Filed under: Themes, Blind Visionaries

Brent A. Gifford aka “The Great Blindini” is what they call a Master Magician. He’s been performing reality-bending, sleight-of-hand magic all across North America for more than three decades.

But here’s the kicker: Blindini started performing magic shortly after he went blind, at age 12. He was intent on proving that he could “do anything a sighted person could do. It was the most ‘visual’ thing [he] could think of doing…”

Furthermore, The Great Blindini thought up one of the funniest taglines EVER to promote his act.

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Find out what it is…after the jump!

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Filed under: Themes, Wheelchairman of the Board, Campaign Watch

Quoting Tiffiny’s October 5th column for disaboomlive.com:

I love hearing stories about sex doing more for humans [than] just helping them procreate. When sex is literally, as silly as this sounds, doing God’s work from making women feel beautiful again to helping men maintain healthy cardio health, I smile inside. When naughty “bad” things are actually good for you? Yeah, that makes life worth living. So when I read about a disabled man in a group home, paralyzed from the neck down and unable to talk, who was running over nurses and spilling trays, basically earning the title of “Official Group Home A**hole,” who was cured of his asshattery after getting some much needed manual stimulation (from one of the nurses no less) I thought, “Wow what a great nurse!” Obviously, it isn’t too surprising that after this 22 year old got some much needed release he was more pleasant to be around, but going from “belligerent” to “serene,” now that’s a big change. It exemplifies just how important sex is to the human psyche (and to overall mental health). But it makes you wonder how priests and nuns, and all the other celibates of the world, do it. Is it unnatural to abstain? A lot of people with disabilities are NOT getting laid. They’re not finding partners and for millions of them, it’s a frustrating daily predicament that never goes away. Try and finagle as they might, whether all they want is to masturbate, or find something even crazier like actual sex, it’s a disappointingly illusive endeavor. Can you imagine being shot down time and time again? This is why Belgium pays for it’s disabled citizens (if they want it) to have a sex worker visit on a monthly basis. The sad part about this story is that someone walked in on the nurse one day, she was swiftly fired, and the guy went back to being an insufferable a**hole. Life isn’t fair. It’s really too bad they weren’t more smart about it and did it off-site. What’s your opinion on all of this? As long as both adults are consenting (despite what the laws say), do you think it’s morally sound for a professional to provide sexual release for a person with a disability, in a group home environment?

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Read more of Tiffiny’s risqué columns

Read Tiffiny’s official bio

Visit disaboom.com and disaboomlive.com

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Filed under: Regular Contributors, Stuart Baker-Brown, Irked Videos, Campaign Watch

A movie trailer spoofing horror films, being shown in theaters in Britain and online, was launched a couple months ago to challenge the stigma surrounding schizophrenia. The segment is part of the “Time to Change” campaign run by British mental health charities Mind and Rethink, and funded by the Big Lottery Fund and Comic Relief.

The films have been launched nationwide to coincide with a poll by research firm YouGov, which reveals more than a third of people believe schizophrenics are violent.

Oh yes, did we forget to mention that the campaign stars none other than…MR. STUART BAKER-BROWN!!!

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Filed under: Uncategorized

World-record-setting Paralympian sprinter Aimee Mullins, as you know from our last post, is a bilateral amputee—i.e. both of her legs were amputated below the knee. She learned to walk on prosthetics, then to run.

Aimee said some truly tremendous things during her TED Talk.

But this quote in particular, this hilarious and delicious nugget of a sound byte, is so off-the-wall funny that it bears repeating…

“From an identity standpoint, what does it mean to have a disability?
Pamela Anderson has more prosthetic in her body than I do.
Nobody calls her disabled.”

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Another time, being interviewed by Mavian Arocha for Aventura Magazine, Aimee was asked “What quality do you lack that you wish you could attain and embrace?” Not missing a beat, Aimee ran with the generic line of questioning and dryly responded: “Besides being able to bend my ankles? Jeez, this is hard.”

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Filed under: Regular Contributors, David Roche

Screengrab of David Roche’s upcoming schedule:

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Quoting David Roche, in an email sent Wednesday, Apr 8, 2009:

“Attached is a piece I am working on that I think will be the opening act of “Catholic Erotica.” It is a performance piece, doesn’t have to do with disability as such, but is written (and will be performed) from the POV of a pre-pubescent Catholic boy in the American Midwest in the 1950s. It is something I like and which works well on stage . . . It’s in the front of my mind and imagination because I am working on it right now.”

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A racy script excerpt…after the jump!

***Warning: Language & themes not suitable for children***

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Filed under: Themes, Wheelchairman of the Board, Irked Videos

WARNING:

You’re about to laugh ’til your gut busts, your sides split, and your cheeks ache.

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Last week we wet your appetite. Here now is the extended clip of Rick Mercer and Rick Hansen (wheelchair and all!) going bungee jumping in beautiful British Columbia. Damn, the Rick Mercer Report is h-i-l-a-r-i-o-u-s!:

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Filed under: Regular Contributors, Philip Patston, Themes, Cerebral Ballsy, Wheelchairman of the Board

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http://poetry.philippatston.com
http://thirstydog.co.nz

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Filed under: Themes, Wheelchairman of the Board, Irked Videos

The Rick Mercer Report’s seventh season premiere is TONIGHT (September 29th) on CBC-TV. You’ll have a chance to see:

Rick Mercer

…bungee jumping

…in Whistler, BC

…with Rick Hansen!

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8PM Tonight, CBC-TV

(8:30 in Newfoundland)

As most of you probably know, Rick Hansen is a truly iconic Canadian who was in an automobile crash at age 15 that left him a paraplegic. In 1985, after winning 19 international wheelchair marathons, he began his dream to circumnavigate the earth and raise awareness and money for spinal cord injury victims. Two years later he completed 40,000 km and raised $26 million. Today he is (among many many things) the President and CEO of the extremely successful and influential Rick Hansen Foundation.

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Read all Irked posts tagged “Rick Hansen”

Then…

cbc.ca/mercerreport, rickmercer.com

rickhansen.com

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Filed under: Uncategorized

From disabledcomedytour.com:

The Blue Collar Comedy Tour featured southern, white comedians. The Kings of Comedy—black comedians. Latin Kings of Comedy—Mexican American comedians. The Disabled Comedy Tour follows the same model, producing the next groundbreaking comedy tour . . . The Disabled Comedy Tour is a two hour stand-up comedy show featuring five fantastic comedians with disabilities, supplemented by one of the following, more intimate, events with the comedians:

• Post Show Q&A
• Pre or Post Show Panel Discussion
• Pre or Post Show Private Reception

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Meet the Comics:

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Tanyalee Davis

3′6″ Tanyalee is the Ferrari of comedy—low to the ground and kind of racy!
(A stand-up-on-a-chair comic!)

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Charles Walden

Funny, sarcastic, laid back, fresh and urban—with a splash of Cerebral Palsy!

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Patrick Deguire

Legally blind comic who first ‘discovered laughter as a means of self therapy.’

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Josh Blue

The comedian who puts the cerebral in Cerebral Palsy!

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And…Mr. David Roche

Brilliant author, performer, motivational speaker, and comedian who has a facial disfigurement

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disabledcomedytour.com

Then…

Read all Irked posts by Josh Blue

Read all Irked posts by David Roche

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Filed under: Themes, The Wandering Agoraphobe, Irked Videos

Rib-tickling hilarity…after the jump!

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