RECOMMENDED

For one reason or another, I found myself transfixed, hypnotized by Comedy Central’s “Last Comic Standing” sometime last summer, as one stellar comic simultaneously won the hearts and funny bones of the entire crowd—Josh Blue, who has a fairly severe case of cerebral palsy, kicked everyone’s ass and won first place. It was inevitable; there was no way he was gonna lose. Blue uses his disability in his humor—his self-deprecation is never coy, always warm-hearted and sharp, never a woe-is-me diatribe about how painful it is to be constantly stared at. Example: He’s invented the “palsy punch,” a cunning fist-fight maneuver he says is helpful because “first of all, they don’t know where the punch is coming from, and second of all, neither do I.” The mixture of wholesomeness and biting wit creates an entirely new type of comic presence. You want to hug him. You want to laugh with him. You want to hear more and more of his stories, how he concurrently throws jabs at himself and at those who make fun. He deserves your wholehearted attention. (Tom Lynch)

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