Blind Comedy: Breaking Barriers Through Laughter

You know she's done a lot in her life . She was a former yoga teacher . Now she is a speaker and a comedian . So we're going to be talking to her about everything that she's up to and what she's going to be up to in the future . Ms Jean Markley , thank you so much for joining me today .

I taught laughter yoga , which is just plain laughter , and one of the things that I always like to do is make people laugh , make people feel better about themselves than they did before they were talking to me .

And so when I was a little girl there may be some people in your audience that remember Sid Caesar and he used to have Imogene Coca on there and I used to imitate her doing some of her comedy and my father and mother would just be laughing hysterically .

And I used to imitate her doing some of her comedy and my father and mother would just be laughing hysterically and I loved it .

A few years ago I think it was actually seven years ago my youngest daughter and I took a class at McCurdy's Comedy Institute here in Sarasota , florida , and when I got up on the stage to do the five minutes they call it class comedy I was hooked . I loved being the center of attention . I loved making people laugh , center of attention .

I loved making people laugh and I just I just can't tell you how fulfilling it was for me to do that and but also some corporate talks that I can do at different companies and colleges and things like that , but to help people to understand that blind people are really not any different than anybody else . We don't have to be treated differently .

We have a sense of humor , we understand what's going on in the world at least as much as we want to understand what's going on in the world , and I'm hoping that when people walk away from one of my comedy shows that they will start to see blind people and visually impaired people in a different light .

I have noticed in my lifetime I've been blind since ten and a half years old . I'm now 79 , and

I've noticed that the general population has an idea of what it's like to be blind and that we're not smart , we're not able to do many things that sighted people can do to take care of themselves . I lived by myself for a while and took care of my two-bedroom apartment and my guide dog and the cooking and the cleaning and all that stuff .

I just used different tools to be able to do that . Thank God for all this computer stuff now , because this has definitely made my life easier and I'm sure for many other people too , when I was in college and had to write papers with a typewriter and then somebody would proofread it for me .

Well , by the time you get done with the proofreading , you can't put the paper back in the typewriter and fix any of the typos . So it took a lot more time to get things done back then . Now you just find the errors on your computer and just fix it before it even gets printed out .

So the idea that we need to be talked to louder , I'm sure that's happened to many people . Curtis , I'm sure it's happened to you too . It just happened to me the other day , as a matter of fact . The woman started yelling at me , because I'm sure it's happened to you too . It just happened to me the other day . As a matter of fact .

The woman started yelling at me because I'm blind and I said you don't have to raise your voice , I can hear you , and I don't say it in a mean way , I say it so that she understands that she doesn't have to do that , and it's more of an education thing . She doesn't have to do that and it's more of an education thing .

So as part of my humor , I say things about being blind . Some of the questions I get are what's it like to be blind ? And my answer to that is well , let me just think now . Oh , I know , I know Everybody . I know , I know Everybody . Close your eyes , yep , that's it . And somebody had to tell you that . And how long have you been blind ?

And do blind people's other senses ? Are they more acute than sighted people's other senses ? And how did you lose your eyesight ? And all kinds of questions that when you get right down to it , it's really none of anybody's business , especially when you've just when you haven't even met the person . I um .

I also talk about how frustrating it can be to to uh and my frustration level is usually right around an eight , so it doesn't take too much to get me up to a 10 and put me over the edge .

And one of the examples I give about that is when I go someplace , like to the clubhouse , where people know me and I know them , and I walk in the clubhouse and they say , oh hi , jean , how are you ? And I say , oh hi , who is that ? And they say , don't you recognize my voice ? And I say no , I don't recognize your voice .

If I did , I wouldn't say who is that ? Did ? I wouldn't say who is that right ? And then I find myself strangling some little old lady because she put me over the edge with my frustration level , and I also talk about having a dog and some of the things that the dog does for me . But it's all done with a great deal of humor .

And since I am 79 years old , I also talk about some of the aging things . Like , my children tell me that as I've gotten older , I have become more . I've gotten more mellow . As I've gotten older , I've gotten more mellow . And I say mellow , no , I just don't give a darn . And so I'm hoping

that I will be well known enough that I can reach more people and get the word out there that blind people are fun . I'll give you an example of something that happened to me when I got my first guide dog .

I had a little bit more vision well , actually a lot more eyesight then than I do now and we were working at a mall , and so when the trainer is working with another individual , they just have us sit and wait for them to get back and then they'll work with us .

So I was sitting and my dog was just laying at my feet just like he's supposed to , and this couple came by and said oh how beautiful . And so I just reached my hand up and patted my hair and said oh well , thank you . Well , they just didn't know what to do with that . They didn't laugh .

I don't know what they thought , like a blind person has a sense of humor . This is weird , and I knew they were talking about my dog . I knew they weren't talking about me . I was just making a joke .

So , as I said , I am hoping that I can help to make people more comfortable around blind people and get them to understand that we are just like anybody else .

And I just add the humor to it for the purpose of getting people to understand that we are people also and we don't require any different treatment than anybody else .

One of the things that I find , curtis and I don't know if you find this also , even with some of my best friends when they pick me up to go somewhere and they'll open the car door for me and I'll say you don't have to do that , I can open a car door , and they say , oh , no , no , no , I don't mind , I don't mind .

And then I tell them you know , when you open up the car door , I no longer know where the door is . I can find the car , I can find the door handle , but if you open it for me , I don't know where the door is and I could walk right into the corner of the door and then they start to get it . I will be honest with you .

The reason that I want to do the public speaking is because corporate speaking is where the money is . They pay me to speak , they pay my expenses to get there and get back . If I need to stay overnight , they pay those expenses . Comedy clubs pay practically nothing . Comedy clubs pay practically nothing .

I've done 10 minutes of comedy for $25 , and I've done 10 minutes of comedy for $100 , so it just depends on where I am , but it's not so much the money as the expense of getting there , because I have to have somebody drive me , obviously , and so I'm paying for their gas or their time or buying them dinner or whatever .

So it would be nice to at least break even . And I think that when speaking at an event , a corporate event , when speaking at an event , a corporate event , the audience is more receptive to what I am telling them . And they're not eating and drinking at the same time , especially the drinking .

laugh at a joke but they're not going to get the underlying message that I am trying to put out there , Absolutely . And you just kind of answered my next question . I was going to ask where you do your comedy and stuff like that . So you actually go to comedy clubs and do your comedy .

Today , and there's here in Florida you know , this is God's waiting room , right and there's lots of RV parks and mobile home parks here where people come for the winter and they have club houses and they want to have shows , and sometimes it's music , sometimes it's dancing and sometimes it's comedy . So I have booked us at several venues Locally .

I've also been booked at the Villages , which is a pretty famous place down here in Florida for senior living , and when I was still out in Arizona I did some comedy at the VFW and the American Legion and I haven't done that here because they just don't do that here .

Okay , well , let the listeners know about any upcoming projects that you and Three Comics and a dog are up to right now we don't have anything booked because this is the end of the season and most of the venues are booking things for high season , which is january through march , and I'm working on next year I will be at the Encore RV Resort in Bradenton ,

florida . I don't have the exact date yet . It'll be in January and I will be at another resort , but that's closed . So a lot of the things that I do are closed to the general public . I did do a show the other night at my church .

Two or three times a year we have a show it's called Clean Comedy for a Cause and it's to raise money for a specific purpose . This past Sunday we were raising money for Celebrate Recovery and I was not the headliner .

I did 10 minutes of comedy and there were three other comics and then the headliner , who was Dale Jones , who was phenomenal , and that is , of course , open to the general public , but most of the shows that I do are not , because it's just for the residents of the resort .

It might be my age , it might be being blind , it might be all of the above , but getting to an airport and getting to the hotel and so on and so forth , and then finding my way around the room in the hotel and I think I'm just getting old and cranky .

Curtis , if I'm going to be in Connecticut , for example , I have a daughter that lives in Westbrook , connecticut I would look for something to do there . And if I'm going to be out in Arizona area , near Phoenix , well then I could look for something to do there . But it's not my desire to be traveling all over the place .

If they pay me enough , then I can have an assistant with me . It's like I said . It's not that I want to make a lot of money , I just want to make enough to cover expenses , and some of those and part of those expenses is the transportation .

about my comedy , whether it's corporate or doing a comedy show .

And so when doctors say , or when you hear the expression , laughter is the best medicine , they are not kidding . It is excellent medicine . If you laugh heartily for 30 , 40 , 50 minutes an hour , you will sleep better and you're boosting your immune system .

And so , people who are feeling kind of down maybe you have low energy just go on YouTube or someplace like that they have so so many comedians and just start listening many comedians and just start listening , watching them and just laugh Right .

I will let you know if I do that .

Thank you for listening and supporting the show , jean . Thank you for all that you're doing to make us all laugh and make the world a better place . Thank you for joining me the show , jean . Thank you for all that you're doing to make us all laugh and make the world a better place , and thank you for joining me .