Actress and comedian Amy Sedaris plays a video game at a Dave & Buster’s in Manhattan, New York City. (Photo: Courtesy of Centrum)
Courtesy of Centrum
When it comes to brain health, actress and comedian Amy Sedaris doesn’t play around. Well, actually, she does. But she’s quite serious about playing games in ways that can help the brain and not in a I’m-going-to-mess-with-you type of way. She’s been talking about such game play as well as some of the ABCs of brain health as part of a campaign that she’s working on with Dave & Buster’s and Centrum called Dave & Brain Busters.
And, yes, the name of the campaign is a play on words in and of itself. This campaign is about what you can do to support your memory and brain health after you gotten past the big 5-0 in age. The 64-year-old Sedaris felt that this campaign would be a natural fit because maintaining brain health has long been on her, well, brain or mind. “My dad lived to be 98,” recalled Sedaris, who co-created, wrote and starred as Jerri Blank in the Comedy Central series Strangers with Candy and its prequel film. “He was still on an extension ladder with a saw on his hand and very quick. We’re all very quick and big thinkers in my family, and I just knew from an early age that you want to support that by getting out, exercising, being around people and being interested.”
Sedaris Is A Fan Of Intentional Game Play
“I am a fan of games, especially intentional game play,” she told me at a Dave & Buster’s location in Manhattan, New York City, a location filled with, guess what, games. Intentional means done by design or on purpose as opposed to random and haphazard. I’ve already written in Forbes on different occasions about how playing games can do a lot of good, such as fostering resilience, empathy and emotional health in general. Games can also teach and hone problem-solving skills and creativity. You can learn skills as well that you might never pick up in real life, such as in Mario Kart Arcade GP DX when you race a car while trying to pound others with a hammer, something that is typically frowned upon on most city streets.
Plus, your brain is a bit like a muscle or other parts of your body in that if you don’t use it regularly, you could “lose it.” Studies have shown that actively using your brain in different ways can help keep your noggin sharp and stave off cognitive decline. Sedaris mentioned that she keeps “pretty busy, even if it’s like crafting, you know, to make things with my hands.”
A challenge is that regular daily life may not always offer enough stimulation of the brain. It can be far too easy to get caught up in the repetitive minutia of daily life where you are just going through repeated thoughts and motions. This can be the case even in supposedly intellectual or highfalutin jobs where you encounter the same day-to-day conversations, mingle with the same people, say and do the same things over and over again and never really get exposed to something different. So playing games, as long as they are the right kinds of games, can help fill that stimulate-your-brain-regularly role.
Play Puzzles & Games on Forbes
Now, games, especially video games like the ones you see online or in arcades, may not have best of reputations in all quarters, so to speak. For example, a survey by Centrum and Talker of 2,000 U.S. adults 50 years and older conducted from September 9-16, 2025, found that 62% have head that screen time is harmful, either addictive or “rots” the brain. At the same time, this survey revealed that 73% believe that it is important to engage in new technology. So, there is a happy medium. You don’t necessarily want to play just any game. But try choosing a video game, for example, that it is interactive and makes you use your brain in a positive way.
Amy Sedaris said, “I am a fan of games, especially intentional game play,” (Photo: Courtesy of Centrum)
Courtesy of Centrum
Sedaris Exercises Five Days A Week
It’s also important to remember that your brain is connected to the rest of your body. (If it somehow isn’t, call you doctor immediately.) Therefore, keeping the rest of your body active can help keep your brain active. “I pretty much walk everywhere that I can,” said Sedaris. “And I work out five days a week. I do strength training at the gym and cardio and then I do Pilates once a week and a stretch class.”
Studies have shown how regular physical activity can help you think, learn, problem-solve and remember things. It can also reduce the risk of anxiety, depression, cognitive decline and dementia. Some of these effects may be related to the improvements in blood circulation through the brain, release of different good substances like hormones and neurotransmitters and better sleep that come with being more physically active.
Sedaris Talked About Maintaining A Good Diet And Regularly Takes Vitamins
Speaking of the brain being connected to the rest of the body, what you put into your mouth can affect your brain health as well. Your brain is composed of many different cells, all hungry for the right nutrients. This is where the ABCs and Ds, Es, Ks, B12s and so forth come into play. Different vitamins and minerals help your brain cells perform their various functions and maintain themselves.
So, you don’t want to put just anything into your mouth. Maintaining a good diet can help provide the necessary nutrients and avoid the stuff that can damage your brain like too much sugar, too much trans and saturated fats and the artificial stuff in highly processed foods. The Strangers with Candy star, whose father was born to immigrants from Greece, is no stranger to good food. Sedaris mentioned regularly eating many things that are part of a Mediterranean Diet. “I eat a lot of Greek food. I also cook a lot of Greek food,” said Sedaris. “I am bad at skipping meals once in a while, but my favorite meal is dinner.”
She also mentioned regularly taking multivitamins because, “You can’t always get all the vitamins from food alone.” While taking multivitamins and other supplements won’t replace a good diet, these additions to your diet could potentially help fill some nutritional gaps. As you get older, your body may not absorb nutrients from food quite as well as it did when you were younger. Plus, you may be taking medications that interfere with such absorption or the processing of nutrients in general. Analyses from the COcoa Supplement and Multivitamin Outcomes Study (COSMOS) have shown taking a daily multivitamin to be associated with less cognitive decline among older adults.
Of course, not everyone is the same. And not all studies have shown the same results. So you may want to talk to your doctor to see if your would benefit from regular taking multivitamins. Also, not all multivitamins are the same. It’s important to carefully look at anything before you put it into your mouth. Make sure that the manufacturer is legit and that the multivitamin actually contains what it is supposed to contain. Read the ingredients label carefully. Beware of any additives that may be unhealthy.
Being mindful of all the things that Sedaris mentioned can help your mind. Sedaris also argued for doing seemingly mindless stuff too. “Some people might think some things, like painting or filling in a coloring look, are mindless, but I disagree with that,” she asserted. “I think because I have such an active mind, I think I need more things to to be mindless.” Variety can be not only the spice of life but important for your brain. Like a muscle, your brain shouldn’t be fully firing in the same way all the time. That can lead to exhaustion. In other words, your brain probably wouldn’t mind taking your mind off of things every now and then.