#primarily nonspeaking

[clownrecess]

I was wondering, why don't you speak? Is it a conscious decision for your own comfort or is it that you physically can't? /g /nf

(tw for extremely brief trauma mention)

When I was a small child, I didn't have any speech delays. I developed oral speech at the same time as my peers and was able to adequately communicate using oral speech.

When I was 8, my ability to use oral speech was still existent, and for the most part easy, however when I became distressed oral speech was notably more tiring for me, and would result in me becoming more frustrated and upset. I don't believe this was noticeable to anybody else, but it is something I remember experiencing.

When I was 9 (which was a particularly traumatic time for me), I began loosing speech for short periods of time (like 30 minutes to two hours), and had made a bad quality communication board that I would use around my friends, and had an AAC app on my phone that I would use at home sometimes (albeit it was not taken seriously, and was seen primarily as something I was doing for fun). During these times I physically could not use oral speech, my brain felt like it was preventing me from accessing my oral speech.

At around 10 my difficulty using oral speech increased, and I would have no access to oral speech for time periods of around one day to a week.

When I was 11 I had my first long period of no oral speech, which was four months. During this time I originally began using a free AAC app on a really old android tablet that barely worked. Later on my school provided me with an I-Pad that had both LAMP Words For Life and Proloquo2go on it. I used both, but mostly LAMP because my speech therapist at the time thought it would be better for my personal motor skills.

After that four months I was able to use impaired oral speech at home, but not at school, this lasted for one or two months. During this time I got an android tablet with TalkTabletPRO on it.

After this I used oral speech full time with only very short two hours long nonspeaking periods during times I was really upset (for example when my fish died), for around a year (which was extremely exhausting, because I was forcing myself, which ended up making my mental health horrible and I was terribly burnt out). I was forcing myself to use oral speech at the time because me using AAC was accepted, but treated as less than, and I was scared people would be angry with me.

When I was 12 my oral speech was slowly beginning to decline again.

Later on (maybe mid 13?) I lost all oral speech for two days, and then eventually having oral speech that was really impaired. During this time I also only had acsess to oral speech at home, and not at school. Eventually resulting in a longer fully nonspeaking period.

This continued for a very long time, and my oral speech fluctuated a lot, ranging from short nonspeaking periods to longer ones.

Where I am at currently, I have acsess to zero oral speech (outside of occasionally mumbling hard to understand words when alone as a stim, or to my gecko. These words would not be able to be understood by other people.).

I currently use the same tablet that had TalkTabletPRO on it, except I now use Avaz instead of TalkTabletPRO. Avaz works much better for me, and allows me to use the voice I want to use.

It feels like there is a wall or block in my brain that stops me from acsessing the area of my brain that oral speech is located. I can try to use oral speech, but often times it just physically will not come out at all, or it will come out but is fully incoherent and I cant even understand it. Usually it just wont come out at all, though. It is not a purposeful thing I do for comfort, I physically can not speak.

I use a few different terms to describe my speech, but I usually say I am nonspeaking, primarily nonspeaking, or situationally nonspeaking. I do not feel that the term semispeaking is fitting for me, because I am not a speaking person who loses speech when under stress. I loose oral speech under stress, yes, but also loose it for no reason, and when I loose oral speech it is not usually for short periods. I loose speech for long periods of time and when I do use oral speech it is often impaired (usually just stuttering, but sometimes it is fully incoherent or doesnt match up with what I want to say.). I am also nonspeaking most of the time, which also makes me feel that semispeaking isnt the term for me. I feel most comfortable with being called nonspeaking or primarily nonspeaking, but situationally nonspeaking is also okay. I use AAC almost full time.

My experience is different than life long nonspeakers, because I am a nonspeaking person who lost consistent speech later in life. When I say I am nonspeaking online people tend to think I am a life long nonspeaker, and I want to make it clear I am not. Whilst it is important to listen to my experiences too, it is also important to listen to the experiences of life long nonspeakers.

[five-thousand-loaves-of-bread]

…something been in draft for while:

idk how say this exactly but often like. use what look like binary clear cut dichotomy that have set definition this is this that is that. because oftentimes call “cake” “cake” instead of “flour milk egg baking powder salt etc etc” that kind language faster simplier and nuance can easily put word count 10k+. and. with language communication disabilities not always able translate all nuance into tangible word on paper/screen/type sometimes have to call something with imperfect blanket word. and then you find out other people not really hold as much nuance as you & still simplify your nuance into something binary this this that that

but reality rarely that binary— say on here that nonverbal mean not mouth speak at all all time & semiverbal is struggle all time but can mouth speak some & verbal but actually more nuanced than that like some severely apraxic people who mouth do say thing but not in their control not what they want say & they still call self nonspeaking because it not intentional meaningful speech; or someone labeled nonverbal who actually do commmunicate with mouth words just not full sentence & not full clear pronounce but still labeled nonverbal anyway as almost like microaggression of not recognize their single or two word mouth word phrase as valid enough communication worth listen to; or someone with echolalia that not mean anything with it (vs someone with echolalia that is use echolalia as communication (think gestalts, etc)); or some research showing even able say 1-2 words more ability than those with 0 word; or research debate about where minimally verbal end is it 20 words 30 words 50 words

when combat “go nonverbal” crowd often say there is clear cut about what nonverbal and what isn’t and yeah there is clear cut but also is there

many not ready for this level muddiness & nuance because some take bring nuance as invite to say like “i nonverbal but can still (intentionally) mouth speak” or gateway to claim nonverbality as if fun new identity collect instead of some complicated complex experience with mixed emotion but often some level of grief at some point that get lot targeted awful ableism & discrimination like denied education refuse accommodation like IEP or put in segregated classroom without even consider accommodation in general ed to isolate away from peers n not actual to help nonverbal person where they best thrive, or secluded or restrained, or denied healthcare, denied communication, which all still happen now btw it still common now it not rare obsolete it majority still

which make me feel like this image

[id: meme. left side is philosophers (school of athens painting) with caption “talking about nonverbal nonspeaking with other nonverbal people”. middle say “vs”. right side image is parent guiding infant to look play at toy and captioned “talking about nonverbal nonspeaking with not nonverbal people. end id]

because sometimes really is that but also even this is binary. thinking about how some motor nonspeaking people without intellectual disability who language okay say their mind intact that they not stupid thus deserve education and not deserve abuse and throw people with ID & language impairment. or how nonverbal nonspeaking from autism so different from (but so similar to) from motor apraxia from cerebral palsy from intellectual disability from genetic or chromosomal disorders from stroke from TBI from aphasia from vocal cord dysfunction from dementia from from from… how talking to someone nonspeaking from primarily motor reasons without cognitive intellectual language disabilities as someone nonverbal because high level autism cognitive language disabilities, we not guarantee understand eachother experience, same with talk someone from acquired things vs mine neurodevelopmental, how what i say about nonverbal here may not apply to someone who not speak not because autism etc

but “if words so meaningless if experiences so boundless let abolish all” not helpful because for all kind way be nonverbal there experiences that 100% not nonverbal there experiences so different from nonverbal “not able meaningfully intentionally speak all the time” for every meaningless there meaningful reason nonverbal people use nonverbal and deserve word “nonverbal” for ourselves and how this difference in experience is intracommunity issue issue within nonverbal nonspeaking community something we have to grapple with and not invitation for people outside to talk about how “if nonverbal so wide, drawing line at going nonverbal & say that isn’t nonverbal is ridiculous and gatekeep” because as much vast different experience there is reason why there community why there this word we all call ourselves and. not one. of the reason is we can slide in and out of not speak and speak daily or weekly or monthly or regularly. there still common theme to what we call nonverbal despite different

wide word isn’t “functionally useless” it just you not know how n when use it

& this conversation not just apply to nonverbal but many other words n other things as well

[enbycrip]

Yup, that includes nonspeaking and partially speaking autistic folks too. And learning disabled autistics. And autistic folk with lots of co-occurring conditions. And autistic wheelchair users ♿️ and other mobility aid users. Did you know that increasing evidence is being found of co-occurrence of autism and hypermobility disorders, including Ehlers-Danlos Syndromes, Marfan Syndrome and Joint Hypermobility Syndrome?

That includes queer and binary and nonbinary trans autistics - did you know autistic folks are about three times more likely to be trans or gender-nonconforming than the general population?

That includes sex workers too - did you know sex work is one job a lot of autistic folk can actually manage to do, and that’s really vital when it’s so difficult for so many of us to access disability benefits and reasonable accommodations in paid work?

That includes autistics with mental health diagnoses, including schizophrenia and psychosis. Autistic folks in prison and with criminal records too - do you know that the U.K. Government’s own disability strategy notes that about 40% of people in the criminal system are neurodivergent and/or learning disabled?

That includes Black autistics, indigenous autistics and autistics of colour, who are not only horribly more likely to be the targets of violence, including fatal violence, from law enforcement and from paid carers - the Judge Rotenberg Centre, notorious for subjecting autistics to *electric shocks* as punishment, primarily hosts BIPOC folk - but are also far more likely to be misdiagnosed or go undiagnosed?

[urfavisdisabled]

This is Shouko Komi from Komi can't communicate!

Komi has a communication disorder and is nonspeaking. She is also an AAC user, primarily using a notepad and pencil to communicate. While it is not canon, many people see her as having autism in addition to her communication disorder.

Negative stereotypes? While some take issue with the fact that her classmates see her as "above them" and treat her like a god-like figure, others love a positive representation of communication disorders and appreciate that she is not harassed/hated by her peers.

[river-neurodivergent-willow]

Introduction :)

This account is owned by two people willow and river

Because our introductions are probably quite long we will have a "TLDR" then the actual full introductions bellow the "read more" mark :)

Willow:

diagnosed with autism

Fully nonspeaking/nonverbal due to skill regression

has middle rate care DLA, most likely MSN

needs help with IADLs and some BADLs

left school very early and doesn't go to school, getting a specialist plan for future education

special interest is a soft toy

mum is caregiver, getting support worker

cis female, pronouns she/her

River:

Diagnosed with level 2 social communication and level 3 RRBs autism

Semi-verbal

Getting NDIS and considering DSP

Needs help with some BADLs and all IADLs

In mainstream school and moving to another school which could involve specialist program

special interest in scientific topics

no legal caregiver, getting support worker

has profoundly autistic brother, both siblings are also disabled

Is black

Pronouns she/her and is cis female

About Willow:

diagnosed with ASD in early adolescence

Fully nonspeaking/nonverbal due to skill regression in early adolescence, uses a range of AAC (mainly gestures though)

has middle rate care DLA (soon will likely have low rate mobility DLA), not diagnosed with any autism level, but most likely MSN

needs help with IADLs and help with a few BADLs

Left school in early adolescence, in no current education due to needs, future education likely be provided by an EHCP (in EHCP process) and won't be in a school due to needs meaning can't attend a school (even special school) future education will be through EOTAS package and/or specialist autism educational provision

main/consistent special interest is smell and feel of favourite teddy! (Has been special interest through life but have had other interests but they only last for years)

Pronouns are she/her and cis female

mum is main caregiver (recognised as carer by government), in process of getting a support worker

About River:

Diagnosed with ASD in adolescence, but suspected since early childhood. Diagnosed level 2 and level 3 RRBs, probably moderate-high support needs and professionals sometimes refer to River as low functioning

Semi-verbal and uses a range of AAC such as writing, typing, and gestures.

In the process of getting an NDIS plan. Considering getting disability support pension (DSP) next year.

needs help with some IADLs and BADLs

Currently in mainstream school with support, in the process of moving schools and has been recommended to a program for students with high needs.

special interest has been scientific topics since she was 6 years old, primarily science fiction/space

River’s pronouns are she/her and she is a cisgender female.

Legally does not have a caregiver but is in the process of getting a support worker.

Both siblings are disabled. Has a younger brother who is profoundly autistic /HSN and unable to functionally communicate was previously diagnosed with global developmental delay due to being too young to be diagnosed with ID, not re diagnosed with any severity of ID but most likely severe/profound ID

Is black

Extra info!!

We are both new to tumblr (especially river) and don't quite know how everything works, it is very complicated so we are sorry if we don't reply to things or make mistakes, it's because we don't understand how to use tumblr!

Willow has not been to school for a significant amount of time and she stopped being in full time education consistently at around age 10!! so therefore struggles with grammar!! Most of the time it will be found and corrected but please don't get mad about that!

We both enjoy the 100 and the hunger games and maze runner, river likes those things the most though!

[whumpinggrounds]

PSA About the Word “Mute”

Heya I’m sure no one means any harm, but I’ve seen the word “mute” used a bit in the whump community and I wanted to gently point out that describing a person as “mute,” meaning a persistent nonspeaking state, is widely considered offensive.*

So, saying something like “The sight rendered Whumpee mute” is completely fine, because mute is being used as a temporary descriptor.

But saying, for instance, “This is Whumpee, and they’re mute due to trauma/injury/Deafness” is offensive to many communities, particularly the Deaf community, and should not be used.

Nonspeaking or nonverbal are great alternatives if you don’t want to specify why your character doesn’t speak. If your character is Deaf, hard of hearing, or speech impaired, you could say that specifically as well! Selective mutism is a medical diagnosis and in that context, it would be fine to describe someone as having selective mutism, but again, the people I know who have selective mutism still do not appreciate being described simply as “mute.”

*My experience and understanding refers primarily to American terms and norms! I definitely am not educated enough to speak to other cultures and norms and do not mean to lecture anyone operating in a different cultural context.

[nonspeakingkiku]

Hey, Kiku! I'm working on a character who is nonspeaking and uses AAC (primarily due to autism) and I had a question.

Do you have any general advice for writing a nonspeaking person in a romantic (or committed platonic) relationship? Any specific struggles you've experienced? Or things you'd like to see represented?

If you aren't comfortable sharing that's okay! You seem very happy with your partners so I figured I would ask. Hope you are having a good day!

(This post might look different from usual. Kiku's tumblr app is acting up and Kiku can't tell what size the text is set to compared to usual)

Kiku doesn't mind the question. ☺️ The answer might be all over the place or ramblely because it is hot here and Kiku is having hard time thinking, but hope this help.

The people in the relationship need to have methods of communication that work for those involved. Sometimes two peoples communication styles don't match up and they have to work around that. Sometimes a nonspeaking person will have additional communication issues (Kiku for example has aphasia and it affects Kiku's ability to communicate. Kiku also has other barriers to communication as well (situational mutism, hearing problems, vision problems, ect, all of which can affect Kiku's ability to communicate). Every nonspeaking person should have a communication system. A communication system is all of the things that an aac user uses to communicate. For example Kiku uses symbol based aac app, low tech symbol based aac, text based aac app, messenger app, gestures, picture cards, a little ASL, gestues like pointing and miming, and soon a PODD book.

Every AAC users system will look different. And what they use depends on a lot of factors, such as how they can access the AAC, can they touch the screen and accurately select buttons, or do they need alternative access like switches or eye gaze?

Oops 😅 Infodumped a little bit. Recalibrating.

When Kiku started using AAC it was an adjustment, for everyone involved.

There might be missunderstandings, and an aac user might try something and later figure out it doesn't work.

AAC should always be with the user, can't use it if you don't have it.

The persons partner is also a communication partner. They might help the aac user figure out what they want to say, if the aac user has trouble with that. Or they might help the aac user communicate with someone else if needed (this is common with aac users who use low tech aac).

Kiku is very happy with Kiku's partners.

This is all Kiku can think of right now.

Thank for the question. ☺️

[teddybearworld]

Made for Non speaking Autists by Non speaking Autists

Short documentary "Listen" gives the thoughts from autists who are primarily or solely nonspeaking and use technology to communicate.

Watch it here (X)

CommunicationFirst seems to be a really good organization that puts the most at risk and most misunderstood people in the autism community first. I recommend speaking autists watch this.

[roachliquid]

As a followup on my earlier OFMD post - I wouldn't say that this is an example of "learn the rules so you can break them", per se. That's definitely a rule that has its uses, but when it comes to media that are primarily vehicles for jokes or to discuss modern issues, it's less of a big deal - Our Flag Means Death could have gotten away with doing minimal research for the same reason Monkey Island got away with it, basically. It's not like Pirates of the Caribbean, where the creators bragged about how authentic the costumes looked while depicting a completely ahistorical version of Jamaica for seemingly no reason other than "they couldn't be assed to look it up"*.

The primary reason I love all the detail is because it shows how much the creators cared. They cared about the history of piracy enough to really look at it, to draw out the details that constantly get buried in the back and pay attention to which tropes were historically rooted and which ones just keep getting regurgitated without thought. And they draw attention to details that media often tends to treat as an inconvenient aside that would get in the way of their story - such as the omnipresent risk of injury and death, and the relative egalatarianism of pirate crews compared to most of society at the time.

(As an example, modern media is generally happy to use Black pirates as window dressing, having them exist on crews as largely nonspeaking characters and making no effort to examine the socioeconomic pressures that might get them there. OFMD goes "fuck that, we're giving them a presence and we're talking about racism".)

These are the details that really mattered, in the pursuit of making a show that genuinely tries to be inclusive. The ones they broke? They could have gotten away without caring about at all. I genuinely don't know if they did enough research into costuming to know that Stede's outfits are from the wrong decade, and it doesn't matter. Because he's got a gorgeous, distinct look that communicates his character, AND we get to see a character deride him by calling him a fop, which was Such A Moment for this utter geek who owns an actual dictionary of (real and fictional) pirate slang.

(I will cede, actually, that the use of language in the show is a GREAT example of "know the rules so you can break them". This is a world that has authentic 18th century slurs and the word "fanfiction" in the same universe, and the type of speech they choose for different characters and in different context holds SO much weight, it's honestly beautiful.)

But yeah. The overall lesson of OFMD, I would say, is "learn the rules that matter, and any others that will help you tell the kind of story you want to tell." Not going to say that this never involves learning the whole ruleset, but sometimes it's enough to know what kind of rules you have to work with and go "OK, we really don't need to know what anyone actually wore, we just need to make outfits that communicate the kind of person they were."

*This isn't a strictly anti-POTC blog, but there are some things about it that Just Bug Me, and one of them is how seriously the first movie took itself despite obviously not giving a flying fuck about history.

[clownrecess]

(Tw for ableism, meltdowns, elopement, etc.)

Hi, I am currently in an argument with someone in a comment section because they are saying that autism is not a disability. So I decided that I want to make a post about it, and thoroughly talk about it.

If you do not know me, hello. I am an autistic primarily nonspeaking teenager with mid-high support needs. I'm disabled.

I am honestly very tired of low support needs autistics saying that autism isnt disabling, because it very much is for me and a lot of other people. Just because your experience isnt the same as ours, doesn't cancel out our experience.

I will never live alone. I am a teenager who can not make food, or blow dry his own hair. My ability to use oral speech varies a lot, and when I can use it, I usually end up having severe meltdowns from it. I am in special ed. It hurts when I brush my hair. I have put myself in danger by running into the street. My emotions are extremely strong, so I often seem rude when I'm not, I just can't control the fact that when I feel something it's so incredibly strong that it hurts. I have little to no internal sensation. I could not bathe myself until I was 9 or ten, and even now I will not just go and take a shower myself; I need someone to tell me to, and I need a visual schedule to help me do so. And many more things.

The person's response was to then say that is not because I am autistic, that is because of the way mankind is. That my autism is not disabling, society is. And whilst I do agree that society is horrible to disabled people, and it would be much much easier to exist as a disabled person in this world if society was different, that doesn't change the fact that my autism is disabling. Me being nonspeaking is not because of society. Me being unable to care for myself is not because of society. Most of the things on that list are not because of society!

Just because low support needs people exist, does absolutely not give them the right to speak over us, and tell us what our experiences are or are not.

My autism is disabling. Listen to me. Listen to me. My life has been severely impacted because I am disabled. You can not sit there and tell me that me being unable to care for myself, and unable to live alone ever, isn't disabling, and that it's because of society.

I am disabled. Stop speaking over high support needs autistics.

[five-thousand-loaves-of-bread]

somehow don’t know how explain “many nonverbal nonspeaking people don’t like ‘going nonverbal’ or speaking ppl using nonverbal nonspeaking to describe themselves” outside tumblr like to people i know who still use it

because many of us only/primarily on tumblr not other platforms and never see people on other platforms advocate for this so very minority voice afraid will be attacked

[genia-vc-blog]

Blissymbols:

are quick and easy to learn

can be used at a pre-reading level, but are     sophisticated enough to allow expression of thoughts, ideas and feelings

can be expanded as ability grows

 Why Bliss?

The system of Blissymbolics has several features which makes it a preferred means of communication for nonspeaking persons, for persons with limited literacy skills, and for persons who are ready and eager to use Bliss to communicate with persons whatever their language background may be.

 Who uses Bliss

The number of persons currently using Blissymbols has been very difficult to determine. The system is used with persons with severe speech and physical impairments (SSPI) in over 33 countries and Blissymbol materials have been translated into more than 15 languages.

Currently Blissymbolics is most widely used in AAC in Sweden, Norway and Finland in Scandinavia, and to a varying degree in other European countries, such as Belgium, Spain, and Italy. In Sweden, around 2-300 persons yearly are attending Bliss instructional cources, primarily arranged by SPSM (the Swedish Agency for Special Needs Education and Schools).

 What is Blissybolics to me?

When I first saw Blysymlic's form, I was reminded of emoticons that are commonly used in everyday life. Emoticons are used instead of words and sentences with many meanings. Blysymbolic continues to evolve its language into a more scientific and systematic system. Emoticons are used by many people regardless of language disorder, and in particular, as mobile devices are popularized, the use of emoticons is becoming more frequent. Like emoticons, if people increase their interest in and understanding Blysymbolic, it can be useful as a tool to lower communication barriers with people in new language environments as well as language disorders.

[lafaacresearch-blog]

Introductions!

Hi friends!! We’re new to Tumblr, so still getting the hang of things.  But let’s introduce ourselves. This is the page for an undergrad thesis project at Lafayette College.

The student PI of this project is Erin McKenney. When she’s not doing psychology research, she enjoys swing dance, playing with her dog, and drawing landscapes.  

We’re open to any and all questions about our research! So please feel free to send them our way. 

If you were primarily nonspeaking for at least a year between the ages of 4-14, please consider taking our survey too! We’re excited to learn more about the relationship between AAC devices and wellbeing. 

https://lafayettec.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_3HSA7XwQr8SAsi9

[brapgf]

in 2007 steve carrell played evan in a movie called Evan Almighty where god tells evan to build an ark in a story mimicking Noah’s Ark.

the movie sucks asshole like holy shit biblical comedies are awful. but Maile Flanagan, known primarily as the voice actor for Naruto, plays a nonspeaking role, and god pulls a haha funney joke on evan and strips him naked, exposing his steve carrell noah penis to Naruto.

don’t be like me. don’t watch movies.

[whumpinggrounds]

Hi there! Could I ask for some advice on writing nonspeaking characters/characters with mutism? One of my characters is unable to speak due to an early injury that resulted in paralysis of his larynx. He primarily uses ASL to communicate. Do you have any tips on how best to write or characterize him?

Hi! To be honest I forgot about this ask briefly, sorry!

So, a character with a paralyzed larynx. While I don't have any experience with this specific diagnosis, I can tell you that there are some ASL signs that require sound - or don't require it, but someone fluent in sign would make sounds with certain signs, which would be a signal of true fluency. Usually, these sounds are not super distinct, as many of the people making them can't hear them. You should explore whether your character makes noise when he signs or not.

It is worth mentioning that this character might not be welcomed with open arms into the Deaf community, depending on Deaf culture where he lives. This is something that is changing right now, but the Deaf community has been known in the past to be insular and difficult to break into if one is not Deaf, even if one does use sign language for a separate medical reason. There can be toxic standards of "Deaf enough" and being "Deaf of Deaf," or the Deaf child of Deaf adults.

Other things to think about - does your character make noise when he laughs? Yells? Cries? What does any of that sound like? Does he ever make involuntary noises? What would that look and sound like?

As a person that is unable to speak, your character might or might not identify with the nonverbal community. He would likely not identify with selective mutism or "mute" as a label, as the former is a separate diagnosis, and the latter is no longer used and often considered offensive.

Think about who he surrounds himself with, how they behave, and how that behavior is addressed within the narrative. Do people learn sign for him, or not? Do they talk over him, interrupt him, ignore him, or try to guess what he's going to sign? If so, what affect does this have on your character?

Finally, the larynx doesn't just aid in speech, it also aids in preventing us from aspirating food and choking on it. Is your character able to eat by mouth? If so, how much? Does he have to eat slower and pay close attention to avoid choking? Does he have to eat certain consistencies of food to avoid choking? Does he have to drink particular consistencies of liquid to avoid choking? If he uses a feeding tube, what does that look like?

These are all just questions to get you started. It might feel overwhelming, but you don't have to know everything right away. Pick a few things that seem right, do some research, and decide more! I'm happy to talk through more questions if you have them. Anyone who has more experience with this or information to add, feel free to tag on. As always, happy writing!

[bodizwonder]

Jerry Lewis, Comedy Legend, Dead at 91

The French are typically proper about wine, cheese and pastry. They have additionally all the time been proper about Jerry Lewis, who died Sunday at age 91, his publicist confirmed to the Associated Press

Lewis might be greatest recognized to folks beneath 70 as a movie actor: He was the star, in addition to the writer-director, of images like The Nutty Professor (1963), a potty work of genius during which he performed the twin roles of a nerdy scientist and his alter-ego, Buddy Love, a suave, impolite Ratpack-style lothario. In 1982 he appeared, reverse Robert De Niro, as kidnapped comedy kingpin Jerry Langford in Martin Scorsese’s King of Comedy. Lewis’s MDA Labor Day Telethon, which he hosted to boost cash for the Muscular Dystrophy Association, was nearly unavoidable late-summer-holiday tv from 1966 to 2010. More lately, Lewis continued to carry out stay, promoting out reveals even at age 90.

Related

And most individuals know that, as a part of his lengthy profession as a writer-director in addition to an actor, Lewis directed and starred in an ill-advised movie in 1972 known as The Day the Clown Cried, a few clown who accompanied kids to the gasoline chambers in Nazi focus camps. The movie has by no means been proven, on Lewis’ orders, however its identify alone has all the time served as a helpful punch line for anybody who needed to chop Lewis right down to dimension. But perhaps we must be considering of that unseen movie as the head of risk-taking in a performer who was all the time prepared to take possibilities, usually bodily harmful ones. The pratfalls and foolish walks that Lewis devised to thrill us, 12 months after 12 months and film after film, resulted in again accidents—to not point out habit to painkillers—that primarily led to lifelong ache. Being humorous hurts.

But you’d by no means realize it to observe Lewis, within the films he made each with and with out his well-known accomplice, Dean Martin. Although Lewis’ comedy has come to be higher appreciated lately, for many years individuals who had been clearly lacking the purpose thought-about it too broad, too brassy, too filled with facial mugging. But Lewis was actually a musician and dancer rolled into 1, even when he was neither taking part in music or dancing outright. His routines had been an excellent rush of improvisatory looseness and seemingly contradictory precision: He’d know intuitively when to cross his eyes or jut his jaw, and if his split-second selections had been as definitive as a well-placed 16th observe, in addition they felt wild and a bit of harmful, an invite to reckless freedom and pleasure.

Even although Lewis was well-known for his exaggeratedly squeaky talking voice, he seldom wanted phrases. In The Bellboy, his ingeniously made 1960 directorial debut (he additionally wrote and produced), Lewis performs a nonspeaking bellhop named Stanley, bumbling by means of his job at Miami’s tony Fontainbleau Hotel: When the supervisor asks him to thoughts the entrance desk for a minute, one of many telephones positioned on it begins ringing. Unable to find out which 1 it’s, Stanley, the rattled naïf, herds them collectively as in the event that they had been bleating sheep. The trailer for the movie is a mini delight by itself, during which Lewis depicts, in sometimes exaggerated vogue, a sarcastic cigar-chomping producer, a matted author lacking a tooth and hunched over a typewriter, a director sporting a scar throughout 1 eye and growling in a heavy German accent. Even if trendy viewers need to make some allowances for racial gags that won’t have aged properly, Lewis might take any drained stereotype and make it sing.

But to grasp Lewis as a performer, it’s important to know the attain, and the brilliance, of Martin and Lewis, a duo that had been like rock stars earlier than rock stars even existed. Lewis was born in Newark in 1926. His father was a vaudeville performer, his mom performed piano for a radio station: Both carried out at resorts within the Catskills, and as a child, Lewis would be a part of them. As a young person he developed a routine during which he would mime to phonograph data. This is the act he was procuring round New York City golf equipment in 1945, the 12 months he met Martin, casually, on the road—the 2 had been launched by a mutual buddy. They turned a comedy duo the next 12 months.

If not for that partnership, Lewis would by no means have change into the Jerry Lewis we all know. You can see their rapport within the films they made, just like the Frank Tashlin-directed Artists and Models (1955) or Hollywood or Bust (1956), the pair’s remaining movie, made as their partnership, and their friendship, was disintegrating. But the truest revelation of Martin and Lewis’ grandness, collectively and individually, comes from watching clips from the present that made them stars, The Colgate Comedy Hour. Their components was repeated seemingly advert nauseam and but was in some way endlessly humorous: Martin, suave, clean and devilishly good-looking, would try and croon a music; Lewis, gangly and stressed, a hyperactive man-boy, would reduce into the second with a impolite noise, an over-the-top grimace or grin, or another manufactured interruption.

One of the good joys of those routines is watching Martin do his damnedest to not crack up. Sometimes, he would fail, and Lewis would find yourself laughing, too. This isn’t an instance of the dreadful phenomenon of comedians’ laughing at their very own jokes. It’s one thing each extra joyous and extra mysterious, an occasion of the viewers being let in on enjoyable in the absolute best method. Martin was Lewis’ preferrred accomplice and excellent viewers rolled into 1.

The Martin and Lewis partnership lasted solely 10 years. Professional jealousy and various different tensions introduced it to an finish, bitterly, in 1956, and though the 2 tried occasional cordial conferences, the break up lasted the remainder of their lives. (Martin died in 1995.) The breakup pained Lewis vastly. In his marvelous 2005 memoir, Dean & Me: A Love Story, written with James Kaplan, Lewis recounts the ultimate present the 2 males carried out collectively, on Tuesday, July 24, 1956, on the Copacabana in New York. It was 10 years to the day after they’d first cemented their partnership as a comedy group. “When I awoke on Wednesday afternoon,” Lewis wrote, “I understood how an amputee must feel.”

Lewis might by no means bear to observe Hollywood or Bust. It’s the one considered one of his movies, he wrote in his memoir, that he hasn’t seen. In 2016, Lewis gave a taciturn on-camera interview to the Hollywood Reporter. Most questions had been met with crabby three- and four-word non-answers. When the determined however affected person off-camera interviewer requested if Lewis had a favourite interval, or a time when he was happiest, Lewis stalled at first, after which mentioned outright, “When my partner was alive.” The interviewer pressed additional: What made it nice? “I’ll show you some material,” Lewis continued crossly, as if he couldn’t even imagine he needed to clarify such a factor, “you’ll know.”

In Dean & Me, Lewis wrote very briefly of attending Martin’s memorial. He was grateful, he mentioned, to have missed the burial. “I lost my partner and my best friend. The man who made me the man I am today….I miss him every day I’m still here.” The first time Lewis and Martin carried out collectively as a bona fide group, they drove an Atlantic City viewers wild with a makeshift routine they’d scrawled, in eyebrow pencil, on a greasy brown paper pastrami sandwich bag. As of the time he wrote Dean & Me, Lewis nonetheless had the bag, saved in a safe-deposit field. Great careers, like nice friendships, usually have ignoble beginnings, and who can actually script their endings? No 1 is aware of what Heaven is like, but when it’s acquired a deli, you possibly can wager there’s a suave, good-looking Italian man there, ready with a sandwich. He’s additionally in all probability attempting to maintain a straight face.

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Source: fitnesscaster.com Source: Bodiz Wonder