When it comes to comedy, Kathy Buckley takes center stage. Billed as "America's First Hearing Impaired Comedienne," she was recently nominated "Best Female Stand-Up Comedienne" for the 1997 American Comedy Awards, the third year in a row Buckley has made the award list.
On a wing and a dare
(ア)Buckley never aspired to be a comedienne. "I didn't know what I wanted to do," she says. "I wanted to be a nurse when I was a kid, but because of my hearing impairment they said I couldn't." Actually, her performing career started almost by accident.
"I did it on a dare," Buckley admits, speaking of the first time she performed on stage. It was in 1988 at a charity benefit called "Stand-up Comics Take a Stand" in Encino, California. "I was a nervous wreck" she admits. Even though she could not hear the audience's laughter except by feeling the stage floor vibrations, Buckley says what really made her nervous was competing against other comedians with years of experience. Despite that she won fourth place. Since then Kathy Buckley has turned the comedy world "on its ear." Much of her comic material is based on her hearing loss.
Childhood diagnosis
Buckley says it is wonderful how parents have learned to embrace a child's disability. (イ)She was not so lucky as a child. Her own parents never questioned their daughter's hearing impairment and could not accept that she had a disability.
Buckley recalls the years it took teachers and administrators to realize she was deaf. Her grades were poor; there seemed no way to stimulate her academically. "People weren't educated then," she says. "My parents just did what the doctor told them and never asked any questions. " What they were told was to put Buckley in a school for children with mental retardation. It took almost a year after that before doctors realized her disability. "And they called me slow?" she laughs.
"My parents went into denial that I even had a problem. The doctors saw I had a problem, but told my parents that this or that device would 'fix' me. I ended up in denial as well because no one ever talked to me about it." Buckley says it was not until she was 34-years-old that a specialist explained her condition to her. "It was the first time anyone had talked to me about it."
"You cannot bond or love unconditionally in denial," Kathy says. "The best gift parents can give their children is joy. Teach that to your children."
Embracing individuality
(ウ)"My comedy disarms people. I truly believe that the only disability out there today is attitude," she says. "I love to make people laugh, but I love even more if I can teach them something at the same time."
And that is just what she does. In her nightly performances she jokes about what it is like to be hearing impaired and about how others treat her. She performs for many charity events and benefits.
Buckley says that although she tries to entertain and enlighten all kinds of people, her heart belongs to children. "Kids mean everything to me." she says. "Every single child deserves to have a real childhood, and they should have healthy role models to show them that people do care about them deeply."
"Every child has something to contribute. " Buckley says. There are no broken children: none need fixing. Don't judge a book by its cover; open the book and get past that cover. The eyes never lie."
Kathy Buckley's Humor
On personal relationships: "I haven't had a date in over two and a half years. I don't know if it's just me or because I couldn't hear the phone ring."
On hearing: "One of the first sounds I ever heard were the birds, and I thought 'Birds are hard to lip read, they've got these tiny little beaks."
On rehabilitation: "I spent 13 years learning how to talk, and now everyone thinks I'm from New York."
On celebrities: "Howard Stern asked me if I would consider dating a man who had a disability and I said. 'Sure, I'd consider dating you."
出典：D'Agostion, D., Laughing out loud : Turnig a deaf er to comedy. Exceptional Parent, Vol 27, No.3, pp.44-45, 1997より抜粋（一部改変）
参考： aspire ～したいと強く願う
deaf 聴覚障害
disarm （敵意・怒り・疑いなどの）気持ちを和らげる
Howard Stern アメリカ人の人気ディスクジョッキー