Danise Barlow, patient access services specialist, Patient Access Services – Sandra Eskenazi Mental Health Center, was told as a toddler that she would not be able to walk or play like other kids.

“My hands and feet faced each other where they had to be broken and straightened out,” she says. Barlow wore casts on her legs as a toddler. Born with arthrogryposis, a condition affecting the joints and muscles, she was given what she calls a “grim” prognosis for her future mobility.

Her persistence as a young child was soon as evident as her illness: her health team had to keep replacing casts she’d torn off, she says.

“I was determined,” she says, “to walk and do something different.”

For Barlow, that “something different” became comedy. Teased about her disability by other kids, the future stand-up comedian turned the jokes on herself. Comedy, Barlow explains, “helps with your character. It helps you grow. It helps you thicken your skin.”

Barlow also showed early signs of craving an audience. Soon after she moved from casts to walking shoes and braces and began to walk, she spent solo hours tap dancing and practicing Wonder Woman spins. She says that she has “always wanted to be in the limelight.” By junior high, she was in a dance group.

She knows now that the resolve, humor and theatricality she developed in her early years prepared her for “something down the line.” Barlow discovered that “there are some things I can’t do, but there’s a lot of stuff that I can do.” Supported by her parents; who championed her through health visits, physical therapy and swim and ballet lessons; Barlow says, “I’ve spent my life saying, ‘Yes, I can.’”

Her cousins gave her the push into stand-up, convincing her into her first open-mic comedy show. Success soon followed with the help of Comedian Dwayne Cobb, who gave Barlow her first break and continues to coach and mentor her. For the past 15 years now, “Danise the Comedianne” has performed at comedy shows, corporate events, churches and retirement homes with tame or risque routines, depending on the venue. She was honored with a national comedy award in 2022. In addition to shows throughout the Midwest, she has acted in plays and in a film and has put on numerous shows to highlight others’ talents. Comedy has “opened up so many other doors for me,” she says.

Simultaneously, Barlow has pursued a career that fulfills her need to assist others, something her deep faith requires of her. Assisting others, she believes, is “probably part of what I was put here to do and my purpose.” Given her background, she has always valued comforting others through their illnesses, as she does every day at Eskenazi Health. “This is just where I need to be. This is my calling,” she says. Her role is to serve, she says, whether that means her patients, community or parents.

Despite the differences others may perceive between stand-up and health care, Barlow is struck by the parallels, especially when she’s helped put patients at ease. Trying to “make them laugh or make their day lighter,” she explains, is “ just who I am.” Audience members at shows praise the

healing powers of her comedy, especially attendees who are going through a loss. Barlow has discovered that comedy answers so many people’s needs: “To make them laugh. To change their outlook. To make them feel better.”

Although other demands on her time have made her stop performing stand-up more than once, Barlow has always returned to it. As she remembers fellow comic and mentor Robert “Sweaty Hands” Day telling her, “You can’t quit comedy because comedy will never quit you.”

Even if she tried to leave stand-up, her friends and family would probably prevent her. The support group she calls “my Wooters” — her son, Dennis; his wife, Cherelle; and her grandkids DeShaun, Dennis III, Devin and Dayton — are always giving her new jokes, and her partner L. Fields is always ready with support.

Barlow is proud of the ways her skill with comedy “has evolved,” especially her ability to sharpen the focus of her routines. One newfound source of material is artificial intelligence since she’s discovered that ChatGPT’s jokes don’t extend beyond chickens crossing the road. “Count your days, ChatGPT,” Barlow quips.

Her favorite kind of humor is the type she’s been doing all her life: “pain,” she says, “that turns into something funny.”

Barlow will be the MC for the Eskenazi Health’s Got Talent showcase on September 10, her second time MCing for it.