art smarts

Chapter 2. Artist Profiles

Alan Shain

“I’m beginning to use comedy or theatre to try and explore some other areas of my life, some other areas of my identity. But up until now I’ve used it to explore the area of having a disability or of having to deal with lack of access, and having to deal with attitudes without going crazy, without losing it and yelling!”

Alan has worked full-time as a performer for ten years, the last five of them professionally, touring Canada with his stand-up comedy routine and with his one-man play, Waiting for that Special Bus. Most of Alan’s material is drawn from his experiences of having cerebral palsy, and it exposes the attitudes and barriers he faces as he goes about his daily life. He uses humour to expose the absurdity of his experiences, educating at the same time as he entertains. With a sarcastic edge, Alan tells about the guy who’s sure Alan must know his friend in the Yukon who’s disabled, too, or the bartender who doesn’t cut him off – “He was walking like that when he came in here.”

Alan was always interested in writing and performing, and he performed in high school and CEGEP productions as he was growing up in Montreal. He was involved with the Montreal Storytellers Club and frequently read his short stories at local coffee shops. In 1989, he won third prize in an amateur stand-up comedy competition. Over the next three years, he focused on developing his comedy act, and since then he has been touring universities, colleges, conferences and local comedy clubs. After its performance at the Ottawa Fringe Festival, Waiting for that Special Bus, was given five stars and rated “The Pick of the Festival” by the Ottawa Sun. Alan’s latest appearances include sketch comedy on CBC TV’s Moving On. He has attained international acclaim touring the United States and Bermuda, and he holds the honour of being the only Canadian artist invited to the 2000 Paralympic Arts Festival in Sydney, Australia.

Somehow Alan also finds time to work on completing his MSW at Carleton University and to get involved in disability activism. He is currently working on a project with the Ottawa School of Dance to set up and run a creative movement program for people with disabilities. Alan has contributed articles on disability issues to the Disability News Service and to such magazines as Canadian Social Trends and Abilities.

"I want to explore new subjects in my work because I am more than just my disability, more than just dealing with attitudes around disability. I have many concerns that might not have anything to do with disability like, ‘Is the world gonna blow up?’ I think it’s important for me as an artist to talk about issues like that or to talk about things like dating and trying to find that special someone to share with. I have the same hopes and dreams as anyone else."

Ed Smith