“When you’re laughing, you’re open, you’re receptive,” said comedian Adam Strauss in an interview with The Daily Californian. “You can’t really be judging and laughing at the same time.”

For Strauss, laughter and the human connection it cultivates are fundamental to his creative projects. This philosophy is seen in action in his two solo shows at The Marsh Berkeley: “The Mushroom Cure,” inspired by his experience treating obsessive-compulsive disorder, or OCD, with psilocybin, and “Adam Strauss is Not Unhappy,” a mostly unscripted show in which he talks about something different every night.

Performing is now his career, but Strauss didn’t start down this path until his early thirties. Though he loved watching comedy from an early age, it didn’t register to him that it was something he could pursue. 

“I didn’t know anyone growing up who was in theater or performance comedy, so it just wasn’t a possibility in my world,” Strauss said. 

After college, Strauss started an internet company with some college friends in New York. He ran the company for about 10 years before he decided he needed a change of direction. “What I really wanted to do was to create, and not just create, but to create spontaneously,” Strauss explained. 

When a friend brought him to a stand-up comedy show, Strauss experienced a revelation: live comedy is created with collective improvisation. “It’s a dialogue where the audience’s contribution is laughing or not laughing, as well as the energy and quality of their attention,” Strauss said. “It was this immediate lightbulb moment when I was in that show, and was like ‘Oh, this is what I’m going to do!’”

From there, Strauss began climbing his way up the New York comedy scene, starting at open mics and eventually getting booked at clubs. However, while his new career path blossomed, Strauss was struggling. “As I was moving up in the comedy world, the OCD was also taking over my life,” Strauss said.

Strauss began experiencing symptoms of OCD in his late twenties, and the disorder grew increasingly debilitating over time. OCD symptoms often manifest as obsessive thinking and physical rituals, which can become immensely overwhelming. 

“Suffice to say, you’re basically engaging in some sort of repetitive thinking and or behavior that reduces anxiety in the very short term,” Strauss said about his experience with OCD.

After trying several medications and seeing several specialists, Strauss became desperate to find a miracle cure. At the lowest point of an OCD crisis, Strauss found an article on a pilot study at the University of Arizona that introduced him to an unconventional treatment: psilocybin, the psychedelic compound found in “magic mushrooms.”

“It was a losing battle,” Strauss explained. “Then I happened to stumble across this study, and I really had no psychedelic experience at that point, but I felt like I had nothing to lose.”

Psilocybin helped Strauss make significant recovery. Though he’s not magically cured, his symptoms have improved and flare- ups occur much less frequently. After making extraordinary progress with such an unlikely treatment, Strauss wanted to share his story with the world.

Strauss quickly realized that stand-up was not the best way to tell his story. Thinking he might find more success in theater than comedy clubs, Strauss applied to the 2012 Edinburgh Festival Fringe, and there, “The Mushroom Cure” was born. The show has greatly evolved since then, arriving at its final form with the help of director Jonathan Libman — who incorporated movement and lighting cues and encouraged Strauss to use “show” to enhance his “tell.”

Though he’s deviated away from stand-up, Strauss is still trying to make audiences laugh. “What I’ve always loved about comedy is that it can make hard truths a lot more palatable and a lot more digestible,” Strauss explained. “With ‘The Mushroom Cure,’ I’m talking about some pretty agonizing, harrowing experiences. People may be touched by it, but it’s not going to be a very enjoyable experience. Humor just transforms the energy.”

Strauss further explores creative spontaneity in a second solo show at The Marsh, a new project titled “Adam Strauss is Not Unhappy.” He steps onto stage each performance with no more than an outline — which he regularly deviates from — to talk about whatever is going on in his life.

Though Strauss can talk freely about anything during these shows, he strives to make every performance meaningful. “If I just wanted to share what’s going on with me, I could do that in therapy,” he said. “If I’m not trying to give the audience something, if I’m not trying to be of service to them in some way, then there’s no reason for me to be out there.”

Strauss always approaches his storytelling with humor, vulnerability and honesty. “It’s really about being very, very honest about my human experience,” he said. “I find that when I’m able to be very open and honest, people can relate because they’re relating — maybe not to the specific experiences — but to the basic human emotions that we all share.”