Articles

This article appeared in The Arizona Daily Star (Tucson) in 1979.

Handicap is material for wheelchair comic
By Jacqi Tully
The Arizona Daily Star

“You were probably expecting a stand-up comic?” asks Gene Mitchener with an enormously cheerful grin.

Mitchener is a new funnyman who tells his jokes from a wheelchair. The affable fellow, who spun his humor earlier this week at the Doubletree Lounge, will also perform Friday and Saturday night at the Doubletree, between sets of the snazzy band Arizona.

Mitchener’s comedy quite naturally revolves around his handicap.

“I was born this way.” explains Mitchener, pointing to his wheelchair. And then the bearded comic spins off into an amusing description of how it feels to quite literally be born in a wheelchair.

Mitchener’s purpose as a comic is profoundly serious.

“I’m making rather heavy educational statements under the veil of comedy. I’m not uptight about being handicapped. I’m having fun. I don’t worry about the possibility of people not finding me funny. At least 90 percent of what I say on stage is true and I want it to be funny.”

Mitchener, who hails from Indiana, said he worked “at every different sort of job” before deciding to take to the stage.

“Finally last October I said the hell with the wheelchair, I’m going to do this. With a visible handicap I had a 6-month transition period of wondering: Is it sympathetic appreciation or do people really enjoy it? But either you’re good or no good. And when you’re dealing with people who are interested in making money from your work, the sympathetic side of it all disappears.”

Mitchener has so far played stints at the Comedy Store in West Hollywood and the Playboy Club in Phoenix. He’s busy lining up other engagements and preparing for a July 9 audition with Playboy International.

He’s a terrifically happy man because “I’m in a career I love so much I’d pay people to let me be a comic.”

He doesn’t have to worry about that, though. More and more people will pay Mitchener to spin his tales. One joke concerns the way waitresses tend to treat the handicap. You go into a restaurant with someone, says Mitchener on stage, and the waitress turns to your friend and asks, “Is this table all right for him?” The conclusion to this gag is hilarious.

“I want to have the ability to travel across the country and make people happy,” he says. “I want to help people get away from tragedy and look at the bright side of life.”

Mitchener laughs a deep belly laugh. “Let’s have fun!”

       

{ 0 comments }