Crom Saunders--A Deaf Comedian!!

This is Mr. Crom Saunders and he is a deaf comedian. He is a comedian for the deaf community and he is deaf himself. Kerri and I saw him this evening and we had a great time! He is so funny! It was so different being in the lobby with all the deaf people; it was really silent. We discussed whether or not it was rude to stare when people are signing. It's very similar to eavesdropping, we decided.

In the auditorium, there was a girl and a boy on the stage and they were directing people who entered the doors toward the middle of the seats. Then they did a few opening things together, jokes, practice sign language (seeing if people know their colors, like [in sign language]"Stand up if you are wearing a red shirt")

Then when Crom came out, it was crazy!! He was so funny!! Since he was deaf, he didn't talk. Instead, an interpreter was sitting in the front row with a microphone and he interpreted throughout the whole show for the hearing people who couldn't understand all the sign language. There was a slight delay (naturally) but it was hardly noticeable.

One of the first things Crom did was a one-man, ten-minute hamlet! It was amazing! He had these chairs all lined up with pieces of paper taped on the back and each paper had a character on it. Then, he went behind the chairs and stood behind the character he was portraying and signed what that character was saying. To switch characters, he'd just run to the next chair. That was where the delay with the interpreting was the most obvious but the other times weren't too bad.

Crom told so many stories and acted out little skits and used audience participation... It was great. For one part, he pretended he was a director and then he called up people from the audience to be his actors. He'd show the actors what he wanted them to do and then he'd critique them and exaggerate what they were doing and correct them.

Here are the links for a few youtube videos if you are interested in a taste of what it was like:

Crom-Movie Director Part 1
Crom-Movie Director Part 2
Crom-Movie Director Part 3
Crom-Deaf Idol

They're older videos and first three are rather long but the last one is shorter. Feel free to check it out. We had a great time!!