Comedian’s own mental health crisis at heart of solo show, Certified

I have long considered Loose Moose alumnus Jan Derbyshire an insanely funny comic. What I didn’t know was that Derbyshire was once certified insane.

“It started back in 1998 in Toronto. I used to joke that my erratic behaviour and mood shifts were just artistic temperament, but then I was diagnosed as bipolar.

“I ended up in the psychiatric system, but my real psychiatric land was Vancouver. That’s where things escalated and I was eventually certified,” says Derbyshire, who has turned her experience with Canada’s mental-health system into a solo show.