Light Comedy About Hard Conversations
If we teach our teens about the birds and the bees, why not the maggots and the cream. . . the cremation?
The day after my mom died, people came over and watched football. It felt like no one knew what to say. I wondered, how can I make a show to encourage more people to talk about death and grieving?
I bring a puppet and bucket of play dough. That seems to help.
Thinking Out Loud with a bucket of playdough.
Martha the Maggot meets a Girl Scout.
Thinking Out Loud with Martha the Maggot
Thinking Out Loud with an audience member.
Thinking Out Loud with playdough puppets.
Thinking Out Loud with an audience member.
Thinking Out Loud play dough continues.
Death & Comedy
Thinking Out Loud uses puppets and comedy to break the tension around the difficult conversation of death and grief. After the death of my mom, I struggled with the lack of language and rituals to process it with my family and friends. I wanted to give people an easy entry point to talk about these topics. I created Martha the Maggot, the world’s oldest maggot, to break down the barriers we have around death. From picking out coffins at Costco to worrying about what to say after someone dies, Martha tells it like it is. Packed between punchlines are a few simple reminders to help humans be humans.