Crippled with Laughter at Aviva Studios

Aviva Studios is hosting Crippled With Laughter this April. This mischievously and deliberately named comedy show is here to make the uncomfortable, comfortable. A disabled-led comedy night that gleefully tramples over polite conversation and replaces it with punchlines so sharp and off the cuff, you can’t help but laugh. 

The evening is curated and hosted by Wheels and the Legman, entertainers that have built a reputation for creating spaces where disability isn’t treated as an awkward aside but instead, is the jumping off point for fearless, boundary pushing comedy. Their mission is simple, dismantle a few tired stereotypes and send the audience home laughing harder than they thought socially acceptable. 

The line-up brings together a clutch of comedians who know all too well how to humorously weaponize personal experience. Dawn Bailey, Mike Keenan, Anthony Johnston, Paul Campbell and Jenny Hart will all be performing, each delivering their own take on the absurdities of everyday life. They know how to find the funny in awkward social situations.

If it sounds confrontational, that’s partly the point. The best stand-up has always thrived on discomfort, and this night embraces that tradition three-fold. Expect taboo subjects, roguish storytelling and jokes that poke fun at the strange theatre of modern life. It’s comedy that punches up, sideways and even occasionally straight through that social norm wall we subconsciously built. 

Beyond the laughs, Crippled With Laughter is part of a growing movement of disability-led performance reshaping the UK comedy scene. By putting artists with disabilities firmly in control of the mic, the show flips the script on how disability is discussed on stage, turning lived experience into material that is both brutally funny and disarmingly honest. 

You’ll come for the jokes and stay for the mischief at this comedy night that refuses to behave itself.