Hey Mom, I quit the Hearing World!

- Keith Wann, after his first CODA conference...
Hawaii 2004
My mom would sign to me, "You are safe now.  Go play with the other children of deaf adults while I go visit their parents.  I know you'll be safe.  You will discover the world.  You will learn together."
At first I would sit there shy looking at the 'other' kids who were like me.  Then a little half smile, a grin, a funny face would set us all off into laughter. 
Our location didn't matter - we would explore anywhere.
In the back of the Deaf church making noises while we played as if on a playground, the pews were our slides.
In Deaf clubs where the tables became our forts as we hid from each other yelling 'not it' to start hours of playing the game tag.
In restaurants sitting at our own 'kids' table making declarations of facts that we learned from the Hearing world.  "The banana split is made with THREE scoops of ice cream!"  Arguing back and forth between two or three scoops until the oldest Coda at the table would speak as if the Godfather and make the final decision..."three!"
We were comfortably nestled in-between the Two Worlds.  A safe place.  I was home.
Then for some of us, for whatever reason, we move away and lose our foundation on who we are.
I became hearing.  I graduated college.  I found a hearing job.  I lived in the hearing world.  I 'fit in' as was expected of me.
Once in a while during conversations with Hearing people the topic of having Deaf parents would come up and all eyes would look at me.  They would share their empathy while saying, "I watched Children of a Lesser God and so I understand your plight."  I wanted to scream, "My plight?  Use Coda english so I can understand you!"  Then I would add, "Yeah, remember the swimming naked scene, that's what being a coda was for me.  I wanted to stay under water and swim and be free in my Deaf world, but I had to come to the surface and breathe hearing air which would slowly kill me."  Then I would realize they were still staring at me with their condescending smiles...and I would reply, "Yeah..cool.  Good movie"
A couple of years went by and I stumbled into the business of flapping my hands and I saw my mom again.  She was smiling.  She said she was so proud of me and would support whatever I did in life.  Then she laughed and teased me about my interpreting style and said my signs were now crisp and clear as compared to my home signs growing up.
I started to eat up ASL as if it were the source of life.  Feeding my growing foundation, my connection with who I was and had became again.  I am Coda.
I told my mom I was going to my first Coda Conference.  She signed to me, "Go play with the other children of deaf adults while I visit with their parents.  I know you'll be safe.  You will discover the world.  You will learn together.  you will be HOME."

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Saturday, April 12, 2008
Rochester NY
-Dianrez

The auditorium was packed full with NTID students, interpreting students, and students from the networking skills seminar that threw it in with their program offerings. Constructed especially for students to see the stage clearly, the Webb Auditorium seats were steeply cantilevered down, requiring the leaping agility of a mountain goat to reach the front row. And front row I sat, as those slightly back were brimming full of signing students. Many were wearing CI's. It was ASL Comedy Night with Keith Wann.

Finally the show began. The CODA interpreter and professional actor stormed down the same aisle, defying laws that would otherwise mandate broken legs or at least a head-over-heels tumble. He hit the stage bombastically, feet stamping, hands shouting for attention, and visually hollered "You Deaf parents, better beat your CODA kids! I'll explain why in the rest of this show!" An image of himself projected larger than life behind him intensified his manic energy as he spun tale after tale, making people laugh in scattered areas all over the auditorium.

He skewered both hearing parents of Deaf babies, and Deaf parents of Hearing babies. He burlesqued Deaf people, aped his Deaf mother's voice, and mercilessly mocked sign language students. He derided signed songs, at the same time messing up songs of his own. I realized soon after he began that he was in his Deaf mode, voice off, as his beautiful wife hidden in the front row voiced for him. As a Hearing person, his skillful rendition of a rapid-fire Deaf storyteller would fool anybody. While furiously tearing apart the Stupid Hearing Person in several skits, his wife had to covertly sign, "slow down".

I thorougly enjoyed the show, but admittedly a few skits flew past me faster than I could comprehend them. I winced as he literally slammed himself to the floor and breakdanced in his more over-the-top moments. I wondered if he and Gary Brooks of Blue Apple had been separated at birth. They even looked alike and had the same declamatory, overacting mannerisms. Sometimes I cringed as he made fun of his mother's one-sound "Booha" speech abilities. Occasionally he visibly blocked, chuckling to himself as he went to get a drink and look at his notes before hitting manic pitch again. It was during those moments that I glimpsed the real Keith Wann, and felt he'd be a nice guy to meet in a small gathering.

Interpreting popular lyrics in different ways--a cleaned-up version for his parents and a raunchy one for the audience was lost on me, allthough I felt the rhythmic blaring of the speakers. Perhaps a rolling caption on the screen to show lyrics that were being hilariously misinterpreted could be more enlightening.

The show was suddenly over too soon. The audience stayed, expectantly, hoping for more antics. It was like having eaten one peanut; one wants to stay by the empty bowl and hope by some miracle it would fill again. Slowly, realization swept over the audience and they drifted to the side to buy DVDs, trademark glasses, caps and T-shirts. Cards were passed out to encourage those to visit his website. As a performer, he has a successful career and business, and people weren't disappointed by him. I will certainly be back in the fall when he promised to visit again at the Buffalo ASL Expo!

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Comedian performs in sign language to unite deaf, hearing
Missy Zielinski
Issue date: 4/11/08
Syracuse University

Media Credit: Mackenzie Reiss

When Keith Wann took the stage Thursday night, there was no roar of applause. Instead, the deaf members of the audience cheerfully shook their hands above their head-the American Sign Language (ASL) sign for clapping.

Wann performed his comedy act, "Watching Two Worlds Collide," sponsored by The Beyond Compliance Coordinating Committee (BCCC), a part of disability studies program at SU.

Wann started the night with a short and clear explanation, "I live in two worlds - the hearing world and the deaf world."

From there, he jumped right into his ASL comedic performance. His first laughs came from his college roommate's sexual curiosity, and then he went on to compare his home life with his school life.

"I wanted to go to deaf school," he signed, "I didn't want to learn the handicapped language of English."

While his whole performance was in ASL, Wann is not deaf. He is a CODA, which stands for children of deaf adults. Many members of Syracuse's deaf community were present, but only one other shared the CODA experience with Wann.

"Can you plug his ears and make him deaf like us?" Wann signed, mimicking what his parents said to him. Because he grew up in a deaf house and a hearing outside world, a lot of his performance came from comparisons of what seems like two different worlds.

"He's connected to the deaf community," said Marybeth Mugavin, a former masters student who came up with the idea. "His performance is in ASL, which is interesting. You're seeing comedy in a different language."

Unlike other entertainers who have come to Syracuse, students actually get to take something away from this performance, Mugavin said. "There are similarities in the deaf and hearing world, and Keith helps bridge that gap," she said.

BCCC aims to promote awareness of disability issues on and off campus. With about half the audience representing the deaf community, hearing students got some of their first glimpses of the non-hearing world.

Ryan Johnson, a freshman computer arts major said, "by signing his act, students would get a better understanding of the world and look beyond speech."

Wann's act seemed to be an easy way to make connections through humor.

"Three years ago, during our annual disability films festival, BCCC had a weekend on movies that were called 'Laughing with us?,'" said Jitka Sinecka, a doctoral student in disability studies.

Sinecka is Czech and picked up Czech Sign Language from her deaf grandparents. "We showed a lot of humorous movies, they challenge our assumptions in a very smart and direct way."

Wann is a fan of using humor to mesh his two worlds. "I'm super CODA," he signed, "I watched rated-R movies until my mom finally decided to buy a decoder closed caption machine, then I said, 'I'm going to save the world, love you, bye!'"

His ASL comedy didn't seem to be a problem for anybody; it actually connected the deaf and hearing audience through laughter.

Any audience member, hearing or deaf, could appreciate Wann's signed imitation of Sir Mix A Lot's, "I like big butts." Wann's explanation, "My dad was deaf mainstreamed."
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University of Arizona writes about Keith Wann November 2007 -
By: Siobhan Daniel

A comedian used sign language to convey his experiences as a hearing person growing up with deaf parents Saturday night before a packed audience in the South Ballroom of the Student Union Memorial Center.

Keith Wann, a child of deaf adults, or CODA, performed "Watching Two Worlds Collide," a show about the merging of deaf and hearing worlds from the perspective of a child in the middle of it.

The audience was made up mostly of interpreters, CODAs and the deaf. Across the room, signing and talking went on before the show began. "I have seen a part of Wann's performance on the Internet, and I heard he is really entertaining in person," said Sydney Corbett, an American Sign Language interpreter.

Brandy Resnick, a UA alumna and ASL interpreter, has seen the videos of Wann perform and said, "He is hilarious." This was the first time Resnick saw him perform live, and she said she was looking forward to his interpretations of music.

Wann used ASL to interpret many songs, including Sir Mix-a-Lot's "Baby Got Back." He explained that his love of music comes from his parents blasting the radio in his ears as an infant, when they were trying to discover if he was hearing or deaf.

When children are first born, hearing parents cry if they find out their child is deaf, he signed. Deaf parents cry when they find out their child is hearing, he added. As a child, Wann signed, his parents wanted the doctor to pierce his eardrums so he would be deaf like them.

"I remember when I was a little guy, I wanted to go the deaf school," Wann signed. "My mom said, 'You're hearing. You are going to the hearing school.' "I answered, 'I don't wanna go to hearing school. That is discrimination.' "My mom said, 'Too bad, you're going.' "
He complained to his mother that the people at the hearing school are "all handicapped" because they could not sign. "My mom said, 'That is your culture, go,' " Wann signed. "Then I became a hearing person."

New to the hearing world, it took Wann time to adjust. He recalled when his teacher informed his parents that he needed speech therapy, he said. His parents became very excited and began taking pictures of him along with the note from the teacher.

Wann's wild energy and entertaining facial expressions kept the crowd laughing throughout the performance. The Disability Resource Center, the Sign Language Educational Interpreter Training Program and the Social Justice Leadership Center came together to bring Wann's performance to the UA, said Cindy Volk, a professor in the College of Education's Special Education, Rehabilitation and School Psychology program.

Wann has been an extra in movies and television shows and has appeared on the television show "Law and Order," Volk said as she introduced him to the crowd. "I have deaf parents," Volk added. "That is why I am excited to have Keith Wann (at the UA)." 
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CODA Comedian "Signs" Deaf Momma Jokes Terri Fyffe (reporter) Issue date: 10/19/06
Kentucky

When now-comedian Keith Wann's parents would put him to bed at night, like most children, he would cry upon seeing his parents leave. After hours of crying hysterically, the boy would then become red in the face and pass out. His parents thought he was sound asleep. Both his parents are deaf. "Apparently I always slept in their eyes." Or so he said.

Wann, a child of deaf adults, told such a story and more at Eastern Thursday as part of a series of events scheduled for October's Disabilities Awareness Month.

In a hilarious and sometimes raunchy manner meant for a college audience, Wann had something to say on everything about growing up with deaf parents, including what being deaf means, all while using American Sign Language.

Wann signed for the crowd Thursday the definition of deafness as being able to secretly unplug his mother's sweeper and her continue to sweep.

Though he had plenty of deaf jokes then, he hasn't always been able to make jokes about deaf culture so easily, he said.

When growing up, he would try to tell jokes about deaf people to his friends, Wann said. But the minute he would say, 'One day a deaf man was driving,' his friends would say, 'Holdup. Deaf people can drive?' In fact, his hearing friends would ask many question such as, "How do deaf people have sex?" and "How do deaf people eat" to which Wann would reply, "The same way hearing people do: loud and sloppy," he said.

But having deaf parents did have its advantages. Like the times a teacher would tell his mom what a horrible student he was and he would interpret her as saying how great his grades were. If his mom asked why the teacher was speaking with such hateful expressions, Wann would just tell his mom he thought the teacher hated deaf people, he said Thursday.

Wann also had plenty to say about hearing students attempting to learn ASL. Some ASL teachers require students to choose a favorite song and interpret it in sign, he said. Wann imitated the beginning students by signing various songs.

Poking fun at the tendency for females to overly express sign, Wann imitated a female signing "Total Eclipse of the Heart," in which she literally turns around so often she vomits before the song ends.

Then moving from a rendition so overly expressive it could have been mistaken for a Happy Hands Club song from Napoleon Dynamite, Wann then began imitating the male student's tendency to be under-expressive by signing songs in a tone whose hearing counterpart could be Ben Stein.

Certified interpreters from Eastern voiced Wann's comedy act for those hearing with none or little sign skills.

An interpreter himself, Wann began the finale of his act by thanking all interpreters present, including the two who interpreted, who often were confronted with the choice of not voicing some of the more graphic sex-related material, since some children attended the show.

Wann ended his comedy act with another song, his own ASL version of Vanilla Ice's "Ice Ice Baby", while sporting a red bandana and fake bling.

By the time he rapped while signing, "If there was a problem, yo, I'll solve it," Wann became so worn out from signing so fast he jokingly began pretending to have a conversation with an invisible deaf person in the audience who questioned his sign ability.

"Yes, I have a certificate," he said, pretending to sign to the imaginary deaf person in the audience. "No, I'm not hard of hearing."

After attempting to break dance, he started jokingly signing so fast he fell on the ground cursing and yelling in sign, pretending to ultimately discover he had been trying to interpret "Ice Ice Baby" for no reason.

"Yes, I'm certified," Wann pretended to tell the imaginary deaf person in the audience. "Oh, you're deaf blind! Oh s***!"

Eastern senior Amber Hager, herself Deaf, said his performance was one of the rare times she, and others who are Deaf, could experience an event at Eastern firsthand, without an interpreter.

"Tonight, (people who are deaf) had an opportunity to enjoy and see things in our native language. We didn't have to depend on an interpreter," she said.

Being born to two hearing parents, Hager said she could relate to many of Wann's experiences, even though Wann was hearing born to two deaf parents.

His comedy act, though humorous, hit upon many truths of what it's like to be deaf, she said.

His performance was "€an expression of art: how deaf people experience the hearing world," Hager said.

Reach Terri at terri_fyffe1@eku.edu