Once upon a PRESS KIT | a pissant of a press-kit

Born and raised in suburban Wethersfield, Connecticut, Jim Flannery first took to the stage as a teenager, performing comedy at an open mic night at Dick Doherty's Beantown Comedy Vault in Boston.  Displeased with the experience, he gave up, though he did make it back to Boston, earning a biomedical engineering degree from Boston University in 2008.

Upon graduation, Jim co-founded a biotechnology startup company, which led to family and friends questioning his mental stability, and him ultimately being involuntarily committed to the Institute of Living in Hartford, Connecticut where he received the best care available in the modern world – torture – including restraints, seclusion, and forced drugging.

In time, Jim would be committed involuntarily at four different mental hospitals across the United States.

Finally, in 2013, Jim returned to the stage under the pseudonym 'flim jannery' to perform at Winston's Beach Club in Ocean Beach, San Diego, breaking his silence and speaking publicly for the first time about his experiences with the mental health system. After releasing his debut stand-up album in 2015, The Flim Trilogy, Jim’s efforts grew from telling jokes to writing, speaking, protesting, advocating, and producing the MindFreedom International video series Voices for Choices: fighting for human rights in mental health.

In addition to mental health, Jim has a passion for education.  First working as a high school physics teacher, and then building the online platforms Mission: Physics, Open Source High, and the Peer Unschooling Network, Jim's efforts to empower youth resulted in him authoring the audio book app, LEAVE SCHOOL: what teachers can’t tell you, giving young people the tools and knowledge to control their own destiny through self-directed education, while his shared passion for both teaching physics and performing comedy collided to create the pilot for a sketch comedy show, What the FisX.

In 2020, Jim encountered a leprechaun, opening his eyes to the true significance of the mental health system's impact on human life, concluding there is nothing short of a genocide being perpetuated against neurodiverse people (including those who abuse run-on sentences).  Naturally, he decided to run for President, developed an allergy to comedy, created his first hip-hop album, and decided to not run for president.  Somewhere in the middle, he realized the leprechaun was just a voice in his head, the first of many to soon become Jim's permanent headmates.

Somehow, the madness of all the cognitive dissonance reminded Jim that he's he's either crazy or he's not, and in 2022, he returned to comedy, this time performing sans stage name >)... For what, nigga, like a fucking week?  When exactly did you stop running for President after you made it clear that was your intention toward the end of 2020?  Or was it literally only during the low-speed car chase in NY around Valentine's Day (as if you don't remember the fucking date, nigga, you have to be kidding me)????

It's not particularly safe to say you are running for President of these united states, but I suppose the truth is I only stopped briefly around the late 2022 when Sorry It's Not Funny came out.

So what happened to "failure to stop" then?

Do you want my baby photos now?

I'd just rather somehow make it clear this isn't a joke and that people know we're a legitimate candidate.

I'm not laughing either, Jim, so fuck this press kit but what do you want to put under the event listings?

Something, no?

That was something, Jim, I love you too, don't worry about the press.