Three amazing wheelchair comics

Three hysterical comedians with spinal cord injuries:

Chuck Bittner (pictured), a C5 quad from New Hampshire doing some stinging self-deprecating “wicked” humor and Damon Rozier, a para from NYC, doing a “wheelchair lap dance.”

Also watch legendary UK Cockney comic (wc-user from polio), who passed away this spring, Tony Gerrard. Read this entry

Sometimes you just need to be a zombie

You have no idea how fun it is to dress up like She-Ra (’80s cartoon character, sister of He-Man).

I’m usually known as “She-Ra in a wheelchair” (instead of just She-Ra) whenever I do it. It kinda pisses me off, but what do you do, the large glaring power chair cannot be ignored. I have never let it stop me though.

Some of the happiest moments I’ve had since becoming paralyzed have happened while I’ve been dressed up. Also, check out the awesome Zombie Pool Party photo montage featuring three zombified women w/ disabilities. Read this entry

Wheelchair-users on trampolines!

Walking and jumping; two things I thought I’d never do again until a cure came around. Turns out I jumped the gun a early on the jumping part.

Wheelchairs and trampolines…never in a million years would I have thought these two worlds would, or could, collide.

The first video comes from a really cool paraplegic from California, Andrew Angulo, who makes videos showing how he does nearly everything, and in this 5 minute video showing how he ‘jumps’ on a trampoline will certainly get your brain churning.

I never thought a paraplegic could do what he does, and then I saw his trampoline video and was schooled. Read this entry

Podcast #88: Jeff Charlebois, Cali comedian goes country

In podcast #88 of No Free Rides, Tiffiny is joined by Jeff Charlebois, a quadriplegic copywriter turned comedian who’s performed at over 150 colleges.

Jeff is also a writer of several genres, including his latest dabble, country music song writing, and he shares his latest tune “Cougar Style” (oh yeah; a hilarious must listen).

My Gimpy Life trailer drops

I don’t mean to be bossy, but you gotta watch this trailer of the upcoming web series (a TV show available online), My Gimpy Life, starring my awesome friend Teal Sherer.

When it comes to disability in the media, I don’t think I’ve seen anything quite as smart, witty and well, as perfect, as this.

She’s a paraplegic actress in Hollywood (in real life) who plays a working paraplegic actress in Hollywood, and it’s a comedy (a damn good one). That’s all you need to know.

Can’t wait for this series to premiere July 31st! Now, prepare to have your mind blown:

SCI Superstar: Teal Sherer

Teal Sherer (yup like the color), whose an actress and paraplegic, has come a long way from the log house she grew up in in rural Tennessee. After breaking her back while riding in a car to Labor Day fireworks show when she was just 14, she found a new passion post-injury – acting – hasn’t looked back since.

After college, Teal decided to make the big move out to LA to pursue her dreams of acting. Her first break came in 2004, when she was cast in HBO’s Warm Springs (a film about the life of FDR starring Kenneth Branagh. She played a young woman with Polio. Loved this movie).

She’s also been in several national commercials, including one for Liberty Mutual insurance and another that I remember from awhile ago to get people to get out and vote.

And the past couple of years, she’s developed a huge online following for the character ‘Venom’ she plays (a member of the “Axis of Anarchy”) in the web series hit, The Guild. She is mean and wears a lot of black eyeliner. Watch out. Read this entry

A spoon, a girl and a cell phone

Long ago when I was a newbie in rehab, they sent me home with a reacher as my designated method for picking up stuff on the floor, and then life happened.

Sans-reacher, you have to use a lot of crazy stuff – a broom, a stick, a grocery bag, even a big saggy purse – to pick up stuff from the floor (people with disabilities are ninjas of creative solutions when they have to be).

And in this video by Annemarie Hopkins, a wonderful woman who founded 3eLove.com (and sadly passed away in ’09), proved you can do a lot more with a kitchen spoon than just stir tomato soup. Read this entry