Interview with…

Lonnie Bruhn
Stand-up performer
By João Durão da Silva

He says Richard Pryor changed his life and hopes to change someone's life too. Lonnie is a stand-up comedian for eighteen years and he sees his art as a way of touching lives. Presently, he's on the road with his show "Lonnie Bruhn: Uncensored Upfront and Honest".

Lonnie Bruhn is an American stand-up performer from Portland. Some critics say he's too much provocative and some clubs have refused to host his shows; Lonnie says he's just honest and aims that his audience may know him. As he says, he pretends to create a “connection” with its audience. Today, he has full booked shows and no one cares about the fact that he was born with Cerebral Palsy.

You can meet Lonnie Bruhn at www.lonniebruhn.com, but before that you'll have to read the interview that we recently made with him. We discovered a truly inspirational human-being, his influences and his goals.

Hi Lonnie! Can you explain our readers how did you become a stand-up performer?

I can honestly say that I had been manifesting the dream since I was in the fourth grade. I remember every little detail leading up to that very moment. I was over at my Uncle's house with the family. He put in a video of Richard Pryor. My entire family was enjoying it so much you could feel the energy in the room, it was so strong and bright, they were so happy. This man connected to everyone in a room thousands of miles away and gave us a piece of his life, a piece of his weaknesses and faults and made it funny.

While they all laughed I sat there still faced. It wasn't because I was a forth grader and didn't understand, it was because I did. He was literary magic. To be able to bring people into your heart like that and give them a feeling so powerful we all could forget everything in our life which brings us all down, was nothing less then a miracle. That was the day I knew

After that I was lucky enough to have parents that let me listen to George Carlin on our record player until I could recite his entire album. Along with what also I learned from Pryor I had an arsenal of humor that I told older kids around the neighborhood as I rode around on my big-wheel because I couldn't ride a bicycle. I look back on it and think this was where I was taught my timing for humor. Humor is like any other medium. Humor is a lot like a song, if you don't understand the beat and melody, it's uncomfortably bad.

By the sixth grade I was telling my own jokes, getting in trouble with it at school and connecting with everyone I met. No one cared that I had C.P. because I gave them all something to forget about what I couldn't accomplish and gave them all something they couldn't accomplish. The universe gave me everything I needed to do this. Since I couldn't do what the other able bodied kids could do I had plenty of time to analyze the world around me and sculpt it into the humor that everything is.

I stepped on the stage for the first time at 17. I sucked so badly that first night, but I remember what I closed with. I said I may suck tonight but I will be back every week until I get right. Two years later I was the youngest to win the Portland , OR Laugh off. I can tell you that night was one of the most remarkable moments in my life. I don't regret my challenges, it is simply an ability traded for another. I got a bargain as far is I am concerned.

How do you deal with Cerebral Palsy and in which way does your condition influences your humor?

I think I deal with Cerebral Palsy like we all do. Some days are better than others, but it is always there. I don't think about much to tell you the truth. I mean, yeah it's there and everyday something comes up to remind me it is. But there a lot of things in life which do that, good and bad. I kind of view my C.P. like a life long companion. Some days she's fun to be around because she does things to make me laugh. For example: I could be talking to someone with a beer in my right hand and not even notice my wrist has slightly turned inward and poured half of it on my foot. She's funny that way. Then other days I am so frustrated and sad because I can't take my kids outside to play in the snow, take them trick-or-treating, the zoo, or teach them how to ride a bike. She's a companion though because like any relationship it is everything in that relationship which builds you into greatness. It is like a character for me. She's a comic, a reason to keep going and sometimes even a reason to want to stop trying. I love her though and would not be the man I am without her.

As for the other part of the question, I don't think it influenced my humor a lot. Life was slower for me so I had plenty of time to contemplate life's absurdities, so it affected me in that way. However, on stage I don't reference it much though. Not because I am ashamed either but because if our goal is to get people to see beyond what we physically can not do, than I'd rater show everyone something I can. What better way to do this then by hardly acknowledging it at all. I do talk about it, but only because it is apart of my life, but I'm not cute about it. Like everything in my act, I'm brutally honest about it. I talk about the greatnesses of it and also all the challenges and the humor I get from my most darkness moments with C.P. You know, those cursing God moments? Yeah, in moments like those, it's bad, but later there is something really funny to dredge. I think it is because if you don't grab light out of the darkness then all you do is live there and that's worse then any physical challenge I have.

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