Part comedic memoir, part advice guide, Cheer the F**k Up, is a personal account of a young comedian’s experiences with mental health, a huge issue very close to Jack’s heart – he lost his dad at 15, and aged 21, whilst working as an ambassador for CALM, lost a close friend to suicide.

Jack Rooke takes us on a mission to better understand the reasons why so many people are struggling, and how we can all feel better equipped in knowing how to support that one friend we might be that bit more worried about. Whether you’ve had that friend, been that friend or lost that friend.

We are living in a time where people are encouraged to open up, and discuss their mental health with friends, family and colleagues. But with cuts in government funding, the onus is increasingly being placed upon us to be mental health supports for one another, and not all of us feel equipped for this. We are plagued with fears of getting it wrong, of saying the wrong things, making matters worse.

Cheer the F**k Up guides you through those difficult conversations, with helpful tips at the end of each chapter, including frank advice on what to say, (and what not to say) to a loved one in need, how to find the space to celebrate someone you’ve loved and lost, and how to look after your friends, while looking after yourself.

Taking you on a journey through his life, Rooke offers a refreshingly honest perspective on his experiences with grief, sexuality, depression and more - including the key buffet foods to stock up on at a wake, and the best way to judge the influx of lasagnes after a relative dies. Hilarious and heart-breaking in equal measure, Cheer the F**K Up can speak to anyone going through a difficult time, it will definitely make you laugh and might just make you cry, but it could also help save a life.

Jack Rooke is a 28-year-old writer, comedian and mental health ambassador. He presented his own BBC Three documentary series, Happy Man, the BBC Radio 4 comedy Good Grief and Arts special Mamma M.I.A. He was also BBC Radio 1’s on-air expert in bereavement and mental health for The Surgery.

Jack has produced three stand-out Edinburgh Fringe shows – Good Grief, co-written with his 85-year-old Nan about his father’s death, Happy Hour, a comedic tribute to a friend lost to suicide, and Love Letters, a show about modern romance described by the Guardian as ‘effortlessly charming and buoyantly funny.’ Jack’s shows have transferred on to London’s Soho Theatre, Latitude Festival and The Roundhouse.

In 2019 he contributed an essay to the award-winning book It’s Not OK to Feel Blue (& Other Lies), curated by Scarlett Curtis. Cheer the F**K Up is his debut publication. His debut comedy series Big Boys is loosely adapted from the book and airs on Channel 4 and All4 in May 2022.

Cheer the F**k Up contains tips on:

How to help a loved one on a painful anniversary

How to help a loved one accept their sexuality

How to spot some early signs of mental health issues

How to support a friend whose just lost a parent/close loved

Bullshit things you shouldn’t say to the severely bereaved on the day of a funeral

Published on 12th May 2022. Buy Cheer the F**k Up here.