No laughing matter: Comedian excluded due to inaccessible venues

Oliver Hunter, a wheelchair user, wants to be a full-time comedian but can't always access the stage at major venues. Video via AAP

Transcript

00:00My name is Oliver Hunter and I love my sport. I love music and going to gigs and I also myself

00:09perform a bit of stand-up comedy. Just after one gig, after one five-minute spot, the guy

00:14never met me before but he goes, I can see in your eyes that you're addicted and I think you

00:19could do ten bad gigs but you know there's that one good gig out there and you feel the room sort

00:25of with you laughing. You're chasing that all the time so we're all chasing that I think. A lot of

00:32comedy clubs are in basements, they're in the bottom of pubs, the tops of pubs, they're in these

00:38little pokey bars down alleyways. So I get to this venue and there is a door, a toilet door with the

00:46wheelchair universal access sign on it but there's a step in front of the in front of the door. I'm

00:51like, that's not it. You know, so it's like I'd rather just be able to go to the toilet by myself

00:57and I think for me I like to sort of put it back to people and go, I'm not angry, I just go,

01:03would you go somewhere if you knew you couldn't go to the bathroom? It can be more than what we

01:09think it is. So yes, rails and ramps and all that stuff is super important to me in the context of

01:15venues and comedy and whatever else. But if you're not aware or you don't understand, it's better to

01:21say the wrong thing than nothing at all. We can go forward from the wrong thing but if you stay quiet

01:26and worry about saying the wrong thing then we can't progress when nothing is said.

01:31A better world for people with disabilities is a world where we can just do what we want and how we want to do it.