Aidan Greene is hosting a night of stand-up in the Pearse Centre this Thursday (30th January) to fundraise money for his short film, Stutterbug. Sínann Fetherston sat down with the comic to find out more.
"It may seem counter-intuitive but I am a stand-up comedian because I have a stutter," says Aidan Greene.
Working on Ireland's comedy circuit for over 15 years, his solo shows include the cleverly named (500) Days of Stammer, Stutter Island, Eternal Sunshine of the Stammer Man, Did I Stutter? and, of course, I Know What You Did Last Stammer.
"It's kind of because people always told me I couldn't do it," he continues. "I always was an intensely cocky person; I always thought I was funny and people just couldn't hear it."
Pursuing a career in stand-up to prove the naysayers wrong, Greene says that the social contract of comedy meant that audiences had to sit still and listen to him - something he thoroughly enjoyed.
"I always thought that I was funny but people just couldn't hear it."
At first, he would only briefly acknowledge his stammer a the start of his gigs, but before long he found himself embracing it throughout his act.
"It almost fed into the performance because, I guess, I had given myself permission to stammer," he explains. "When I did stammer on something, I could turn it into another new joke. It almost became an integral part of the stand-up, it elevated it into something even better."
Emboldened by his success, and fulfilling his childhood dream to become an actor, Greene is now putting his master's degree in screenwriting to work by creating Shutterbug - a short film that will create better representation as well as acting opportunities for those who stutter.
"Stammering in films - the representation is largely terrible," he notes. "There are very few positive examples I can point to, and even the ones that are positive often give off the wrong message."
As it turns out, the last time a stuttering actor played a stuttering character was in 1937, when Joe Dougherty voiced Porky Pig - until he was fired for stuttering too much. Yes, really.
To remedy this, Aidan has brought Scroobius Pip - a rapper, spoken word artist, and actor - on board to star alongside him in the project.
"It's a script with two stammering characters," he says. "I was always going to be the one named Aidan because it would be weird not to, but we were insistent on having a second stammering actor - and trying to find a stammering actor is a tough one because if they do have a stammer, they don't want it known."
Pip, on the other hand, is a patron of STAMMA, the British Stammering Association, and is proud to represent those who stutter. With acting credits on projects starring the likes of Tom Hardy and Stephen Graham, Greene says he is a huge asset to the project.
Reaching the finals of both the Virgin Media Discovers and Shore Scripts Short Film Fund competitions, Greene and Stutterbug's directors - Allie O'Rourke & Matthew Tallon - have worked tirelessly on their passion project, but funds aren't always readily available.
"The problem with funding is that you can't make a film until you've already made a film," he muses. "There's a bar to entry for a lot of funds because you already need to have a credit, and I don't because I put screenwriting on the back burner for my stand-up career."
"We decided to make the film regardless," he adds, explaining that the team are working to raise €20,000 through a GoFundMe so as to pay their cast and crew a fair wage and to create a high-quality product.
So far, they have raised nearly €4,000 and are hosting a comedy night in Dublin's Pearse Centre on Thursday, 30 January, to raise more. The night's talent will include Killian Sundermann, Peter McGann, Fiona Frawley, and John Spillane.
"Our aim is to film by the end of March," says Greene. "We already have a few people attached for the smaller roles in the film, a few of whom have stammers which is very exciting."
