Lance Armstrong On Dealing With Cancer Through Comedy

Lance Armstrong sat down for his first interview since deciding not to fight the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency’s charges anymore.
The interview was about comedy and cancer, how they intersect and the role of humor in healing.
Lance embraced humor to deal with his cancer diagnosis and recovery.
Even to this day, he still jokes, saying:

“Sixteen years later, we try to have fun with it. In my situation, it├óΓé¼Γäós easy to look at me and say, ├óΓé¼╦£Oh man, dude has testicular cancer and has one ball.├óΓé¼Γäó Who f-cking cares? It hasn├óΓé¼Γäót affected my life at all to have one ball. Sure, it might be a punch line for some people. But I├óΓé¼Γäóve tried to take it and say, ├óΓé¼╦£Let├óΓé¼Γäós have fun with it.├óΓé¼Γäó I have a coffee shop called Juan Pelota. And at speaking engagements, I regularly tell the story of the birth of the yellow wristband. Nike initially made the bands years before and called them Ballers. The day they came to us and said they had an idea to ├óΓé¼╦£take a Baller├óΓé¼┬ª├óΓé¼Γäó, I stopped the conversation and jokingly said, ├óΓé¼╦£Wait. That├óΓé¼Γäós not f-cking funny.├óΓé¼Γäó People always laugh at that story. They├óΓé¼Γäóre like, ├óΓé¼╦£All right, this guy is cool with it. It├óΓé¼Γäós not a unspeakable thing.├óΓé¼Γäó Shit. I├óΓé¼Γäód rather be alive with one than dead with two.”

Omg! That’s so funny! What a positive outlook!
This man has had to overcome so much in his life, and humor really seems to help him cope.
Even when it’s others making insensitive jokes, he is able to take it in stride, saying:

“I was at an Austin restaurant not long ago, in the bathroom taking a piss. The bathroom is right by the kitchen and I could hear the people in there talking. One of them says, ├óΓé¼╦£Lance Armstrong is in here tonight.├óΓé¼Γäó And the other one says. ├óΓé¼╦£Did you ask him if you could rub his testicle?├óΓé¼Γäó They├óΓé¼Γäóre back there joking it up. And I don├óΓé¼Γäót have any problem with that. Part of me wanted to play along and walk in the kitchen with my ball out.”

Ha! That would’ve been HIGHlarious!
We can’t imagine how they would’ve reacted.
They probably would’ve thought he’d gone nuts! LOLz!
[Image via WENN.]