iPain Living Magazine — 25
origins of his comedy, and how
laughter is one of the best medicines
in his life.
Comedian Josh
Blue on living with
Cerebral Palsy
iPainLiving: Cerebral palsy is a
brain injury that occurs before the
age of 5; did you develop it during
childbirth or early childhood trauma?
Josh Blue: Childbirth. I was actually
born in Cameroon, West Africa.
Unfortunately, they did not
have the proper medical facilities
there. I was transfused for ten
months. I’m not 100% sure of the
details, but I know that they did not
have the medical facilities there
and I was Medivacked to America
soon after I was born.
iPL: When were you first diagnosed
with Cerebral Palsy?
JB: I was diagnosed pretty early. I
want to say I was about nine
months. There was a time where I
was sitting up, which is a normal
thing to do at that age of nine
months, and my mother handed me
a cracker and I fell over. I had been
concentrating so hard on sitting up
that when I thought of something
else I just fell over, so she thought
that something was wrong. But the
way she put it was, “by the time
we figured out something was
wrong with you, we had already
realized that there was nothing
wrong with you.”
iPL: Have you had pain since
childhood, or was it a symptom
that came on as you aged?
JB: Well, I mean there was some
pain here and there. It’s the kind of
thing where it was all I’ve ever
known so it’s hard to describe how
it relates to other people; A lot of
joint pain, wear and tear on the
body. My left hand takes most of
the brunt of all that I do.
iPL: Do people mistake cerebral
palsy for other conditions?
JB: Sure, there’s a lot of ignorance
surrounding disability in general.
Unfortunately, when you have a
disability you are suddenly put in a
category with people who are mentally
disabled, people that are
blind, deaf, etc.. Unfortunately, in
America, there is not a lot of distinction
between all these different
disabilities in the world. So sometimes
I encounter people who think
I’m mentally disabled, and that’s
where some of the humor comes
from.
iPL: Do you have any of the secondary
conditions that often come
with cerebral palsy? (chronic pain,
fatigue, diabetes, asthma, heart,
arthritis)
JB: I’ve got arthritis and quite a
bit of chronic pain kicking in now,
but I haven’t always been too gentle
to my body. I was on the USA
Paralympic Soccer team for 8
years.
(Connued on page 26)
Photo Credit: Nick Larson Photography