For more than a year, comedian and mental health advocate Ryan Zeitz has traded a home office for something louder but undeniably more fun: Canada’s Wonderland.
The unconventional routine, which he calls “Working From Home From Wonderland,” began as a way to escape the distractions he experiences while working at home and create a more productive environment while living with ADHD.
“I struggle getting work done at home,” Zeitz told Now Toronto. “It’s difficult for me to motivate myself to sit down at my laptop and write, or sit down and edit videos, or make social media posts, because there are so many distractions.”
How a season pass became an office
Zeitz, who has lived in York Region his entire life, had not owned a Wonderland season pass in nearly a decade. That changed in July 2025, when he spotted a promotion offering a pass and parking for approximately $99.
He also purchased dining and drink plans, giving him access to two meals per visit, with four hours between them, and unlimited drinks while at the park. Because the 2026 pass could be used during the remainder of 2025, Zeitz calculated that he would have access to the park for roughly a year and a half.
After visiting twice with his partner, he wondered whether the park could replace the cafés where he had been trying to work.
“I live close enough to the park. Why don’t I just go there?” he recalled. “I’ve technically already prepaid for a year and a half of free food and drinks. Every single visit I go to the park, I get two free meals and unlimited drinks. I could just bring my laptop there and get work done and treat it like the café.”
His first official day working from Wonderland was July 28, 2025. He initially worked on the lower floor of Lazy Bear Lodge before searching online for a quieter location.
That led him to the park’s VIP lounge, which requires a Prestige Pass. Zeitz paid approximately $113 to upgrade, gaining access to couches, a dedicated drink machine and a daily snack.
Now, he tries to visit nearly every weekday.
“I usually roll up to the park around noon. I’ll get my lunch, usually at Manchu Wok, bring it over to the VIP lounge, eat, and then I’ll sit down and work for seven hours or so,” he said.
His work can include writing jokes, editing videos, updating materials for his comedy course, and researching how to make the program more accessible.
“I usually work for about six, seven hours, and then hop on roller coasters for the last hour or two that the park is open,” he said.
Using body doubling to manage ADHD
Zeitz said the routine helps address the dysfunction he experiences with ADHD. When he is home and left entirely to his own devices, he can become overwhelmed trying to decide which task to complete first.
“I’m thinking of 100 different things all at once that I want to do, and then thinking about the opportunity cost of doing all that,” he explained. “I spend so much time trying to figure out what to do first that I wind up doing nothing at all.”
Part of the benefit comes from a practice known as body doubling, in which another person’s presence can help someone begin and remain focused on a task.
“Just having somebody else around, whether they’re physically in the room with you or they’re on Zoom with you, it adds an extra layer of accountability,” Zeitz said. “This act of being perceived, or ‘somebody else is watching me, I better be productive,’ makes it easier to initiate those tasks.”
The surrounding activity may appear distracting, but Zeitz says leaving home, interacting with employees and establishing a routine help him remain accountable. Walking around the park also allows him to regularly surpass 10,000 steps.
“It’s like I’m clocking into the office,” he said. “I show up and I feel like I’m one of the staff.”
Zeitz began documenting the routine online partly to learn video-editing software. His first video received nearly one million views across Facebook, TikTok and other platforms, encouraging him to continue the series.
Although he posts a video almost every day, he is working through a considerable backlog. At the time of the interview, his social media series had reached approximately day 85, while he had completed about 129 real-life workdays at the park.
The project has also received recognition from Wonderland. Zeitz said the park’s president gave him a handwritten card on the series’ first anniversary.
“I’m not sponsored by Wonderland. I’m not an employee of Wonderland,” he said. “I’m still just a goofy comedian making videos.”
Outside the park, Zeitz has performed stand-up since 2019 and teaches a comedy course through CAMH that helps participants discuss their experiences with mental health and addiction. He runs “Mental Hell-th,” a comedy fundraiser that has raised more than $10,000 for the CAMH Foundation.
He now hopes to bring the two parts of his life together by staging a “Mental Hell-th” fundraiser inside Wonderland’s Canterbury Theatre during Halloween Haunt.
“I think that would be the coolest thing in the world,” he said. “Whether or not it happens, who the heck knows? I have at least opened the conversation, and it’s something that I would love to talk to them more about and try to find a way to make that work.”
