At the 2003 Edinburgh Festival Jaik Campbell focused on stammering in a stand-up comedy show about...birds. He explains why stammering can be a laughing matter.

Jaik Campbell: showing the lighter side of stammering.

If someone had said to me three years ago that I would be doing a twenty-minute comedy routine for three weeks at the Edinburgh Festival and get good reviews and audiences, I would have said "impossible!" Actually I would not even have been able to say impossible. Three years ago I still had quite a bad stutter.

In 1996 I saw my first live comedy show. It started me thinking that having a go at stand-up would help my self-confidence and diminish my stutter. It was not until 2000 that I started performing on the London circuit, thanks to various speech therapy courses at the City Lit and a stand-up course in London. The stutter provided me with original material which audiences luckily found funny and interesting.

Three years and 400 shows later, comic Phil Zimmerman asked me to join him in a show called 'Birds', at the 2003 Edinburgh Festival. I agreed and felt that my contribution should have a positive message: that nothing should stop us from doing what we want to do in life. I decided to use the show to demonstrate how the stutter had affected my life - in job interviews, checking into an airport, or being stopped by the police. Turning negatives into positives was very healing. My negativity had been stronger than I had realized and the stutter had particularly affected my work and relationships.

Indeed, it was the late Scatman John who said: "Everyone stutters one way or another so check out my message to you, as a matter of fact let nothing hold you back, if the Scatman can do it, so can you!"

Performing comedy, I was able to bounce back, gain confidence and feel as though I was finally contributing something to the world, which was a nice feeling. I felt as though I was able to fight against the force that had made me start to stutter. I think stutterers can be experts at dealing with fear, embarrassment and humiliation as we've had to deal with these things for most of our lives. Public speaking is a good way of showing the world that we have a voice and are not idiots. Edinburgh 2003 was very worthwhile and generated interest for the BSA. I am hoping to produce a show next year, which could make the public even more aware, in a positive and funny way, about what it really means to have a stutter and of the complexities we face on a daily basis.

Putting on a show in Edinburgh is expensive. Thank you to BSA for their kind support for the printing costs of the flyers and posters, which was a great help and morale boost.

Overall, I feel that stutterers need to realise that the challenge of overcoming a stutter can sometimes release hidden energies and qualities in us that can be channelled into positive accomplishments and be a spur to success!

From the Winter 2003 edition of Speaking Out

www.jaikcampbell.com