About

This interdisciplinary practice-as-research study explores how disabled comedians use stand-up as a form of self-authorship, audience negotiation, and resistance. While autobiographical comedy relating to identity and trauma has been explored, little research investigates how disabled comedians construct persona, comedic framing, and audience expectations across performance spaces to reclaim agency and challenge industry norms.

This study asks:

•    How do disabled performers craft and deliver autobiographical stand-up to articulate pain, identity, and agency?
•    How does performing stand-up shape meaning-making for comedians and audiences?

Through first-person performance, a memoir, and performative workshops, in addition to thematic case study analyses, this project bridges creative practice and critical performance research. It contributes to comedy studies by centring disabled perspectives, performance research by examining how venues, audience reception, and industry structures shape performer agency, and disability arts by exploring how disabled comedians challenge mainstream norms through performance.

A first-person stand-up show will explore my lived experience of chronic pain and disability, testing self-authorship, audience interaction, and venue accessibility. The accompanying memoir documents this process, bridging theory with lived experience through performance.

Developing a creative framework blending stand-up with autobiographical writing, drawing on the Transformation Through Writing Model (Lengelle & Meijers, 2009) and Performance Theory (Double, 2013), (Quirk, 2015), these workshops form a research method, allowing disabled comedians to test how narratives evolve through performance and analyse audience reception dynamics.

A thematic analysis of disabled comedians on Kill Tony and across mainstream and alternative comedy spaces will explore how disabled comedians shape persona, challenge audience assumptions, and navigate stand-up structures.
By integrating performances, workshops, and case studies, this project positions stand-up as an act of meaning-making and a research tool which enhances the visibility of disabled comedians, potentially providing unique insights. Findings will be shared via performances, a memoir, public engagement, and scalable performance workshops.