User:The Laughing Pen

Stephan Everall is a writer, blogger and street journalist. He has worked in a wide variety of settings from secure psychiatric units, to teaching Pilates and rehabilitation of physical injuries.

His writing can be seen on thelaughingpen.com, a website he created to blog about the humorous things that occur in his often surreal life.

He also dedicated pages to anxiety sufferers and those living with pain. Of his website he said "Comedy and writing help me with my own anxiety, and if I can lead the way, make someone smile or perhaps change a person's life by an article or blog post then that's what I must try to do."

It is clear that even at 45 he is still gaining knowledge, creating more than ever in the form of writing comedy, anecdotes, journalism and shooting videos and drawing and painting. He was observed creating an ambient music track for his Pilates class, on his phone in roughly 10 minutes and had numerous students ask if they could purchase it later on.

When asked about his anxiety he said: "I have numerous disc prolapses, arthritis in my knees and hips and have had to stop being the person I was. This got to me and the anxiety came through the back door while I was battling at the front."

He has often been upfront about his medication use and the effects they have on his creativity. "It's a dirty business and I warn people about opioids and other painkillers, if you can manage without them go for it, try herbal medicine, natural diets, water therapy, infact anything but drugs. Of course to people like me, these drugs are lifelines to a normal day. Living with the constant toothache pain in your knees alone is enough to ruin your existence. Add in the other ailments and you see how bad someone in my condition would be without medicines."

"I get lots done on medication, I guess I've built a tolerance. When people complain that these drugs 'knock them out' for the day when used, in my case I go on crusades of Gonzo journalism, weird experiences that other people seem to miss and let my mind pour it's contents onto the page or canvass. Without the meds? It's a write off, just me in a curled up ball waiting for bedtime. Awful."

With this in mind, Stephan has defended the medical community ferociously over the years, especially when doctors get labelled 'drug dealers' when scapegoats are needed for the opioid crisis.

Stephan currently works part time for a local authority teaching Pilates and spends the rest of his time as a full time husband and dad.

He hopes to support himself one day with his writing and website. Podcasts and/or YouTube videos are penned in for creation, and he has a surprising teacher helping him work out the technical side of things.

"My youngest daughter holds my hand with it all. I asked her if she knew how people do intros and outros on home made videos and she piped up 'ha, that's easy dad!' then sprang into action, creating some beautiful stuff with free software! Amazing."

Stephan also worked as a security person at the NEC in Birmingham and venues up and down the country. He worked big outdoor shows to

He has met and sat with the likes of David Bowie, Tom Jones, Simply Red, U2, Hawkwind, the Stranglers and lots more plus many of the wrestlers in WWE over the years.

"I don't do that work now but I've seen a lot I can and can't tell you haha," he said. "I worked in the pysche ward at the same time so my experiences were not like the other lads in the pub I used to drink with. People would crowd round me to get the latest stories every Sunday evening, it set them up for the week!"

He wrote 'Gym Shorts' a collection of short humorous anecdotes from his work in gyms and leisure centres.

He is planning a second book based around a trip to Blackpool, unauthorised with a crazy psychologist friend, 3 female nurses and several mentally ill patients.

It's clear Stephan's star has yet to shine it's brightest and it will be interesting to see what escapes that unrelenting mind of his in the next few years.