{"id":8741,"date":"2014-10-29T16:40:13","date_gmt":"2014-10-29T20:40:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=8741"},"modified":"2014-10-29T16:40:13","modified_gmt":"2014-10-29T20:40:13","slug":"aspie-comic-breaks-down-barriers-to-succeeding-with-autism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/aspie-comic-breaks-down-barriers-to-succeeding-with-autism\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cAspie Comic\u201d breaks down barriers to succeeding with Autism"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n

When life got particularly rough for Michael McCreary and his family, what else could they do but laugh?<\/p>\n

Mr. McCreary, 18, has Asperger\u2019s Syndrome. Coupled with what he describes as a \u201cdebilitating inability to stop talking\u201d, after being encouraged by his mother he found a perfect outlet for himself \u2013 on stage making people laugh. <\/p>\n

\u201cI had all these ideas of writing journals and she wanted to find a way for me to express what I was going through, the anguish, and put a comedic spin on it,\u201d he said, noting his first foray onto the stage in a Stand Up for Mental Health program in Guelph. \u201cSince then, I have been able to hone my skills, get the special \u2018edumacation\u2019 required, and get out on a circuit and I have just been going strong ever since for four years.\u201d<\/p>\n

This circuit is the stand-up comedy circuit. Billing himself as the \u201cAspie Comic\u201d, Mr. McCreary is due to finish up a cross country comedy tour this week, on which he has also been filming a documentary about people living on the Autism spectrum.<\/p>\n

Joining forces with the Autism Society of Ontario \u2013 York Region Chapter, which provides assistance to individuals and families living on the spectrum throughout the Region and South Simcoe \u2013 he made his York Region stop last week in a fundraising event to help the society raise money for their camp programs.<\/p>\n

Following the York Region leg of his tour, Michael was particularly proud to be Toronto-bound, where he appeared at the Geneva Conference at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre as the opening act for a personal hero of his, Temple Grandin, who he describes as \u201cthe Elvis of Autism.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr. McCreary said he first found the ability to make people laugh whenever life threw him and his family a few curveballs with autism. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe have taken the occasional setbacks in a light-hearted manner,\u201d he explained. \u201cWe have been able to look at thing others might deem tragic or just difficult to move beyond or move past, but we just like to make fun of it. I think if we can\u2019t fix a problem, if we have to laugh at it first. If we\u2019re too busy being maudlin about something then we can\u2019t look at how absurd the whole situation is in the first place.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to his dad, Doug, one of the purposes of their cross country tour is not necessarily to spread this philosophy, but to truly \u201cdefy the stereotypes\u201d surrounding Asperger\u2019s, Autism, and the variety of other challenges on the spectrum, most of which are negative, he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re talking to families with positive experiences and positive stories, things they are doing just to live life and do positive things, despite having what many consider to be a negative diagnosis,\u201d said Doug.<\/p>\n

As they have gone from comedy club to comedy club, and venue to venue, both McCrearys said they have felt the rewards of talking to such positive people. There has been no scepticism from the audience in what they are trying to do, said Michael, and what has resulted is a particularly valuable dialogue and exchange, fostering the idea that people succeed across the board despite the challenges being on the spectrum might provide.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think people want others to succeed,\u201d said Michael. \u201cMost humans are good natured, whether they want to believe it or not. They don\u2019t want to see someone bomb up there on stage. They want someone to prevail and entertain them so they can have a good time. My shows are not just comedy shows, but having an opportunity to form a connection or a relationship with an audience. I love hanging out before or after a show and interact with people I have been able to connect with on stage because I like to tear down those barriers. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I like after shows is a lot of kids come to see our performance. The youngest I ended up seeing was about 11-years-old. They were really into it that I was on the spectrum, they identified, and liked being able to see someone else on the spectrum going up and pursuing something. It is being able to have that conversation and knowing someone else is on the spectrum is able to do this \u2013 and there is no reason why we shouldn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When life got particularly rough for Michael McCreary and his family, what else could they do but laugh?<\/p>\n

Mr. McCreary, 18, has Asperger\u2019s Syndrome. Coupled…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":8706,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8741","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/2014-10-30-12.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-2gZ","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-02 01:52:21","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8741","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8741"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8741\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8706"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8741"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8741"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8741"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}