Comic saves lives: The Michael Pritchard

Michael Pritchard hung out with Robin Williams, Jerry Seinfeld, Whoopi Goldberg, Dana Carvey and appeared on the Johnny Carson show. On the cusp of a blossoming career Michael chose to make a God inspired pivot and decided instead to use his gift of humor to inspire, change lives and make a powerful difference.

The inspiring story of Michael Pritchard is told in his own words in this raw and authentic conversation.

MICHAEL PRITCHARD AT A GLANCE

Comedian, actor, counselor, speaker, children's advocate and believer known for using humor, empathy and faith to help people.

Topics

Comedy • Robin Williams • Faith • Prayer • Children • Empathy • Bullying • Grief • Happiness • Healing • Education • Service

His Faith Journey

Catholic upbringing → early empathy and compassion → born-again experience → charismatic faith → serving others through laughter, prayer and compassion.

This Episode Explores

• Michael Pritchard's accidental start in comedy

• His friendship with Robin Williams

• How laughter helped Robin experience joy

• Moving from stand-up comedy into service

• Working with children in schools across America

• His approach to empathy and emotional intelligence

• Why he believes prayer changes lives

• A surprising $25,000 answered prayer

• Helping children safely share painful experiences

• His work with Sesame Street, Star Wars and George Lucas's Edutopia

• Faith, the Holy Spirit and becoming an example to others

• Grief, forgiveness and emotional healing

• Michael's philosophy of happiness and humble service

Questions Answered

• Who is Michael Pritchard?

• How did Michael Pritchard become a comedian?

• What was Michael Pritchard's relationship with Robin Williams?

• How did Michael help Robin Williams experience joy?

• What is Michael Pritchard's connection to faith?

• How does Michael Pritchard view prayer?

• What does Michael mean by "the suffering wing"?

• How does Michael work with children?

• What does Michael teach about bullying and empathy?

• What was Michael's work with George Lucas and Edutopia?

• What does Michael believe makes people happy?

• How does Michael approach grief?

• What is the healing power of laughter?

Core Story

Michael Pritchard's career moved from stand-up comedy and television into a larger calling to help people through laughter, empathy, prayer and compassion. His friendship with Robin Williams, work with children, PBS programs, educational projects with George Lucas, and experiences with grief and healing all shaped his belief that people need connection, kindness and someone safe to talk to. For Michael, happiness is closely connected to faith, service and helping others.

Podcast Transcript: Michael Pritchard — The Healing Power of Laughter

Amazing Greats with Ric Hansen

Introduction

Ric Hansen:Thank you, Joe Michaels. It's Ric Hansen here with another Amazing Greats podcast.

This is going to be a wild and fun episode because when you have a comedian who is also maybe the happiest guy in the world, all on one screen, ready to chat with us, you can imagine we're going to have some fun.

His name is Michael Pritchard.

Welcome, Michael. How are you?

Michael Pritchard:Thank you, Ric, very much. I am terrific. I'm having a great week and enjoying life and kind of semi-retirement, but I can never retire from all the joy I have working with children.

Who Is Michael Pritchard?

Ric Hansen:Let me get everybody up to speed on who you are and what you're all about.

You're a comedian, a voice talent, an actor, a counselor, a motivator and a sought-after speaker.

As a stand-up comic, you shared the stage with comedians such as Robin Williams, Jerry Seinfeld, Dana Carvey, Whoopi Goldberg and many more.

You had a fabulous guest appearance on an Emmy Award-winning episode of Taxi, which I watched, and it was hilarious.

You've also appeared with Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show.

Michael has performed at some of the biggest clubs around, including Caesars, the Comedy Store and Universal Amphitheatre, and opened for musical artists like Diana Ross, The Grateful Dead, Kenny Rogers, Michael McDonald and Boz Scaggs.

In addition to all that, he's a voice talent and has done work for Star Wars and Sesame Street.

Michael has been inspiring and entertaining literally hundreds of thousands through his PBS educational series. It's featured Lessons from the Heart for George Lucas's Edutopia Educational Foundation, plus thousands of live performances at schools and for corporate employees, healthcare workers, government and state workers.

He's also been awarded the President's Volunteer Action Award, the Rotary International and Toastmasters International Speaker's Outstanding Performance Award, and he has the key to the city of San Francisco.

As a result of all his work, Michael Pritchard has been featured on CNN, The Today Show, The Tonight Show, CBS Sunday Morning, Time magazine and People magazine.

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Michael Pritchard.

Michael Pritchard:Man, that was—I was like, wow.

That's all you, man.

I don't know whether to thank you for making me look so old for all the board, or be grateful to anybody even remembering it.

A Comedian From Childhood

Ric Hansen:Tell me, have you been a funny guy your whole life? Even as a kid?

Michael Pritchard:All my life I've just had fun with people, starting from the time I was a little kid.

I used to amuse my parents greatly.

My father was an Army officer, my mother was a schoolteacher, and I was that kid who was always at the table making jokes, having fun and laughing.

My father and mother enjoyed me. I was their baby, and I had watched the minefield the other ones had gone through.

The other three older brothers had gone through it, and I learned to just keep my parents happy by making them laugh.

It was a great gift.

An Early Connection to Faith

Ric Hansen:Tell me about your faith story too.

Where were you as a young person in your relationship with God? Did you have an early connection with your faith?

Michael Pritchard:Ric, from the time I was a little kid, I was empathic.

As I look back at it, I think that was a fruit of the Holy Spirit—to be joyful and also to be empathetic to people.

It's almost intuitive or psychic. You tune in more to their human emotions and wellness than you do anything else in the room.

When you're on that kind of frequency, you're filled with how to make people's lives better.

That keeps you awake consciously to what we should be here to do—to help our fellow human beings in suffering or sadness or sorrow or joy or disconnection.

I think that's from the earliest time I was a kid. I remember those moments.

An Accidental Comedy Career

Ric Hansen:Let's get started on your career path.

You were a stand-up comic, you did improv and competition, and you actually won the San Francisco competition up against some notable people.

Michael Pritchard:Yeah, there were some.

But here's the thing, Ric: my comedy career was accidental.

Ric Hansen:Oh, was it really? I want to hear about this accident.

Michael Pritchard:It was obviously God-guided.

God guides you to where you're going to be doing the most good.

I was working at Juvenile Hall, and the kids said, "You should go down because you're so funny. You should go down to the Holy City Zoo."

The Holy City Zoo was the playground for all of us. It's where we all started out.

It was a wonderful place filled with joy and laughter and fun.

Comedians like Robin Williams, Whoopi Goldberg and Danny Glover would come in and do improv. People who were doing theater and laughter were there.

I started there and went on.

Then I discovered that show business was hard.

It was a hard thing to watch because people were awfully tough on each other.

It was the comedy competition, and the idea is to try to be a kind person in a world that doesn't usually find kindness anything but weak.

I loved the people that I worked with. I loved the people I worked around.

I was happy doing stand-up and making thousands of people laugh at any given time.

But I could feel a power—a presence—in me to help me do my work when I was up there being funny and organizing my thoughts.

Because I have totally ADD. I'm a totally ADD guy.

Ric Hansen:And it worked to your advantage.

Michael Pritchard:Well, that's all okay until you go, "Look! Butterfly!" right in the middle.

So, yeah, I used it as an advantage.

I knew that it made me a happy heart.

Michael Pritchard and Robin Williams

Ric Hansen:You developed a personal relationship with Robin Williams in the earlier days.

Michael Pritchard:Robin and I were friends.

He was a wonderful man—a kind and thoughtful guy, good, decent and holy in many ways.

He, like all comedians, had flaws, idiosyncrasies and foibles.

What was powerful for me was watching Robin Williams work with acting, theater, music, dance—any of those—and draw characters and laughs from people in the most amazing way.

He was such a great spirit.

Ric Hansen:Along the way he ran into depression and mental-health issues that viewers never really knew about.

Michael Pritchard:I think that people in our world, in entertainment, there are so many folks who vacillate between the highs and lows of stages and cameras.

It's sometimes really important to stay engaged with artists in a loving way, to let them know that they're not alone, they're not isolated.

And that's what it was with Robin.

Once he was facing a disease called Lewy body dementia, it was impossible for him to explain it at times.

Those on the most empathic frequency would see that he was suffering and try and do everything we could to help him.

Helping Robin Williams Find Joy

Ric Hansen:He called upon you a few times along the way to lighten his spirits and bring him out of his funk, right?

Michael Pritchard:I took him to play basketball with adults with developmental disabilities, and I watched him do that.

It was remarkable to see the lift.

He said to me, "Mike, why do I feel so good here? Why do I feel so right here?"

I said, "Everywhere else in the world, Robin, you're on give. And here, with all these folks, you're on receive."

It's not like show business or Hollywood.

This is real people loving you for you—coming to play basketball with them and showing your tenderheartedness.

He was so great.

He literally had so much joy in him as he was leaving. He was hugging everybody.

It was great to watch him really—and truthfully, I believe this word—relax into not trying to be somebody, and instead just having fun with his family.

His wife and two stepsons, Peter and Casey, were there.

It was remarkable.

We played, we had fun, and I learned from Robin that he could change. He could get wiser and more well for himself and his own sake.

And it was great.

From Comedy to Helping People

Ric Hansen:I loved hearing about Taxi.

For those of us old enough, Taxi was a staple on television. Everybody watched it.

You were on one of the Emmy Award-winning episodes, and you played the role of a gay gentleman dancing with Judd Hirsch.

Michael Pritchard:I did.

I had to learn the choreography.

We had a great choreographer, Jeff Kutash, who came in and staged everything. He was a brilliant guy and dance teacher.

Judd was incredible.

It was remarkable to hear the laughter from the crowd. They were so happy and engaged.

It was one of the first times anything like that had been on television, in 1980.

Ric Hansen:That was groundbreaking at the time.

So, out of comedy, you found deeper meaning and purpose from your ability—your gift—to make people laugh and bring joy into their lives.

You got out of the limelight of being an onstage comedian, but then went on to another stage and into a different limelight: helping people.

How did all that happen?

The Healing Power of Laughter

Michael Pritchard:If anybody tells you that the corporate people and philanthropic people in America aren't really great and terrific and true, they're wrong.

I've worked with so many corporations and so many good people who have funded my work and helped me—not just on PBS, but internationally.

To know that philanthropically you can go out there and find business people who know the real successes in America aren't the people who love money and use people.

They're the people who love people and use money.

Ric Hansen:Very interesting.

Michael Pritchard:For me, I started working on PBS, doing series for children to help them with the choices that they make.

The first one was called Power of Choice, then You Can Choose, Big Changes, Big Choices.

They were sponsored by corporations and people interested in helping us further the work on PBS and in life.

Working With Children Across America

Ric Hansen:That translated to activity in schools. You did assemblies for young people?

Michael Pritchard:I did hundreds and hundreds of assemblies, Ric, all over America—in places some people wouldn't want to go, but I found fascinatingly warm.

When you meet the children in an Inupiat village in Alaska and you get to bring them joy and laughter, God has sent you to some place where you can use your skills and talent.

It doesn't have to be on television.

It can just be a real-life performance for lonely kids in an isolated area of the world who love to laugh.

That's when you know the Holy Spirit is with you.

Reaching Young People Through Empathy

Ric Hansen:The thing that struck me was how you were able to bridge the gap between being an adult and being in a room full of middle-schoolers, who typically are pretty hard to break through to.

I saw some of the videos, and they were laughing and walking right along your comedic path.

How did you figure out how to reach them as an adult?

Michael Pritchard:Emotional intelligence is something we're going to be teaching for years.

They now call it social-emotional learning.

Across America and everywhere, we're starting to realize our leaders have to be more emotionally intelligent, more empathic, more in tune, more on frequency, more into the consciousness of what's going to make the world better and wiser.

For me, that has always been prayer and helping people find prayer.

When I was literally born again, I was with charismatic people and they prayed over me.

It was a new me.

I started to live to take care of children's lives and people's lives, and everything was guided along the way by the angels, I believe.

I found myself in places and would say, "What am I doing here? What could possibly have brought me here to this moment?"

That might be in an Inupiat village where they still whale.

It might be at an amazing Mohawk Nation tribal gathering, speaking to people of the Mohawk faith.

They are amazing, astounding spiritual human beings, filled with a magnificent light and an arc of trying to help humanity save itself by saving and preserving themselves.

Wise people.

Prayer and Answered Prayer

Ric Hansen:You brought up the word prayer, and I'm very interested in pursuing that because some people have a difficult time understanding how to pray.

They sometimes have difficulty when a prayer isn't answered.

Can you identify a specific time when you saw an answer to your prayer?

Michael Pritchard:I mean, so many miracles in my life as I went by.

Not too long ago, after heart surgery, I drove to the coffee shop by my home where I sit and talk with some old friends.

This was about four years ago.

A young couple walked up and said, "This is a check for you for $25,000 to buy yourself a new car."

They said, "We heard that your son, the ER doctor, couldn't get home from Visalia after saving somebody who had been shot nine times. We felt bad. We thought we'd take some stress off you. We're going to get you to buy a new car."

I have that car in my driveway.

And I have to swear to you that this is true, Ric.

I was going, "Lord, what do You want me to do? I'm trying the best I can. I'm doing the best I can, and I can't keep this truck going. I've got to keep going and helping people."

That's when I pulled in and they gave me the check.

I walked back to the car and went, "That was pretty amazing."

Ric Hansen:A surprise gift from God.

Michael Pritchard:Yeah.

It wasn't only from God. He was teaching me something.

The lesson is: "You're never being punished. You're being protected."

And the other thing is, some people filled with hate become their own karma.

What happens to them is out of the anger in them.

Our job is to help with the anger and not allow it to turn from grief to anger to rage to violence.

That's what I've been doing ever since.

Speaking to people from a heartfelt, emotional way to teach them lessons of the connection of my Christ, who lives in my heart and has since I was a little five-year-old boy.

At points I drifted away, but then I had work to do, and He woke me up.

I've been on that job ever since.

Knowing that when I serve humanity—not the left wing or the right wing, but the suffering wing—I save lives.

That's what I focus on.

I save them emotionally and physically by helping them with their issues.

That's what I do.

When Prayers Aren't Answered

Ric Hansen:Last question about prayer.

How about the prayers that aren't answered? Has there been those as well?

Michael Pritchard:Never.

All prayers are answered.

The only thing I had to do was learn patience.

Ric Hansen:Sometimes when a prayer is not answered, that is the answer.

That's the best thing for you—not necessarily what you were praying for.

The Happiest Man on Earth?

Ric Hansen:You've used this word a few times, and I love the word.

When we talked previously, you gave me a real indication that you come from a place of being happy almost all the time.

I think we could call this episode "The Happiest Man on Earth."

Michael Pritchard:Well, we're waiting, Ric, for the Earth Mirth Rebirth.

Helping Children Share Their Pain

Ric Hansen:You were also part of a documentary called Happy.

Your segment is pretty significant in that documentary.

Michael Pritchard:It was plucked from a live performance at a middle school.

I talked to a couple of young folks that I brought up on stage.

Ric Hansen:I was shocked that you were able to get real vulnerability from them onstage.

Can you describe that? It probably describes many of your interactions with kids at schools all over the country.

Michael Pritchard:One of the youngsters who was in that—I was arrested for murder.

Ric Hansen:Wow.

Michael Pritchard:We see the impact of bullying on people from this.

It's incumbent on us to do everything we can before anger builds in people.

That movie was a magnificent example of why human emotion can help us learn to heal the human body.

When I'm up there on stage, I say to the kids, "This is how I garner their trust."

I tell them an empathic story.

I say, "Hey, boys and girls, who has a responsibility at home?"

And one little kid goes, "Mr. Mike, I have a responsibility that when my dad gets drunk and beats on Mom, I take my baby brother and I hide the baby in the closet because you heard him before and it scared me."

And I said, "Tay, I just sat down. I don't know if I'm all ready for that."

"But you needed to share that, right?"

"Yes, sir."

I said, "Why do you think you needed to tell me that?"

Everybody needs to meet a kind stranger to tell their secrets to so they can get help.

If you become that person for children where they can unburden themselves, you are living a blessed and holy life.

Amen.

Teaching Empathy, Compassion and Forgiveness

Ric Hansen:You've had so many appearances along the way.

Your passion is clearly with youth and young people.

But you also did corporate conferences and worked with various government agencies.

How did that grow out of the youth work?

Michael Pritchard:They're all intertwined.

People have children and they need to know how to help, support and love them.

People are grandparents and are trying to help their children raise their children.

People just need empathy, sympathy, compassion, love and connection to that greater community.

Unity.

That's what I teach every day in the workplace.

Peace.

No bullying.

"Hurt people hurt people."

"Pain shared is pain divided."

Where we help each other.

Community.

Unity.

"Forgive to live. Live to forgive. Let it go."

"What people think of me is none of my business. They don't know my heart. They don't know my journey."

I teach people brain axioms that help them find laughter as well as wisdom.

That comes from knowing that where we live and where we come from is inside the spirit.

And it's immortal.

People should know that.

It's no different than a beautiful caterpillar curling itself up into a cocoon and turning to goo, but moments later becoming a beautiful butterfly going through a fragrant garden.

This is why we need to help each other with death as well as with life.

As I used to tell everybody:

"You don't stop laughing because you grow old. You grow old because you stop laughing."

We had a 100-year-old Marine at the Marines' Memorial in San Francisco.

I said, "Tommy, what's the best part of turning 100?"

And he said, "The absolute lack of peer pressure."

It's so great.

Grief and Giving Sorrow Words

Michael Pritchard:When you're talking to people and helping them with their lives, mostly you're helping them with grief.

Remember this line by Shakespeare:

"Always give sorrow words."

Grief that does not speak whispers to the overfraught heart and bids it to break.

We know that tears that do not flow will make other organs weep inside of us.

We get sick if we're not grieving well.

And well is grieving, and grieving is well.

"I" is illness.

"We" is wellness.

Helping people with that human emotion stops it from turning into self-destructiveness, anger and outward anger becoming inward anger.

Teaching little kids that—what a blessing.

I've had to channel things that teach great light and laughter.

I've seen it in the eyes of children.

Those children's eyes—that's the medicine for a human soul.

The sound of their laughter and their eyes tracking you and cracking up with you.

Amazing.

Voice Work: Star Wars and Sesame Street

Ric Hansen:Speaking of youth and comedy, your credentials also include voiceover work with Star Wars and Sesame Street.

Tell me about that.

Michael Pritchard:You know, Ric, I love this.

It's so strangely ironic.

I was doing a Disney read for Fagin Baum and Locker for a show on critical thinking, and all of a sudden, out of nowhere, this guy bursts in and says, "Can you do comedy voices for Sesame Street?"

I went, "Yeah."

He goes, "Okay."

I said, "Well, what's the deal? Do I get paid?"

And I was in those days making $10,000 a year as a Juvenile Hall correctional officer.

All of a sudden he says, "I'll pay you $1,500."

I said, "La la la la la la la la la la la la. I'm in!"

Can't get better.

You're going to have a lot of fun.

And when I'm done, I'm going to have seven or eight points in it to get money for.

When you're having fun, when that joy comes to you, you can create anything.

Animation, music, theater, art, dance—all these things play into it.

Let people explore with that.

This is what's going to save the arts.

The arts unite.

They're part of a holiness in our society.

They dedicate themselves to, as the Jesuits would say, ad maiorem Dei gloriam—all for the greater glory of God.

Ric Hansen:You did a bit when we were on the phone in our pre-get-together.

You did a sequence of Star Wars-ish characters.

Michael Pritchard:I'm so—

I can take them.

"The Force is strong within you."

So can you imagine being 70 years old and still being able to do that?

That's how you know there's a God.

You still have childlike stupidity in you.

As my father would say, "You'd have to take a self-improvement course to become an idiot."

I don't want to say he's dumb, but a single thought in his brain would die of loneliness.

Anyway, my pop was one of those World War II guys.

I loved him. I miss him every day.

Stephen Ambrose said when it came to World War II, we sent our best, they did their best, and the world was safe from evil.

I say all the time to people what Ike Eisenhower, the leader, said about the nature of loneliness and anger and hostility and hate and what it does to the human spirit.

Eisenhower said when his young men landed at Normandy, he didn't know whether those young men and his uncles among them would ever have known what they were fighting for when they got there.

But when they saw the concentration camps and the sickness that was there, they knew absolutely what they had been fighting against.

That's leadership.

George Lucas and Lessons from the Heart

Ric Hansen:I want to dig a little deeper into your connection with George Lucas.

You did the Star Wars stuff, but that led into something called Edutopia.

Michael Pritchard:Yes.

Working with George's educational foundation, I did a wonderful film called Lessons from the Heart.

It's about ten minutes long, but it shows people how you talk to kids emotionally and use their wisdom to share and give out to others.

It's remarkable stuff.

No matter what we teach their brains, love is more important than knowledge.

I narrated a bunch of films there for Ken Ellis and George.

I love them.

George is a visionary and a brilliant leader in education and technology and its impact on us.

Faith, Rebirth and the Holy Spirit

Ric Hansen:You were born Catholic, but then you had a rebirth—a kind of born-again experience—later in life.

What brought that about?

Michael Pritchard:I became charismatic in the sense that I believe strongly in Scripture and its wisdom.

I also believe strongly in helping human beings through empathic, intuitive love, compassion and connection.

You believe that you become the channel of the Holy Spirit in that loving way that Christ asked us to.

So we love.

We become the hands and feet of Christ here.

You just feel it.

When I'm onstage speaking and helping people, I feel an energy from spiritual realms that helps sustain my words and my wisdom.

And I have an incredible memory for somebody in their 70s.

I'm just grateful for it.

Ric Hansen:For people who might think most of your live performances aren't really Christian-based—

Michael Pritchard:Some of them are.

I love speaking to all crowds.

But you have to learn to speak to the secular and make them realize that you can shift their lives and help them just by coming closer to believing in kindness, compassion, love and connection.

If I can't proselytize, that's fine.

I can then become the example.

And that's all you want.

You want to make sure you maintain the moral turpitude of a person who's helping to lead.

Readers are leaders and leaders are readers.

It's important for us to have people who understand humanity like Charles Dickens.

Charity and Brain Research

Ric Hansen:You've done tons of things that are helping people all the time—raising money and participating in charitable organizations.

One of those is the Susan Williams Foundation?

Michael Pritchard:Susan Williams has the American Brain Association, and they are working on Lewy body dementia biomarkers and ways to find a vaccine and a cure, preemptively helping people with brain disease.

The more we find those beginnings in the biomarkers, the easier it is to do research to find these things for ALS, Lewy body dementia, Alzheimer's—all these things.

We need to be looking at the whole brain and figuring out how we can help each other.

That's what neuroscience is all about.

Robin loved this stuff, and he would have loved the Happy movie because it was like that.

My charitable work and doing all that stuff is always part of the agenda—to live a happy life of humble service.

What Is the Secret to Happiness?

Ric Hansen:We talked about the word happy.

You were in a documentary called Happy.

You've mentioned you're happy.

I called you the happiest man in the world.

It is true.

I want to know—is there a secret to being happy?

Is there something you can share with us that we can take with us and help us be happy?

Michael Pritchard:I was sitting with a bunch of young, really brilliant, young three- and four-tour guys who'd come back and returned.

We were having a little group meeting with them at the VA in Yountville.

They're kind, young men and good young men.

They'd served well, nobly and with incredible integrity, and were coming home from the war wounded.

I looked at them and said:

"Hey, look up here, you guys.

There is a river of gladness that runs through the city of the Most Holy. He is within it, and it will not fall.

He'll save it at the break of day.

Nations and kingdoms will totter. Despots and tyrants will fall.

But when He lifts His voice, the earth melts away.

Come and look at all the desolation that He's put forth on Earth, but He ends wars to the ends of the Earth.

He shatters the bow.

He splinters the spear.

He burns the shield with fire.

Be still and know that I am God.

The Lord of all the host of angels is with us.

The God of Jacob is our fortress.

Of whom should we fear?"

And so when you say that in front of these troops—

That ain't me.

I don't know where that came from.

Ric Hansen:That's powerful.

Michael Pritchard:Can I tell you about consciousness?

Here it is.

Moe walks up to Curly and goes, "What are you doing?"

And Curly goes, "I'm thinking."

"But nothing's happening."

That's consciousness.

That's when you're in the total state of grace, the total state of serenity, the total state of peace.

And you go, "Yeah, Lord. This is—I feel like I'm in Eden right now."

I do feel like I'm in heaven.

I've got a 55-inch flat screen, a foam bed and family that loves me.

And a grandson who comes in here and goes—

I was crying one day because this young kid was graduating from Annapolis who had struggled all his life.

I was weeping as he was telling me this, and my grandson throws the door open and goes:

"What are you crying about now, Grandpa?"

"Why don't you turn on Farm and Sand?"

That's a good job about farming.

We'll laugh.

What else do I need?

Ric Hansen:Yeah, that's pretty good.

Michael Pritchard:That's not my time.

That's God's timing.

Ric Hansen:There you go. Cheer up, pal.

Looking Ahead

Ric Hansen:I think we could go on here.

I've been thrilled having this opportunity to talk with you and get your insights and your humor.

As we close this down, is there anything we can do to support you?

Is there anything you've got going that we can engage with you on, or are you just so retired you don't want to hear from us?

Michael Pritchard:No.

What I want to do is, after I have my knee surgery—I have to have both knees replaced—as that becomes better, I'll be able to travel more.

I have to get that done.

I think when that begins, I'd come anywhere to help people raise funds just by speaking and laughing and talking.

I can do that because I started my career doing The Healing Power of Laughter in play conferences all over America for AIDS patients, cancer patients and doctors.

It was amazing.

Norman Cousins—

For me, any support you give, I have a foundation called the Heartland Media Foundation.

People can donate there so I can continue to do my bullying work, even if it's on Zoom.

Closing

Ric Hansen:Thank you so much for your time, Michael.

It's been an absolute pleasure getting to know you, and I hope our connection might exist beyond today.

I want to close out and give you a gift, my brother, because you're such a good man.

Michael Pritchard:Please tell Clem I feel the same.

There's a cancer camp called St. Dorothy's Rest, run by the Anglican Church there. It's wonderful, and I've been going up there.

There's a poem there, and I'm going to give it to you:

"All the winds of God are blowing,so keep your sails unfurled,and the winds of God will take youto the safe harbors of the world.

"Forever full of powerto take you where you will,forever full of graceif there are sails to fill.

"So take the helm, be master,unfurl your sail, your part,and the winds of God will take youto the safe harbors of your heart."

Ric Hansen:Thank you.

Michael Pritchard:Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Ric Hansen:You too, sir.