Stuart Laws brings his most personal show so far to Brighton Komedia on Thursday, April 3 as he hits the road with Has To Be Joking?
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00:00Good afternoon, really lovely to speak to Stuart Laws this afternoon who is on his way
00:06to New York, lucky chap, but you'll be back before too long to play a series of gigs including
00:12Brighton and an incredibly personal show. This is a show that follows your diagnosis
00:17of autism and we were saying just now you regard that diagnosis as confirmation. It's
00:23a positive thing, isn't it, and it's helpful to you.
00:28I think the use of confirmed as autistic just feels like it was always there. It's less
00:38severe than diagnosed. I'm not entirely sure what all the correct terminology is, but I
00:45know that confirmed feels more true to how I view it. I always had this feeling that
00:51there was something slightly different or how my brain works that perhaps didn't fit
00:56into the standard way that we're supposed to think about things, but as a child there's
01:04so many reasons for that. Confirmed as autistic just feels like a nice, yes, it was always
01:12there and it's not going to be massively life changing to you, but it will be now this thing
01:17that you can embrace and help other people understand where you're coming from.
01:22As you were saying, it gives you a reason, doesn't it?
01:27Yeah, and so before I knew, I have some sensory stimulation issues, I would just go,
01:36oh, I just, I remember times of arriving at a pub to see friends getting, stepping inside
01:42the door and having a full on panic about what to do and I'm sort of very good at,
01:47I don't know if you're supposed to classify very good at masking. I don't think it's
01:51a competition, but I would just be able to shut down and be like, right, here we go,
01:57what we do and how we're going to get through this. But I definitely remember a few times
02:00walking into a pub, finding it too much, turning around, walking out and driving home
02:05and friends being like, why have you done that? And now I know why I did that. It's not because
02:10I'm a bad person. And we're having a relatively serious conversation about a comedy show of all
02:17things. The point is, how do you make that leap from a serious diagnosis to comedy? How do you
02:26make this funny? Apart from that's what you naturally do. Yeah, I think it's sort of, for me,
02:33the show opens with a discussion about small talk and how I sort of struggle with that. And I think
02:40that's something that a lot of people can connect with. And it came about the opening because I am
02:48renowned amongst friends for asking pretty odd questions as a way of avoiding small talk.
02:54And I just really, you know, those conversations sort of got like, you know, really fun conversations.
03:01And one of them became like a regular segment on Radio X, where I asked the host,
03:08Ed Gamble and Maxi Crosby, what's the biggest pig they can imagine? And that's where the show
03:12started of being like, finding these small things in my life that like, I have just sort of always
03:17accepted as being like part of me and being like, oh, there are fun ways of this. You know, you
03:23being you using this as a way to like, start a discussion about small talk that then is in,
03:30you know, evolves into discussions about autism, which then evolves into discussions about
03:34relationships. And what I want to do with it is be like, what do people relate to?
03:39Because, you know, you don't want to do anything so niche that, you know, everyone can't enjoy it.
03:47And I know that I'm an odd, you know, an odd comedian, but like, I'm an observation, an odd
03:54observational comedian. I've just coined that term, an observational comedian. And I am so proud of
04:00myself right now. I don't know how my eyes are glowing now. We will be hearing that. So it's
04:06about finding those little things. Yeah, yeah, that's coming out. And, you know, like, it's not
04:12all discussions or serious things. It's using comedy to like, sort of pull the rug from under
04:19you to be like, and that was actually about something sort of serious, but like we joked
04:24about it, you know, I can't pretend that this is a very serious show because I have a long routine
04:29about toilet cubicles and the different fluids that can go into a toilet. That is not serious stuff.
04:41It sounds fantastic. But the point is, you're in a position now where you can
04:46offer encouragement, can't you? You shine a light for other people.
04:51Yeah, and it feels great to have a more neurodiverse audience and, you know, to have people be like,
04:59you know, people when I did the show initially, The Edinburgh Fringe, hang around afterwards to
05:03like, speak to me about, you know, people in their family or, you know, experiences they've had. And
05:08it doesn't necessarily mean that they are neurodiverse themselves, although a large bunch
05:12are, but there's lots of elements of neurodiversity that are experienced by, you know, people
05:20by neurotypical people, which is why there's often that fallacy of like, oh, we're all on the spectrum
05:27a little bit. No, no, you're either on the spectrum or you're not. I mean, there's different scales
05:31once you're on the spectrum, but like, because there's crossover and, you know, neurotypical people
05:35can have sensory issues or can have, you know, communication issues. I feel like there is a lot
05:41of things to be added, like being a bit more open about it, but also, you know, being lighthearted
05:47about it and, you know, trying to find the humour in it so that it doesn't feel scary, because
05:53I know sometimes people here can hear the word autism and feel like, oh, that's really intense
05:57and scary, whereas I think there is, you know, a lot of humour to be had in it and to sort of
06:03make it an open discussion. Well, it sounds fantastic show. Congratulations. Sounds an
06:09important show too. Really lovely. Thank you very much. And I'm consumed with envy for your journey
06:14coming up very soon to New York. Have fun. Lovely to speak to you. Thank you so much. Thank you. Cheers.