Joe Wells @ The Stand, Edinburgh
Viral comic Joe Wells continues to flip the script with his hour on his newfound role as an autistic spokesperson
Joe Wells is perhaps best known for his brilliant viral bit on ‘having a non-autistic brother’; a perfect example of flipping the script. His new show is, necessarily, a more conversational affair – a meditation on the pressures of being a role model, his ‘king of the autistics’ conceit neatly capturing the absurdity of being expected to speak for all autistic people.
It's been a busy few years for Wells: alongside touring, he’s published a YA non-fiction book, started the Neurodivergent Moments podcast with Abigoliah Schamaun, and now he’s fielding interest from TV. Navigating the industry is confusing, but one thing is clear: edginess is all important. TV logic says that you have to be a certain identity to tell certain jokes, and Wells suggests that the industry exploits marginal groups for their access to that edginess, quoting Kanye West’s insight about mainstream hunger for crazy ideas (crazy TV, crazy music) but its disinterest in actual crazy people. ‘TV wants my ideas,’ Wells says, ‘but they don’t want to create the conditions that make things easier for me’.
Clearly, authentic representation is crucial – and the show itself is exemplary in this respect. Wells’ gags riff on autistic traits such as a preference for advance notice of things (his Jesus joke gets the punchline in very early) and the tunnelling into specialist interests (The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, currently). He’s being playful with attributes that are often pathologized, once more flipping the script. Autistic people are still largely presented as tragic or inspirational, but for Wells, living a good life and with a resistance to being inspirational, these categories simply don’t reflect his experiences.
He has to work at that resistance, though, in the face of considerable pressure: with parents telling him not to swear because of his YA audience, and angry emails about incorrect messaging. This show is one way of sloughing off that pressure, and revealing the impossibility of one autistic person speaking for all.
Joe Wells: King of the Autistics, reviewed at The Stand, Edinburgh on 12 March
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