Laurence Clark - Sit-Down Comedian
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Read more about Laurence Clark here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/ouch/opinion/theres-no-such-thing-as-a-free-haircut.shtml
Check our Laurence's Blog here:
http://www.laurenceclark.co.uk/
In his new show, comic Laurence Clark uses film clips from hidden cameras to give the audience a humorous insight into his life as a disabled person. Miriam Craig finds out more.
In a recent blog, comedian Laurence Clark describes a trip to get his hair cut.
At first, he’s very pleased when he gets the cut at a swanky gents’ barber for the bargain price of £10.
He’s less happy when he realises the price has been reduced from £24 as “an unofficial ‘pat on the head’ disabled person’s discount”.
Clark, whose cerebral palsy means he has a speech impediment and has to use a wheelchair, draws on just this sort of situation for his comedy.
“In my show I talk about things that happen in my everyday life, which is what every stand-up comic does,” he says. “I just happen to be disabled, and that gives you different experiences and a different outlook.
“There are so many bizarre and strange rules and regulations and attitudes towards disabled people. As a comedian, you’d be missing a trick if you just ignored that.
Before he got into comedy, Clark, who lives in Liverpool with his wife and four-year-old son, spent four years studying for a PhD in molecular biology and computing — a field he had been advised to go into because of his disability.
“I suppose a computer is the new basket-weaving. It’s become a stereotypical profession for disabled people,” he says. “But it really bored me. I became more and more depressed. I promised myself when I finished the PhD I’d do something else.”
Having always been interested in writing comedy, at the age of 26 he began performing stand-up as a way of getting his material heard.
Seven years on, Clark is often compared to Dave Gorman, and two years ago was placed top of Shortlist magazine’s list of Britain’s ten funniest new comedians, ahead of such luminaries as Daniel Kitson and Alex Horne.
His current project is to claim back the word spastic, “in the same way black people... have reclaimed negative language that was used about them”.
The idea to use hidden cameras came as a way of showing people evidence of behaviour they otherwise might find hard to believe.
In one clip, Clark goes out into the streets in his wheelchair, shaking what looks like a charity bucket and shouting, “Pay off my mortgage”. The bucket is marked with the same message. As people walk past, they try to put money into it, even when he explains to them what it’s for. One man even taps him patronisingly on the shoulder.
Apart from being shocking, it’s brilliant comic material.
Clark says: “Comedy thrives on breaking taboos. It gets people to laugh with you, not at you.”
Laurence Clark: Spastic Fantastic is on at artsdepot, on Tally Ho Corner, North Finchley, on Friday, March 6, at 8pm. Tickets cost £12 (concessions £10) and are available from the box office on 020 8369 5454.
Find out more about Laurence Clark at laurenceclark.co.uk or read his blog at bbc.co.uk/ouch/writers/laurenceclark.shtml