Ouch Talk Show 2 September 2016 bbc.co.uk/ouch Presented by Emma Tracey Jack Carroll: I’m Not Properly Disabled EMMA Hello and welcome to Inside Ouch. I’m Emma Tracey and this week I’m bringing you the final one of my interviews from the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, which is a huge arts event which takes over the city of Edinburgh throughout August. But before I get to that I just wanted to tell you about a couple of the disabled comedians who have been performing in this year’s festival: The BBC New Comedy Award winner 2016 was Jethro Bradley who has autism. You can hear more from him on the BBC Edinburgh Fringe podcast, and I believe he was on day 11. Also an exciting news, Lost Voice guy, Lee Ridley, who has cerebral palsy and doesn’t speak, he has had a pilot commissioned for Radio 4 comedy so we’ll be very excited to hear how that goes for him as well. Earlier on in August I went to the flat of Jack Carroll, who is a young comedian with cerebral palsy who came second in Britain’s Got Talent in 2014. He’s been going from strength to strength since and he’s still only 17. I went to visit him and I met his dad and we chatted about all the things about letting your 17 year old go off to the festival, and heavy doors in Edinburgh flats, and all that kind of thing. And then we got on to the question that we ask all comedians with cerebral palsy: why are there so many of you? JACK I don’t know but I’m going to have to kill a few of them; just get rid of the competition. But I don’t know. I think it gives you an interesting way to view the world. And I think that gives you a sort of helpful perspective on stuff, which is good for comedy. But I really don’t know. Maybe because it’s easier than a proper job maybe. I don’t know. EMMA That’s interesting you say that. Is it easier than a proper job? Is that something you worry about? JACK I wouldn’t say I worry about it because I can’t see myself doing anything else; it’s either stand-up comedy or selling the Big Issue. It’s got to be somewhere I can sit down for a prolonged period. I would say they suit each other quite well. EMMA Cerebral palsy and comedy? JACK Yeah, I think so. EMMA You’ve done a lot! Tell me what you’ve done so far. So, what are you, 17 now? JACK Yeah, 17. I did a series on the BBC with Vic Reeves when I was 11 called Ministry of Curious Stuff. And then by some stroke of luck I managed to win a Pride of Britain Award in 2012 when I was… I don’t know how old I was to be honest. I could probably work that out but we don’t really have time because I am numerically inept – that is the biggest disability that I have. Then I went on to do Britain’s Got Talent. So, I’ve been performing comedy and acting in Trollied and stuff like that. It’s been absolutely wonderful. EMMA You’re making me tired just listening to you. JACK Yeah. EMMA Why did you win a Pride of Britain Award? JACK Good question. I still haven’t really quite worked it out. I don’t know what it was for. I think there were a lot more worthy people than me there, so I don’t really know how that happened or why. EMMA Oh, I thought you might have saved an old lady, something like that? JACK No, I didn’t save; I haven’t done any heroic stuff. They just said, “You do comedy; here’s an award”. EMMA What was Britain’s Got Talent like, Jack? Tell me everything. JACK It was one of the most wonderful things that I’ve done. I think there’s a negative image out there that it’s sort of manipulative or it’s exploitative of child acts or whatever. It could not be further from the truth. Yeah, it’s presented a platform for me to build upon, and that’s been absolutely fantastic and I’m very grateful to the show for that and it was a brilliant experience. EMMA So, you’ve left school this year? JACK Yeah, June last year. EMMA Were you in a mainstream school? JACK Yes, I was yes, when I bothered to attend. But with television work and that sort of thing I was able to attend less, which was great because I didn’t really get on with the way that education was sort of distributed. It wasn’t for me. I enjoyed certain aspects of it, but it was just a bit tiresome at times. EMMA What did you enjoy? JACK Well, what did I enjoy? The days off. I made some quite good friends and that and I suppose that’s good. But I would definitely always, I knew what I wanted to do in life and I thought that that was holding me back a little bit. It’s nice to be out of there. EMMA Did you get any special adjustments at school? JACK Um… EMMA Reasonable adjustments, I should say. JACK Not as many as I would have liked. I mean, I did ask for some sort of golden throne to be carried round on but they didn’t oblige. I didn’t actually no, I didn’t. I was quite… Well, I’m not properly disabled, am I? Daniel Day Lewis is a more convincing disabled person than I am. EMMA Why do you say not properly disabled? Because you’re not in a wheelchair or fully deaf or fully blind? JACK Yeah. I’ve got a 50/50 fair weather scam that I’m running at the moment. I am a bit, but not in a bad way; I use it to my advantage. EMMA Oh yeah? What way do you use it to your advantage? JACK Well, you get the parking, don’t you, and everything. EMMA The perks. JACK Yeah, yeah. It comes with its perks. It’s like being in the Mafia, you can cut in front of the line and everything. It’s lovely. EMMA Would you say you’ve got the perfect level of disability then to kind of get the perks but not have to have all the pain? JACK Absolutely. I have some pain, but you’ve got to take that I think as a little bit of, it balances itself out in other areas. EMMA What’s interesting is you did say you have some pain; I don’t think anybody would know that you have pain, like any of your fans, super fans, any of the three million. JACK Only if they’re the government. EMMA Well, the government need to know you’ve got pain. JACK Yes, that’s what I write down all the time and send to them so that they send me more money. EMMA Are there ever jokes about having cerebral palsy or having disability that you suddenly realise before it goes out into the light of day or you try out at a new show and you realise that only disabled people or people with cerebral palsy would actually understand that? JACK I wouldn’t say that. The disability stuff I think is accessible to a lot of people because I think that the more accepted it becomes in society the easier it is to talk about this stuff. I don’t focus on it to the point this is… because I don’t think it enters into my head that often during the day; it’s just one of those things. And if you don’t know anything different then that’s just your way of seeing the world and your way of viewing the world. I wouldn’t say there’s nothing easily graspable that I talk about in terms of disability. EMMA Because my blind friends we might make brail jokes. There are loads of things that I would laugh at with a blind person but I just wouldn’t even bother trying to explain to somebody else. JACK Yeah. EMMA You don’t find that? JACK I don’t find that. I think the disability stuff I do is quite… because I think one of the main responsibilities of a comedian is to be able to explain things in an easily accessible way, and I think you’ve got to try and do that with all the material, not just the stuff that’s based around disability. EMMA What’s your favourite disability-related joke or piece of material from your act currently? JACK Well, I’ve got a couple of things. I had a guy, it was around the time I’d been on the telly for something, across from me at the train station just staring at me, looking me up and down, and I thought, ‘has he recognised me?’. He looked me up and down, stared me up and down, took in the frame and the orthopaedic shoes and he looked me up and down for a while, came up and he went, “Do I know you from somewhere? Do you do karate with my son?” And I was just like, “Yeah, mate, I’m black belt level” And that’s probably my favourite piece of disability related comedy that I do.