This week on the Disabilities Beat, we explore how the first-ever Funny Bones comedy night, led by disabled people but marketed widely, provided an opportunity to destigmatize disabled experiences, tell stories and build community.
TRANSCRIPT
Emyle Watkins: Hi, I'm Emyle Watkins, and this is the Disabilities Beat.
Comedian: Dentists are very strange people, they tell you never to pick your teeth with any sharp metal object! Then you start sitting in the chair-
Emyle Watkins: Despite it being a rainy Tuesday in early March, The Gypsy Parlor on Buffalo's West Side was packed. Bartenders and servers paced back and forth, busy with orders.
Legendary: While they're coming, I want to, again, encourage you to buy some drinks, make sure you tip your lovely bartenders, one of them's right there, it's Felicia. Excellent bartender right here.
Emyle Watkins: Spoken word artist Legendary was hosting the first ever Funny Bones Comedy Night.
Legendary: They were saying that we should get it together. They wanted to open up spaces for people with disabilities, create that sense of community.
Emyle Watkins: As Legendary, who has cerebral palsy explains, he was in a group chat with other disabled advocates when they realized their community needed something, a night to just joke around.
Renee Christian: There's so many things going on right now that can be such doom and gloom. So to take a break and to laugh together and to have community together, it's so impactful to everybody and to the work that we're able to do as a community.
Emyle Watkins: Renee Christian, a local home care activist who also has cerebral palsy, was part of planning the event.
Renee Christian: And I think staying true to our values, even though things are being tore down and taken away from us is so important to not only keep fighting, but to keep our spirits up and keep our connections up as community. And I think care is more than just providing support to one another. It's community. It's connection. It's relationships.
Emyle Watkins: Humor is something hard to miss when spending time in the disability community. Both Christian and Legendary describe it as a coping mechanism that helps a lot of people get through tough times and tell stories.
Legendary: Me personally, the toughest symptom of my condition, it's not the muscles, it's not the bones, it's the people. The things that they say, the comments, the hurtful things. I've had people try to threat, bully me, et cetera. And so being able to turn that into a joke and laugh about it, it makes... Because the thing about, at least for me, is making yourself want this each and every day. And by this, I mean life itself.
Emyle Watkins: Christian says humor often helps tackle the stigma our community so often faces as well.
Renee Christian: You know, here Mike was talking about poop a lot.
Mike Rogers: We need that poop truck. And don't worry, it's not going to be that expensive because we don't need to worry about refrigeration. We want to get all that flavor out with the summertime heat. So how many people want to try a sample?
[Crowd yells and boos]
Mike Rogers: No? Come on.
Renee Christian: And I think a lot of times when you talk about care and you need support with things like going to the bathroom, those things get stigmatized and they get shamed. And it's a way to take the shame out of it. And it's a way to make it funny and make it entertaining instead of harmful.
Emyle Watkins: And a detail of this night, some probably would have missed, this wasn't marketed to the disability community in particular. Unless you knew that the headliners were all performers with disabilities or the organizations sponsoring it worked on disability advocacy, you might not realize this was a disabled-led event looking at the promotions.
Renee Christian: We want people to come and see who we really are. We want people to see that we're just people.
Emyle Watkins: While many of the jokes were about life with a disability, and frankly, some were too risqué for me to air on the radio, Legendary says events like Funny Bones are also about showing the community who we are as disabled people.
Legendary: We can still be creative. We can still be lovers. We can still be fighters. We can still be happy, parents, brothers, et cetera. It's about showing us that we're not just here for able-bodied people to earn their brownie points. We are individuals. We are people. We have stories, we have songs, we have creativity, we have hearts, flesh, blood, and bones and minds, and we deserve those opportunities. And if you don't help us get them, we'll take them.
Emyle Watkins: The organizers of Funny Bones say they hope to host another comedy night in the future. For more on this story, visit our website at btpm.org. I'm Emyle Watkins, thanks for listening.
