You are a CODA too…that’s cool, why do I feel I don’t have to really explain who I am to you, I feel as if you already know my story.  I feel as if when I try to tell you a story you already know the end…like, like that one time my mom was vacuuming and I snuck into the living room and I unplugged it and she kept vacuuming for another 15 minutes!  What?  You did that too?  What else did you do?  You only dialed 6 of the 7 numbers when making phone calls for your parents,  oh you’re bad!  That’s funny though…Ok I admit I did that too!  But I did it last week when I was a Video Interpreter and I didn’t want to call tmobile for the 100th time that day and be put on hold for an hour, so I told the deaf person the number didn’t work and was discontinued, and then I said maybe Tmobile went out of business?  … An hour later my mom emailed me and asked if my sidekick was still working because she heard Tmobile went out of business.  Damn Deaf Gossip works fast!.

So what is CODA?  I hear it’s a secret organization where 200 people get together and do weird ritual stuff while screaming and sacrificing retarded Hearing people to the Deaf Gods above.  Is there a secret CODA sign of recognition that you have to flash when you suspect a person might be a coda? 
I have heard stuff, this one guy I know he tried to go once and he came home and swore never again…I asked him did he have to do weird stuff and he just shook his head and said something about his bar tab was so much he was going to have to get a second job!
I’m scared.  I don’t know if I am ready to join this cult. 
"Last night, Kathy and I went to see Keith Wann, a stand-up comic, at the Texas State student center. The interesting thing about Keith is that, though he himself is able to hear, he was born to deaf parents and has lived a fair portion of his life in deaf culture. He performs using American Sign Language with his wife providing a spoken translation for those in the audience who aren’t fluent in that form of communication. It was fascinating to watch how this played out for this crowd. They greeted him by holding their hands up and shaking them — the applause of the deaf community. He then went on for 90 energetic minutes, running around the stage, recounting stories of his childhood with deaf parents, his straddling of the hearing and deaf world, and making affectionate fun of ASL students. It was great to see how he blended together the signed and brief spoken bits of his monologue and how both the deaf and hearing portions of the audience responded to him."
- Guy in the 3rd row, seat 12

TO SEE WHAT OTHER PEOPLE ARE SAYING....CLICK HERE!
Keith Wann, a child of deaf adults, is one of America’s funniest ASL comedians. Keith tours around the ASL Nation performing both of his one man shows “Watching Two Worlds Collide” rated G to R (depending on the audience request) and his K.I.D.S.show (Keith's Inspirational Deaf Stories), for family audiences and School assemblies.
He also performs as a Storyteller for Festivals featuring family and children stories in ASL.

Keith has gone Hollywood and was filmed in some PEPSI commercials to build hype for the "Bob" commercial.  He has also been on a few TV shows as an extra, including Law and Order and Court TV and also appeared in Mosdeux's Resonare as the Demented Apple Farmer...and just finished filming another film playing a deranged prison convict in the film How I Killed My Girlfriend's Cat.

Keith is working on a collection of CODA/KODA stories for a book.  Keith also teaches workshops for interpreters to analyze lyrics and ASL, the journey to certification, and Improvisation for ASL students.  He is also involved with Flying Fingers, a camp for Deaf and Koda children.

Keith has worked solo and in collaboration with other great ASL artists bringing to stage Coda stories, Deaf culture, Improv, Sketch comedy, and ASL student bashing.

Keith lives in Brooklyn, NY and works as an interpreter, certified CI CT and NIC:Master. Keith completed the Juilliard program on interpreting Broadway plays and plans to continue exploring more options in the performing arts as an interpreter and artist. 

“The world needs more laughter. I grew up on traditional ASL storytellers and wanted to see a change in ASL comedy. I wanted to show that comedy could be presented in ASL, the entire body, and facial grammar. I also wanted to include some music skits to show obvious clashes of the two worlds.”
”My show describes my experiences of growing up as a hearing child with deaf adults and about learning what it means to live in two worlds (Deaf and Hearing). It is about truly discovering that my parents were considered different than my friend’s parents from mainstream society and trying to use that to my advantage to get away with trouble, but in the end realizing parents are all the same, and they always know best.
It is also about learning to live simultaneously in these two worlds with different cultures and balancing between the two, sometimes as an ambassador and sometimes as an observer.
I also prefer to sign my show, rather than voicing for myself, making it fully accessible to my parents, CODAs and the Deaf community, and then adding a voice interpreter to let the hearing audience follow along.”
“Keith Wann's combination of amazingly expressive language and his unique sense of humor is nothing short of comedy magic," says Crom Saunders, a playwright and actor from Sacramento.
Gary Sanderson, an interpreter and CODA of Northridge, California, however, Has a slightly different perspective. "If more deaf parents see Wann's show, they will start raising us CODAs different!"
"The only way you can watch Wann without cracking up is if you're injected with enough Novocain to make your entire face and mind numb," says Wenda Whalen of Sacramento
"A true hilarious replay of a Coda boy's experience in which we would not dare want the world to see unless your that curious. Oh my God, what's he doing? He is exposing me and my brother's coda experiences which is truly hilarious! Anyone who wants the true Coda culture experience have got to see your hilarious uninhibited show!!" Molly Bowen, coda interpreter – Sacramento
" I laughed until I cried" -Sign Language student
" A delightful experience in Sign Language and voice" -Theater Director
" Wonderful Deaf and Hearing entertainment" -Deaf Community leader
" He can really shake his 'groove thang." -Coda Interpreter

" HE SAID WHAT???"-Keith Wann's mother

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