Comedians with Aspergers

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My favorite Aspie comedian is Eddie Izzard. He attributes his humour to dyslexia.

You can see that Eddie's thoughts are very visual, he must have a picture in his mind of Darth Vader v's canteen employee. Here a fan has animated his stand up routine using Lego.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sv5iEK-IEzw&feature=related[/youtube]

quote]My favorite Aspie comedian is Eddie Izzard. He attributes his humour to dyslexia.

You can see that Eddie's thoughts are very visual, he must have a picture in his mind of Darth Vader v's canteen employee. Here a fan has animated his stand up routine using Lego.[/quote]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sv5iEK-IEzw&feature=related[/youtube][/quote]



totally agree, his name came immediately to mind when I saw this post. Although I don't know if he is / diagnosed/ etc - I'm not sure that it matters. I reckon he's my long lost brother anyway - when I first came accross him it was like' is this guy reading my mind or I his?'

- just checked out the dublin site - haven't joined though as am in england and couldn't make those meetings obviously -BTW it probably wasn't related to your site but there was some freaky 'just ask' link - i say freaky as there was this post from someone running some kind of aspergers group and proclaiming to be an expert - I will name no names - but this woman was blasting of about aspies having no empathy at all - this person is in a position of power and responsibility and with an aspie son ...........very dodgy............exscuse the rant - it just struck me as mind blowingly stupid and dangerous.

In the comedy business i perfrom with alot of jews who seem aspie but thats just because they're awkwardly jewy.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhcqytHejwY[/youtube]

me again

Marty, have you had to deal with hecklers? How did you do?
I've never seen any comedians I thought were aspies. If I had to pick one I'd say Steven Wright, although clinical depressive seems nearer the mark.

hmm I used to do poetry slams & the first few times I shook so bad & spoke so low poeople thought I was doing a (bad) performane piece, but the more often I do it the easier I get. I still tremble slightly but I can usually keep it to my feet where the audience wont see & it's easier if I have a friend in the audience so I can scan the audience & kind of form a conection with them, but really just be looking for my friends and only looking at them so I can imagine that I am just preforming for that person.

lets be friends <3 we have almost all the same interests

The most autistic comic to me was one who's career I'd followed since I'd first seen him on TV in the late 80's. Something about how he could take the usual Rolodex of contemporary comic material and contort it into something more signature and offbeat. He had a technical timing in his performance skill that not even Carlin or Bruce could compete with...earning him the title of "The Comedian who never bombs".

One of the traits that impeded his success was his inability promote his ego. Most comedians can't wait to be interviewed, tell you how special they are or their opinions on current events, but he just could not do it. When he appeared on Johnny Carson, Jay Leno, Letterman, he had memorable performances, but his interviews were terrible..he went into a David Lynch stupor. He couldn't talk about himself...and sometimes came off a bit ret*d as he would segway into either other material or other people when asked personal questions. Eventually he would avoid interviews and perform his material only.

His appearance also hindered him in that he was too "astute", like a throwback of George Carlin in the pre-hippie days. His dress and demeanor was too "bookish" for someone of a New York Italian background. He was also known for being extremely reclusive. He only appeared in one significant movie roll as narrator and sidekick...because playing in a movie demands stressful interaction. However, when it came to heckling, he was one of the best behaved and could take a heckler's noise and turn it into a joke without being insulting.

That comedian was Richard Jeni. I recognized him from the beginning. I empathized back in the early 90's when he made a fool of himself trying to do an interview on David Letterman. Even though he seemed to be doing well in his forte, it didn't come as a complete surprise when he committed suicide.

Jeni reportedly had major psychotic episodes, I'm not sure about As.

Seems like every major comedian has been mentioned here as having As. Some seem much more bipolar to me, or perhaps some, schizoid. Or, merely introverted to the extreme. Actually a lot of actors are reclusive/introverted when not on stage also.

Personally the ones I would feel safest betting on for "Aspie comic" would be: Larry David, and yeh that's about it...I have forgotten the other one. Lol Every time "Curb" comes on, though, I'm thinking "Aspie. Aspie!". I'm shocked it hasn't come up as a show topic.

Possibly Richard Lewis? He's OCD-ish for sure.

I'd call Sacha Baron Cohen a narcissist before anything else. He seems wayyy too socially adept to be Aspie. (But egotistical enough to be a narcissist.)

Maybe Zeppo.

Bear in mind Jeni was a prude and didn't self-medicate like others did. Panic attacks can indeed be classified as psychosis, especially when you really don't know exactly what's wrong with you and where to take it. Schizoid and HFA are often interchangeable... There was something I noticed some years ago about him that wasn't quite "there" as it was with other comics, and I realized when I saw him in less graceful stages that he had a problem relating anything deep and personal to anyone for any reason...alluding to it only in third person during his performances. He struck me as someone who learned to play normal to the level of making performance his thing...and comedy was a good offset and therapy until it no longer served a purpose for him. Granted, I'm a big fan and followed him up until his death. You'd have to be familiar with ALL of his material to make the same assessments that I have about him. I was also diagnosed schizophrenic, psychotic, ret*d, etc...before my mother found a therapist that was familiar with my behavior issues.

As for the others mention...I DEFINITELY think Mitch Hedberg was HFA. Carlin on drugs didn't act like that, nor have other comics who go on stage wired. Andy Kaufman...most definitely.

Carlin struck me as too social..just someone who survived a great deal of change..and who admitted 8 months before he died that he had gotten his observational skills because he'd "Divorced himself from society long ago".

Bill Hicks was also a bit on the social side. He was raised strict southern baptist and didn't experience his adolescent phase until he left home. He was already a comedian then, from sneaking out of his parent's house and performing as a kid in places he couldn't even drink in.

There is definitely a difference in "performance" and social skills. Autistics are pressured to perform and pretend, and that gives them more of an introspective "knack" in observational humor.

Can't believe he hasn't been mentioned

Jake Johannsen

(le sigh )
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ab6LWXeNDA[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pm1cZRjQ0Lc[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kS6urQMzYzs[/youtube]

Bob Newhart is not aspie but he is awesome.
This is one of my favorites
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dsc2nQ3BCZA[/youtube]