Stand Up Minty August 2005

By day he's a disability consultant and by night he's a stand-up comic. Elizabeth Choppin meets Simon Minty, one of six Abnormally Funny People heading north to the Edinburgh Fringe

What can a person do to raise awareness about the issues facing disabled people? If you’re Simon Minty, in addition to a job as a disability employment consultant, you can round up a group of disabled comedians and produce a sassy new comedy that tells it like it is.

Abnormally Funny People, which debuts this month at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, is a collection of irreverent stand-up acts from five disabled people and one “normally funny guy”.

Minty, who describes himself as “of short stature”, says some of the show’s material could make people flinch as it throws political correctness to the wind.

One can only guess he is talking about parts like the Crip alphabet, recited by wheelchair user Liz Carr, or Tanyalee Davis’ account of small people taking over the city of Denver.

“Sometimes you’ve got to push the boundaries a little,” says Minty, “but I hope there are no gratuitous or cheap disability gags – it’s not blind people bumping into things. It’s more than that.”

Minty says the word Abnormally is not necessarily tacked on to the title for shock value, though it doesn’t hurt for publicity. “The real reason is because if you start with the letter A, you get higher up in the Fringe listings. So ‘Ab’ is a great start.”

Minty first got involved with comedy because his friend Steve Best, co-producer and performer in the show, has done it for years. “I was always on the periphery and always loved it,” he says.

A Surrey native, Minty moved to London eleven years ago to attend university. Since then, he has written sketches for Radio 4 and Channel 4 and was TravelX Travel Writer of the Year in 1998.

He is also a founding member of the Broadcasters’ Disability Network, an organisation that aims for a more positive representation of disabled people in the media.

The idea for Abnormally Funny People has been in development since last year’s Fringe when the disability manager at BSkyB approached Minty about pulling together “disability and comedy as a big package show”.

Surprisingly, this is Minty’s first foray into the world of stand-up. For his consultancy work at Churchill, Minty & Friend, he has spent much time in front of people for presentations – but never telling jokes.

Will he give up consulting to go on the road permanently? “Performing is something I’ve always wanted to do. So either I’ll say, ‘now I’ve done it, I can rest easy’. Or, I might say ‘hang on, I can do more of this’ and I’ll start doing the circuit of mainstream gigs.”

“My true passion is an interest in disability. I can explore it in different ways,” says Minty. “It could be comedy, broadcasting or consultancy – but the theme is always the same. I’m not choosing one or the other… and I’m not giving up my day job.”