Signing for Laughs

Originally published and featured on Patch.com of Troy

AUBURN HILLS, Mich. (April 6, 2013)  — The comedic talents of Keith Wann and Windell “Wink” Smith Jr. came to Baker College of Auburn Hills Saturday evening. Their comedy tour, entitled “ASL Comedy Tour”, was presented almost exclusively in American Sign Language (ASL) to a mixed deaf and hearing audience.

Wann and Wink took turns interpreting for each other on behalf of English speaking audience members. Both men are Children of Deaf Adults (CODAs), or hearing children who grew up with at least one deaf parent. The comedians poke fun at their experiences growing up as hearing children with deaf parents and the interactions between the two worlds.

The show began with announcements introducing sponsors and the Baker College student signing club that helped bring the tour to Michigan. This was followed by the national anthem and John Lennon’s “Imagine” recited in sign language by students from Romeo High School.

After some technical difficulties, Wink took the stage, engaging specific members of the audience with a series of waves and hand shakes that evolved into a game between the left and right side of the auditorium similar to simon says. The audience was highly responsive and chuckles quickly grew into bellyaching laughs as Wink attempted, and at times, successfully tripped up the audience with his wiles. With the help of Levi, a boy in the audience and son of an Oakland Community College sign language instructor, Wink further riled up the audience with both laughs and coos.

Wink kept the audience laughing for 45 minutes with a mixture of humor detailing some of the antics of his youth, and especially, interactions between him and his extremely-proud-to-be-deaf father.

The audience consisted of a seemingly even mix of deaf people, sign language students, interpreters, and general audience members. A background understanding of deaf culture and sign language definitely was helpful, but a person unfamiliar to the deaf world would still find themselves entertained.

Wann took the stage and Wink took over voicing, or interpreting into English, for Wann. The audience did not appear to receive Wann as warmly as Wink, but were amused by his stories.

Disappointingly, Wann substituted the wit that Wink carefully crafted with obscenities and sexually explicit jokes for his act. Although there was a fair amount of laughter, the audience seemed to be at times offended and at other times bored. Wink seemed to have trouble interpreting for Wann at times which may have been a contributing factor.

In one seemingly unscripted fumble, Wink interpreted Wann’s “BC” shorthand for Baker College as “Birth Control” much to the amusement of the audience. Wann called him out on it in an exchange that incited roars of laughter. For the rest of the performance, Wann referred to the school as “Birth Control” eliciting giggles each time.

Overall the show was enjoyable, but with several children in the audience and no warning of the obscenities to come it seemed inappropriate to go from Wink’s mostly PG to PG-13 humor to Wann’s almost exclusively R-rated (or worse) jokes. His repeated jabs at struggling ASL students felt a bit over the top. Their discomfort appeared obvious to Wann who offered several olive branches.

It’s difficult offering a solid recommendation. Both acts of the show seemed like two completely different shows, and maybe they were. Wann would be wise to reconsider whether or not his humor was funny or just eliciting uncomfortable laughs. For those with tough skin or an interest in interactions between deaf and hearing cultures you will find the show at the very least enlightening.

Although there are no shows in Michigan in the immediate future, Wann and Wink will be returning September 7 to a yet-to-be-named venue in Kalamazoo, Michigan.

For more information about the comedians or the show check online at www.KeithWann.com, www.WinkASL.com, or www.ASLComedyTour.com.

For those who missed out and don’t want to wait until September, you can see almost the entire show on Keith Wann’s Youtube channel.

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