A COMEDIAN from Barnsley has paired with a Britain’s Got Talent star for a new show with the message that ‘not all disabled people are heroes’.
Some, says stand-up Pete Selwood, are just ordinary people trying to be funny.
Pete, 29, was born with syndactyly, meaning the digits on one of his hands are fused together.
But Pete didn’t even know what the condition was called until he began writing an upcoming show with Britain’s Got Talent star Jack Carroll which discusses the pair’s lives with disabilities.
“I have to do a bit about it,” said Pete, of Wentworth Road, Penistone.
“When you walk on a stage, people in the audience are looking at you and trying to work out what you’re about and what’s different.
“There’s a tension in the room and if you don’t get rid of it at the start, it builds up.
“So I’ll usually say something like ‘yes, I’ve got one hand, but my brother’s ginger - so that’s a win for me’.
“I have tried to do less and less of it, but at the same time it’s interesting and people find it funny.
“It’s a balance - it’s not relatable, no one can relate if I go ‘isn’t it weird when you can’t open a tin of beans because you’ve only got one hand?’
“I don’t mind people referring to me afterwards as that one-handed comedian.”
Unhappy in his job as a cocktail bar manager in Chester, after moving there to study journalism, Pete started performing on his 26th birthday.
He went to the Frog and Bucket comedy club in Manchester for its ‘beat the frog’ open mic - being handed a five-minute spot and given three chances to impress members of the audience employed as judges.
“I got through the five minutes on my first go, which is quite rare,” said Pete.
“I thought, if I’m funny enough to make these people laugh then I might have something.
“I thought I was amazing, but as with any job you look back and realise you weren’t that good.
“When it goes well, nothing tops it.”
Pete has been performing since, being named Lawrence Batley New Yorkshire Comic of the Year.
He got to know Jack, whose cerebral palsy has influenced much of his stand-up, at a show.
Jack, who became a national star as a teenager on Britain’s Got Talent, had been developing a show with the BBC - but when the pair got to work they realised it would be suited to the stage.
The show starts with a ‘big, sanctimonious’ speech thanking the audience for coming, before a foulmouthed behind-the-scenes clip where the two make digs at those watching.
More videos and audio clips - including a ‘talk with God’ set to feature a famous local voice for each location - fill the set.
Pete said: “It settles people down and lets them know it’s not a show with a message - it’s just normal people trying to be funny.
“There’s a few risky bits, but we’re only making fun of ourselves.
“We were talking about those stories online where you see a girl on Tinder who gets lots of matches, and everyone says she’s so inspiring. She’s probably not, she’s just really attractive.
“It’s this fallacy that everyone disabled is a hero and it gets played up on social media.
“Some disabled people are just d******ds.”
The show, ImPairment, will take place at the Electric Theatre, off Eastgate, on January 31.
For tickets visit ticketsource.co.uk/electric-theatre
