Comedian Nick Gibbs' life changed drastically when he was diagnosed with high-functioning autism two years ago.
Since then, the 34-year-old has turned his exploration of autism and how it is understood in wider society into a new comedy show "High, Functioning Autistic," which is set to feature at the New Zealand International Comedy Festival.
Nick Gibb Photo: Supplied/Nick Gibb
It’s a show that’s an exploration and celebration of everything he’s learnt about autism in the last couple of years, he says.
“A large part of the issue was the way autism is presented in the media, people have a very specific idea about what it looks like and so there’s a lot of people for whom it doesn’t look like that, who can go undiagnosed well into adulthood because that doesn’t occur to them… all we sort of know of autism is the Rain Man picture of what it looks like.”
He says you can be a creative and outgoing person who is also dealing with autism.
“Most portrayals of autism, pretty much all of them, are by people who aren’t autistic and so it tends to be very much from an outside perspective of like looking at people who are autistic and making assumptions based on that rather than the internal experience of autistic people.
“We’re not all brilliant detectives or three-eyed ravens, it doesn’t always look that way,” he jokes.
The focus on the savant abilities that a very small amount of people have can be patronising, he says.
“As soon as you find out that you’re autistic that gives you a pretty massive insight into what it’s like… when a doctor tells you you’re autistic, they’re not so much giving you new information about yourself as they are about everyone else.”
He says this might be realising that the struggles you have aren’t actually the same as everyone else has. It’s not that you’re bad at certain things but a neurological difference means you’re processing information differently.
In 2011 Gibbs won the Billy T award, giving him the spark he needed to realise he could do comedy full-time.
But people assume it must be hard to be autistic and a comedian.
“What you have is a controlled environment where you have a one-way scripted conversation that we have complete control over and it’s something that you can do by yourself. It’s a way that you can express yourself that doesn’t need other people.”
It’s the perfect career in many ways, he says.
It’s work that’s taken him overseas to perform and has done a few stints in Edinburgh.
“We’re such a small community in this country comparatively but I think the upside of that is it can be a lot more close-knit than the UK comedy circuit.”
He also realised in the UK, if you don’t slow down when you speak, they have no idea what you’re saying.
The calibre of New Zealand comedy is fantastic and comedians like Rose Matafeo are stepping onto the international stage in a really exciting way, he says.
“Being quite an isolated country as New Zealand isn’t nearly as much of an issue as it once was in terms of things like comedy because you can get as many influences as anyone anywhere would have.”
