Apocalyptic weather has arrived out of nowhere. I’m wet. It’s been a long day. I’m tired. My friend who got me the ticket has ditched me for some irrelevant event in Bankstown. I’m cranky. NO OFFENSE BUT what the hell am I doing going to a comedy cabaret? I’m not feeling …um …receptive.
Ok. So all the smiling volunteer Project Able ushers are very pleasant. Harrumph. And yes. It’s a great line-up of Sydney talent including trending artists back from overseas. Yeah , yeah. Alright, so it’s a full house and everyone is chatty and responsive and happy to there. Even the wet or tired or grumpy.
Then boom! Rap music! A charismatic artist: thumpy, bassy, and irredeemably excitable. Nothing cuts through a bad mood like bass. Pump it up boy!
Suddenly receptive, I’m enthralled by MC Liesel Badorrek’s opening monologue. She’s talking to me. “Old white lady” or as she puts it “hot bitch”. Laughing out loud and holding my sides I get that she talking about perception. About how people can instinctively tell the difference between an accidental idiot and a proper tosser, so being worried about doing the wrong thing shouldn’t stop us from engaging. Her impression of a young man confronted by a cute chick who happens to have a guide dog is farcical comedy at its best.
Plus there is a signing interpreter who does the best sign I have ever seen… of a belfie (bum selfie).
Hilarious. Then Marty Bright just kills me! Now, rather than slumped in my seat I am doubled over in my seat when Alex Jones hits the stage. He’s got an hilarious story about having an enhanced super smell sense and we all get to play “Who farted?” And he does all this in two languages! English and Auslan.
My hero Myf Warhurst … makes an appearance. She’s a hot bitch too. Darien Brown opens with his discovery of the power of stand-up comedy at a young age. If people want to freaking laugh at me, I’m gonna charge them!
Gen Fricker next. She had turned a life of Tim Tams and 70’s TV commercials on Youtube into a sweet song about leaving a loser.
Alex is back with a riff on the seductive and fetishistic enjoyment of getting new ear moulds! That’s weird enough to spin a hearing person out! Weirder to come. Andy Dexterity does a great mime/ bad sign version of a Diva doing Dolly Parton’s I Will Always Love You. The bum selfie advanced to high art!
Hello. Someone is talking to me again. It’s Stella Young asking for a show of hands for anyone who is not disabled. Then telling us how amazing we are and how much she admires us, especially when we go on our little outings and how our positive attitude is so inspirational. Then she regales us with the story of being rescued by a genetically blessed young man after she fell tits first into the carrot display at Woolworths.
Our MC is back for the last time to introduce Daniel MacPherson direct from the Schools Spectacular. He has the moves, baby. And with him as our Dance Captain, the audience gets to have a dance off with tonight’s artists to the loud boppy, Happy. And so I seem to be.
What a fun night! I’m sharing smiles and comments with complete strangers as we negotiate the crush out of the venue.
It’s a fully accessible venue of course, because the audience and the performers are celebrating the use of humour in changing perceptions about inclusion and diversity. It’s December 3rd and in case you missed it, International Day of People with a Disability.
NO OFFENCE BUT is part of the NSW Family and Community Services Don’t DIS my ABILITY campaign. And I can’t wait till next year. It is funded by the NSW Government and private sponsors. John Ajaka, Minister for Disability Services, and his family were at last night’s show and they were laughing along with the rest of us. And I bet his day was worse than mine! Please fund them for other nights like this, Minister.
The evening was held at the Lend Lease Theatre, Darling Quarter on December 3, 2014.
Editor’s Note: On a very sad note, Sydney Arts Guide has been advised that headline performer and noted disability activist Stella Young passed away this morning, Monday 8th December. She was only 32.