This website has a program called A.D.D. For Fun. It uses comedy writing and performing to
challenge its participants to look beyond the conventional view of ADD as a liability and, instead, to see their “disorder” as a talent and an ability that can be harnessed. It’s run by 2 ADDers Tony Vicich’s a nationally touring standup comic, and a comedy coach, and Kevin Roberts who’s an ex teacher and an ADD coach. Very cool, check it out.
My message is pure and simple: Celebration. I celebrate who we are as ADD and ADHD individuals. All of us experience difficulty and challenges with society being the way it is. But we ÒaddÓ something incredible. We are the dreamers, discoverers and the explorers. WeÕre the ones who left our homelands to forge exciting new lives in strange lands. We are the risk takers who are driven to live on the edge, but who in the process show everybody else where the edge actually is. WeÕre rarely satisfied with the way things are, and thatÕs why we can be found as entrepreneurs, inventers, and in jobs that demand great physical and mental exertion. We want to change things, make them better, or at least more interesting. WeÕre the people that made you laugh in boring classes, the friend that you hung out with just because he was exciting, or the creative genius that made you think. A lot of us are great with our hands and have an uncanny inclination toward things mechanical. People are never bored when weÕre around.
Amen to that.
I think that having ADD in standup comedy is a great competitive advantage, adaptable, rapid fire mind, noticing everything that’s going around you, implusive means using what works in the moment with that particular crowd, high energy level etc. Robin Williams has never publically said that he has ADD to the best of my knowledge but…
How many stand up comics do you think have ADD?