Deaf performer Jonny Cotsen on comedy gigs cancelled: ‘Everything just disappeared’

By Juliet England.

When I chat to deaf performer Jonny Cotsen via Skype, he is (like everyone else) at home, in his case in Cardiff, and self-isolating, dosing himself with paracetamol and flu meds and desperately hoping his dry cough and flu-like symptoms aren’t the dreaded new C word. (They weren’t, as it turned out.)

He’s feeling a little better than he had been the day before, but the performer, who has been profoundly deaf since birth, has had a dreadful few days. His show, Louder Is Not Always Clearer, was due to tour the UK and seven other countries this spring and early summer, with a London performance at The Place, Kings Cross, set for April 2.

Now, like countless other live performers, Cotsen, who’s in his forties and the only deaf member of his family, has seen dates through April and May and some in June completely cancelled, and his main source of income stopped, with no indication of when the gigs may be rescheduled.

Just a few days before, he had been performing – now he is hoping that deaf awareness training and online workshops may help fill some of the gaps the cancelled tour has left.

With his partner, a social worker, on maternity leave, and two small children (Eli, just weeks old, and three-year-old Tilly), he needs to make alternative arrangements pretty fast.

“The cancellations have hit me hard. I was on a high, performing in great locations, and I was really excited about appearing in London as well as across Europe. Also I’m lucky to have a supportive partner and of course we’d just had our youngest child. Then everything just disappeared. It happened so fast I couldn’t process it. I needed to talk about it – but didn’t know how to.

“Watching the news (which wasn’t really accessible to me as there was no interpreter and the subtitles weren’t great) and seeing social media made me feel more vulnerable.”

There has been some support, from the interpreters with whom he is in touch (he has some BSL but prefers SSE), as well as Paula Garfield of Deafinitely Theatre, who has established a group where deaf actors can help each other through the crisis.

“I really value my interpreters, who know me well and adapt to me.”

It’s been a relatively recent journey for Cotsen to explore his deaf identity. “I’ve always been oral (and accepted in the hearing world) until I found my deaf identity. I think previously the medical model failed me – I was depending on powerful hearing aids and a lot of speech therapy.”

Everything changed after he met a fellow deaf participant at a carnival in Cotsen’s native south Wales, when he (Cotsen) was 31.

“I’m slightly embarrassed to admit I’d never really met a deaf person before – that’s how late it was! He invited me to deaf club, and while some didn’t accept me as I didn’t sign, many did, and it went from there.”

The man’s name is Stuart Parkinson, and the pair have remained firm friends ever since.

Cotsen’s own deafness wasn’t discovered until it was realised that he wasn’t responding to his mother’s voice.

“I loved my deaf primary school, which was oral. Then I attended a mainstream school, and things became a lot harder. I struggled with education as I had no idea what the teachers were saying, and I often got taken out of classes for speech therapy. It was difficult. The only subject I really enjoyed was art because it was so visual. I know now that had I had support then or learned to sign earlier, my life would have been very different.”

School was followed by a Fine Art degree in Coventry, some travelling, an MA in design and digital media, a spell as a software developer before Cotsen became a mainstream secondary school teacher, teaching art and photography, with the help of communication support workers.

As a student, back in 1996, Cotsen first created an exhibition called Louder Is Not Always Clearer.

“It was quite powerful and about my relationship with the outside world and my response to it. It was the first time I’d been away from home. I’d always relied on my mum for things so life became very chaotic.

“Fast forward twenty five-odd years and I can see how bad the access was for deaf audiences in Wales. I wanted to make a difference through awareness, training, consulting and workshops. That exhibition I’d done back in ‘96 was always on my mind and I felt my story needed to be told.

“I approached Mr and Mrs Clark, a theatre company based in Newport. I loved their political, physical, and no-messing-around work. Originally I wanted someone else to play me, but after doing some development work, we decided only I should play me, because I know what it’s like, the emotions involved, no one else does.”

The hour-long autobiographical show, accessible to all via spoken English, BSL and captions, uses a variety of media to get a message of deaf awareness across, including humour. It aims to educate hearing people while giving deaf audience members something to relate to.

As Cotsen is also Jewish, this part of him is also explored, for example with a discussion of his barmitzvah, at which he dances without knowing what the music is.

“I’d never performed before, never believed I could, because I felt I was not allowed. I was told in school I should never sing, dance or act and was taken out of those classes so I lost faith in performing. Anyway… 55 shows performed, including a successful stint at Edinburgh Fringe 2019 as well as a UK and European tour, even if it did have to be postponed. Not bad for someone who isn’t supposed to sing, dance or act!”

Let’s hope that once the crisis is over, Cotsen is soon back on stage.