Video: “Being a disabled person feels a political act”

“I’m a writer, an artist and a part-time superhero.” Jess Thom co-founded Touretteshero in 2010 to celebrate the creativity and humour of Tourette’s Syndrome. She also works as a playworker with children and campaigns as an activist. In particular, she advocates for relaxed performances, in which theatre etiquette is relaxed to allow people with different needs to access performances.

Thom’s show Backstage in Biscuitland was a hit at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2014, and was later presented at the Southbank Centre’s Unlimited Festival and the British Council’s Edinburgh Showcase. Inspired by Thom’s urge to say “biscuit” 16,000 times a day, the show embraces unpredictability, weaving comedy, puppetry and song together to tell a powerful story about the nature of theatre and the prejudices that can exclude people who don’t conform. We recently partnered the show’s tour to the USA and Canada, where Thom received great acclaim and promoted the idea of relaxed performances.

In this video, we ask Thom about her new stand-up comedy show Stand Up, Sit Down, Roll Over, ahead of its work-in-progress showing at Unlimited Festival 2016. It’s her first venture into stand-up and, she tells us, it’s designed to challenge stand-up comedians to think differently. “It will be funny, challenging and thought-provoking,” she says. “And it will definitely include biscuits.”

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