Time Out July 2005

Ready and able - Six comics gear up for Edinburgh by MALCOLM HAY 20-27 July 2005

Stand-up Tanyalee Davis reckons the idea of putting a bunch of comics with various kinds of disabilities together in one show is 'a great marketing tool for a festival where you need to make sure people hear about you in order to come and see you'. She's three foot six inches tall. 'I'm considered "abnormal" because of that. I may also be considered abnormal because I'm the only one in the show who's not from the UK. I'm originally from Canada but I'm currently living in Las Vegas.'

Abnormally Funny People has been co-produced by Steve Best and Simon Minty. They're both appearing in it as well. Best is the token non-disabled comic. Minty runs a disability consultancy company. Like Tanyalee Davis, he's short statured. He's a vastly experienced public speaker. This will be his first shot at stand-up.

Liz carr, who's well known for her comedy with a sketch group Nasty Girls, describes herself as 'a freaky-looking, electric wheelchair-using cripple'. Then, as a correcive, she throws in: 'Normal sucks. There's so many expectations of you when you're normal. when you're disabled, people's expectations are based on stereotypes, which means you can either get away with living them or you can do what he hell you want and confound them.' In her set, Carr says, she'll be encouraging people to 'spaz up': to act disabled and enjoy some of the benefits.'

The two other performers in the show are both stand-ups with a lot of experience on the circuit - Steve Day (he's deaf) and Chris McCausland (he's blind, though his alternative description of himself is as 'a bloke who doesn't watch porn, play computer games or ogle women in the street'). Day hasn't decided what material he'll do yet. 'It's possible I won't mention deafness at all. Or equally possible that it'll all be about that. It's really an ensemble piece anyway and we all interact between our solo sections.' McCausland says he won't do anything on disability. 'To be honest, that bores the pants off me.' 'I've been on the same bill as Steve quite a few times,' McCausland continues. 'But he doesn't have the faintest bloodly clue what my stuff is about. Deaf git! I make a point of holding the mic close to my mouth so he can't lip read. He's started using an overhead projector now just to piss me off.'