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MOST POPULAR LINKS... FRONT PAGE... MONTHLY DRINKS NIGHT
Comprehensive - Steve Day
Verdict: No banjos in the dark
Edinburgh 06 - Laughing Horse @ Lindsay's - 6-26 August 06 - 17:35 (1:00)
Steve Day quickly introduces himself to his packed room - he's Britain's only deaf comedian. If there are any others, he hasn't heard. His self-deprecating grin says he knows he's been using this gag for a while - but it does work to sum up his life as a 70% deaf man - that's little-d deaf, not big-D 100% Deaf, Steve Day explains.
Deafness is, after all, a major part of Steve Day's life. He shares the joys of looking after three small children, whose arguments he can't hear. Many a parent would be grateful - but just try refereeing.
He also shares some of his hearing childhood - idyllic days on business ventures including those spent taking back bottles for the 2 pence return - then nicking them back from behind the store.
Steve Day explains that his schooling was at a comprehensive. But his time spent out all summer running around getting into, and back out of, trouble, are what - he says - actually educated him.
His theory is that kids don't get allowed their childhood, kept inside for fear of paedophiles. No wonder that once they can, teenagers do nothing but hang around the streets. Told as a joke, he may have a point.
Steve Day's deafness does come up regularly. As he comments, the audience could, for all he knows, be playing banjos in the darkness. Thankfully, they're laughing, and this is because he has plenty of other material - 4 x 4 drivers, mathematicians, Playstations, and Primark 'undercutting Oxfam'.
Some of the strongest material is in his understanding of 'normal' people's response to the disabled. His approach helps the audience not to feel insulted when he moves on to ways people patronise him, followed by his troubles with 'Deaf Fundamentalists' who complain he's only 70% deaf. With a small d.
He's 100% Funny. With a big F.
Cast Credits: Steve Day.
Company Credits: Writer / Director - Steve Day. Technical Operator - Venue Staff. Company - Steve Day/PBH's Free Fringe. Website - www.laughinghorse.co.uk/edinburgh.htm.
END
(c) Gill Smith 2006
reviewed Saturday 19 August 06 / Laughing Horse @ Lindsay's
Fringe Report (c) Fringe Report 2002-2010
