Crash, Boom. Those were the noises we heard. My wife and I were pushing our 15-month-old in a stroller up the street to a playground in the Chatswood neighborhood of Sydney. A small SUV hopped the curb a block away and was coming straight toward us on the sidewalk. Our first impulse was to back up but the car soon flipped to its side and started skidding more rapidly in our direction. My impulse was to grab the stroller, my wife had the same idea. We both went for it and our coffees flew in the air. We picked up the stroller and lifted it into the street away from… read more →
Not long ago, I was taking questions after a school performance of my solo play. I was asked, “What is your proudest personal moment?” I thought about it and replied, “Being able to witness the birth of my son.” There was a large general response of “Ahhh…” from the audience. Then a rapid succession of questions: “What is your son’s name?” “Abner David Harrell, IV” (poor kid) “Does your son have a hand like yours?” “No, my son was born with both his hands.” “Are you happy your son will not have the same challenges as you because he has two hands?” “Um….” I wasn’t sure how to answer that… read more →
A while back, I was in a bar in New York City talking shop with a few other actors and artists from my alma mater the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. We were talking about creating our own work and brainstorming on ways we could collaborate together. I soon found out about the 48-hour Disability Film Challenge. It was created to encourage artists with disabilities to collaborate with each other, and other working artists without disabilities to make fun and engaging short films. I went back to the UNCG folks I was talking with at the bar and pitched the idea that we work on making a film for… read more →
I tell this story during my keynote about how my greatest anxiety is shaking hands. Most people do not realize I am missing my right hand and so it is inevitable they will stick out their right hand to shake. I have this choice: I could put out my right hand to shake but I don’t want you to feel uncomfortable, so I extend my left hand instead, which makes us both feel uncomfortable. You have this split second thought, “why did he just stick out his left hand – oh my God, I feel like a nincompoop.” And I have the split second thought, “oh no, I just made… read more →
A few months ago I performed a portion of my solo play A Little Potato and Hard to Peel for a morning assembly at a high school in Nashville, TN. I had to cut the show to 25 minutes and felt good about the cutting and thought it had gone well with the audience. It was a tough audience; a high school in a morning assembly is never the easiest audience, but they were with me. They were laughing and I felt a good energy. The assembly ended and the kids were shuffling out for the remainder of their day. I started to put away my props. “Excuse me sir,… read more →