This story will appear in Steve Flairty’s new book, Kentucky’s Everyday Heroes #4, to be released in 2015.
By Steve Flairty
KyForward columnist
You might consider that, from a wheelchair, Ally Bruener’s comedy is not “stand up,” but rather of the “sit down” variety. Yes, she is a sit down comedian, but no, she is not a reclining sort.
Just ask anyone who has ever seen her stage act. You can expect her to come directly at you, and she will be sporting a clear and direct voice. And, she’ll make you think real hard … often with earthy words and racy comments that will make the crudest squirm in their seats, and usually nowhere near appropriate for children.
But provoking squirmy responses among adults is the way Ally wants it. She’s on a mission to make people a bit uncomfortable — especially in the way they look on individuals with disabilities.
Ally was born in 1988 with muscular dystrophy. She walked at a young age (“like a penguin … wobbly,” she remarked) but saw her ability to ambulate progressively diminish; she became wheelchair-bound by the second grade. Raised in Grants Lick, a small town in southern Campbell County, she was a good student in elementary school, but felt there were “minimal” expectations of her because of her disability. That was something she sorely resented.
Her response, even at that young age, was to prove people wrong and she would be proactive about it.
“I didn’t hold back,” she said. “If I was going to get a good education, I was going to have to speak up for myself at school. My parents weren’t always around there.” She was concerned about too-easy school work, but also accommodation issues, like ramps and accessible parking, which she brought to her school officials’ attention.
“I kept it to where I was respectful,” she said. “Even when I was a ‘smart-alec,’ I never let it go overboard. There is a fine line when telling people things that they don’t want to hear.”
Ally was involved in activities that added to her confidence level during that period. She appeared as the “Goodwill Ambassador for the Muscular Dystrophy Association” (Cincinnati Chapter). “I was speaking, as a nine-year-old, to black-tie events before 500 adults … lots of local telethons, and it was my comfort zone,” she noted. And perhaps quite appropriately, she talked about how she was “used to being looked at” and “would rather give them a reason to do it.”
She was well-liked and respected among her classmates. “Surprisingly, they were amazing. I never had any issues with my peers,” she said. “I went to school with the same people when I started pre-school until I graduated high school. They saw the progression of my disability. Leg braces for a while, and then I had a walker, a manual wheelchair and eventually a motorized one.”
Very bright, she was always near the top of her class at Campbell County High School. She was an academic team member and participated in the Governor’s Scholars Program, giving her confidence she could handle the rigors of college. In 2006, she enrolled in classes at the University of Louisville, majoring in political science. She did fine for a few years, then, after a period of “not caring” about her classes, and with some academic suspensions meted out, she quit school in 2010.
“A harsh point in my life,” she said. “I lost my best friend to suicide. With the pressure of my best friend dying, plus the pressure of realizing I hated political science, I hardly went to class.”
By now, Ally was quite depressed and, she said, “I needed something to keep my mind off the things that happened.” In what appears to be a positive stroke of serendipity, she heard of a comedy workshop at a local Louisville comedy club, the Comedy Caravan. It seemed interesting and she joined up to take the three-hour course on Saturday afternoons in 2010.
“It was about how to write a joke, etc. … an intro course. But I never intended to stick to it,” she explained. But the class she took had a “graduation” show, where the students would do a very short comedy presentation. “I figured I’d go on and do it,” she said, “and get it out of my system.”
There wasn’t a lot of pressure for the students during the graduation gig. “We knew that nobody had any high expectations,” said Ally, “but I got nervous, … but then I thought: ‘I’m never going to see these people again.’”
Ally admitted she did just “all right” on her first performance, but enough of a success to get hooked on being on stage and getting laughs. She soon was doing “open mic” performances in Louisville, along with shows in her native northern Kentucky area at the Funny Bone in Newport and across the river in Cincinnati. Recently she has traveled to performance gigs outside of those two areas. These days, she averages doing a show per week.
She seldom pulls punchlines, because she naturally desires to be “real.” She doesn’t bother to craft her words and work in a way that would validate the assumptions about her and her disability. “I like to use my comedy to open the doors for conversation,” she said. For sure, those conversations can be uncomfortable for those with closed minds. “They don’t expect that I enjoy my life. They think I hate my life. In reality, the things that upset me in my life have nothing to do with my disability. I think my life is pretty normal.”
She believes that using the word “crippled,” for example, is not an offensive word. At least, it’s not one that offends her. In fact, it is part of her act, a term she uses herself. “There’s a big movement to use ‘people first’ language,” said Ally. “I don’t think there should be pressure on society to use those words. I think it is absurd.”
Now having performed comedy on stage since 2010, the opportunities appear to be growing for Ally. In the summer of 2014, she spent a week in New York City performing in The Devil Cup competition for fledgling comedians who have worked less than five years. She finished sixth overall and received great exposure that could lead to other work. There have been appearances at two new clubs recently: The Funny Bone in Dayton, Ohio, and Go Bananas in Cincinnati.
Many of her performances are now available on the internet through You Tube, and her name is getting “out there” among audiences and publicists.
John Richardson, who has worked on the comedy circuit with Ally, saw her perform on her first stage set. “I was immediately inspired and motivated,” he said. “It doesn’t matter to Ally that she is in a wheelchair, or (whether) you have a problem with it. She’s going to go on stage and make you laugh in spite of it.”
Another comedian colleague, Patrick Passafiume, is also effuse in praise. “Her work ethic is incredible. It’s much harder for Ally and yet she’s always on stage perfecting her craft. She’s constantly learning new ways to promote herself and her comedy is always evolving.”
Ally Bruener has come a long way since dropping out of college.
She gives much credit to her father, Ron Bruener, who acts as a sounding board for her comedy material, plus is her full-time chauffeur. He drives an aged disability-accessible van to her gigs. “He has never said no,” she said. “Nobody else is really willing to drive my van.”
Ron does it because he’s Ally’s father, but also because he admires her. “She’s a trooper,” he said. “She’s been dealt a difficult hand and she doesn’t let it get her down. She does what she can do instead of what she can’t do.”
Much of the father-daughter closeness came from their efforts to make the school system more disability accessible. “We prevailed,” said Ron. One of the specific changes was to provide a place for wheelchairs at the football stadium, something that Ron helped construct.
Ally’s health has been, for the most part, pretty good lately. She does sometimes require a breathing machine when she sleeps, and she occasionally gets headaches. But she confronts those challenges head-on—as she always has.
“When I’m laughing, I don’t think about it,” she said. “When you’re laughing, you’re not worrying.”
And like Ally Bruener does, those words are something that each of us might well do likewise … and that is to sit down, laugh, and quit worrying about every little thing.
Steve Flairty is a lifelong Kentuckian, teacher, public speaker and an author of five books: a biography of Kentucky Afield host Tim Farmer and four in the Kentucky’s Everyday Heroes series, including a kids’ version. He is currently working on “Kentucky’s Everyday Heroes #4,” due to be released in spring 2015. Steve is a senior correspondent for Kentucky Monthly, a weekly KyForward columnist and a member of the Kentucky Humanities Council Speakers Bureau. Read his KyForward columns for excerpts from all his books. Contact him at sflairty2001@yahoo.com or visit his Facebook page, “Kentucky in Common: Word Sketches in Tribute.” (Steve’s photo by Ernie Stamper)