"The live audience had a great time, I think..."

January 9, 2025 8:17 AM

"In his one-hour stand-up special, D.J. Demers: Interpreted, Demers is raising the standard of accessible comedy with two versions of special, one complete with closed-captioning subtitles and an onstage American Sign Language interpreter, as well as descriptive captioning for the visually impaired." Canadian-born Demers is a Deaf comedian who does his stand-up in English (as opposed to ASL) and discusses some of the choices he's made about how much of his disability to turn into comedy. See also: Tonight Show debut, YouTube channel, an impromptu joke with his interpreter, Jennifer Lees.
posted by jessamyn (4 comments total)

DJ Demers has been a frequent guest on the venerable and delightful Stop Podcasting Yourself, always enjoyable. He also had a CBC sitcom, One More Time, which I cannot say was venerable, delightful, or always enjoyable because I have not watched it.
posted by Alvy Ampersand at 8:45 AM on January 9 [4 favorites]

This reminds me of Eddie Izzard touring France and Germany, doing his standup set in the local language. Comedy is tightly tied to its delivery, and consequently it doesn't cross boundaries as easily as, say, music or painting or sculpture.

This is so cool.
posted by wenestvedt at 9:01 AM on January 9 [1 favorite]

Demers is new to me

I'm really enjoying this, I've shared with the siblings. His comedy made me think of some young parents and I will see what they think also. I have a deaf colleague who might enjoy this stuff.
posted by ginger.beef at 1:34 PM on January 9 [2 favorites]

All these years I've been enjoying D.J. on Stop Podcasting Yourself and it never crossed my mind that he might have great hair!
posted by eraserbones at 9:01 PM on January 9 [4 favorites]