{"id":87,"date":"2014-08-09T23:34:29","date_gmt":"2014-08-09T22:34:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.synergynews.co.uk\/?p=87"},"modified":"2015-09-13T22:25:18","modified_gmt":"2015-09-13T21:25:18","slug":"francesca-martinez-what-the-is-normal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.synergynews.co.uk\/?p=87","title":{"rendered":"Francesca Martinez \u2013 What the **** is Normal? ****"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The <span class=\"lookupbubbles-keyword\">Edinburgh<\/span> Festival Fringe is known for pushing the alternative comedy envelope, for testing the boundaries of the acceptable face of comedy. While the rest of the UK club circuit and mainstream TV panel shows are still reluctant to include women comedians, what about a woman with a Cerebral Palsy? Francesca Martinez is a comedian, writer and actor, who is, as she puts it is \u2019a bit wobbly.\u2019 This is because she has Athetoid Cerebral Palsy with Myotonia and joint laxity. (that\u2019s a s**t name, it\u2019s really not sexy, can\u2019t we have nicer names for disabilities?\u201d she muses.<\/p>\n<p>Her <span class=\"lookupbubbles-keyword\">Edinburgh<\/span> Festival Fringe comedy show at the EICC is less stand up, more sit-down. She is charmingly frank and funny about her own physical limitations.<\/p>\n<p>Is it really OK to laugh at the young disabled woman? Of course it is, she\u2019s freakin\u2019 hilarious! You would have to be made of stone not to laugh at her. She is fresh, feisty and fabulous. The fringe audience are open minded, accepting, with the best sense of humour in the world. And they love her. With her energy, sparkle and infectious smile it\u2019s impossible not to. The premise of the show is that none of us are truly \u2018normal\u2019, we are all unique individuals. She points out that consumerism relies on our own insecurities, exhorting us to buy a particular product to make us younger, sexier, happier.<\/p>\n<p>She\u2019s challenges the media\u2019s love of celebrity. Katie Price and Lindsay Lohan come within her sights, and her acerbic with is pin sharp, right on the money. She explains \u201cIn some ways women\u2019s rights have come on a long way, but not in the media. What a woman looks like is still her most defining quality, its illegal for women to age in the media. You rarely see a woman over 40 on screen.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>She explains she doesn\u2019t get booked for TV panel shows. She agrees that these shows have a fairly aggressive, overwhelmingly male environment, but this is one sassy sister who could certainly handle herself in that environment. \u201cThey think I would make the audience feel uncomfortable\u201d, but she doesn\u2019t agree. \u201cIf disabilities were a curry, I\u2019m just a korma\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Her honesty is disarming and inspiring. \u201cThe Paralympics make me look bad, I\u2019m really lazy.\u201d Her description of being asked to carry the torch for the 2008 Beijing Olympics is brilliant, topped off with \u201cDid they really think this through?<\/p>\n<p>Francesca Martinez is warm, witty and confident and delivers killer lines with perfect timing. She is leading a wobbly revolution, and I for one am right behind her.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Francesca Martinez \u201cWhat the **** is Normal?\u201d Venue 150 @EICC \u00a09<sup>th<\/sup>, 11<sup>th<\/sup> 15<sup>th<\/sup> 16<sup>th<\/sup> August<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Portraiture by: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nwimages.co.uk\/photographer\/portrait-photography\/\">New Wave Images UK portrait photography<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>The Edinburgh Festival Fringe is known for pushing the alternative comedy envelope, for testing the boundaries of the acceptable face of comedy. While the rest <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"http:\/\/www.synergynews.co.uk\/?p=87\" title=\"Francesca Martinez \u2013 What the **** is Normal? ****\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":88,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[13],"tags":[7,59,60,61,57,64,53,19,56,63,62,58],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.synergynews.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.synergynews.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.synergynews.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.synergynews.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.synergynews.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=87"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.synergynews.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":214,"href":"http:\/\/www.synergynews.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87\/revisions\/214"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.synergynews.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/88"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.synergynews.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=87"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.synergynews.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=87"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.synergynews.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=87"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}