Courtesy of HBO
Troupe members (from left) Noah Britton, Ethan Finlan, New Michael Ingemi and Jack Hanke.
Right at the top of the live comedy show Asperger’s Are Us, Noah Britton, the troupe leader of sorts, walks out in dark glasses, as if he’s blind, using his mic stand as an impromptu cane to feel his way to center stage. “Wow,” he says, “I never thought I’d live to see the day so many people would come to our show.” The joke gets a laugh, and is typical of the group’s inclination to spoof so-called disability while drawing attention to the audience’s interest in it. It’s the same fine line walked by the new docuseries about the group, On Tour With Asperger’s Are Us, premiering April 30 on HBO.
The troupe includes four men with Asperger’s syndrome, a condition on the autism spectrum: Ethan Finlan, Jack Hanke, Noah Britton and “New Michael” Ingemi. They met, we learn early in the show, when newly diagnosed Britton served as a camp counselor at “Aspy camp” for the other three. In late 2009, they started their sketch group, the success of which, Britton explains, is due to “their literal humor, absurdism, and maybe bad acting.” The troupe’s influences range from Monty Python to Kids in the Hall and Andy Kaufman. But they’re clear that they’re not interested in making fun of people with Asperger’s. “Sometimes people come,” Britton tells Isthmus in an interview, “because they think it will be like The Big Bang Theory [nerdy and socially inept physicists baffled by social situations]. It’s not okay.”
The series pushes against the stereotype of the clueless automaton, unable to connect with society or truly get what it’s all about. The men are fleshed out as people, which allows them to be as funny as they truly are. Ingemi deadpans in the opening episode about his unusual name, “New Michael.” “It’s a social experiment, but I can’t give away the details or the experiment will be compromised.” Now, I may not be smart enough to know if he’s actually joking or not, but I can tell he’s subtly pointing out something about my expectations.
Documentaries by their nature must illuminate untold stories “behind the scenes,” and this one benefits from that approach. I found myself more engaged when, in episode two, all jokes aside, Hanke talks about keeping a daily checklist to help with his bad executive functioning, opening up about his “limited bandwidth.” He struggles, he says, with the two extremes of over- and under-stimulation, and by the time he finds a good midway point, is often “too exhausted to function.”
It’s hard not to be affected by the sincerity of his personal dream: to use the skills and abilities provided to him by Asperger’s to help end sex trafficking through improved data analysis. The series is able to go deeper than the stage show, providing this kind of intimate look at the individuals. As viewers, it helps us learn something about Asperger’s as well. Finlan’s devotion to trains, a fascination for some autistic people, is leading him to a career in transportation engineering. The quirky theme songs that open each episode are written and performed by Britton, who hopes to pursue his love of music once the troupe slows down. These aren’t hilarious details, but they deepen the story behind each performer, and ultimately, behind Asperger’s itself.
While it’s hard not to see the troupe, or the series for that matter, as being all about Aspy’s — the name is right there in the title — the members of Asperger’s Are Us hope that in the end, their comedy is why you buy a ticket.
“We are grateful for people who come to the show looking for clean wordplay not confined by social constraints,” Britton says. “We provide that for other Aspys. The whole point is that we are funny, and we give people who don’t have a lot of other outlets a place for their humor.” But, he adds, if you come for another reason, the guys are still happy to take your money. “In fact, you should just mail us your check. A laughing crowd is so much better than a politely clapping one.”
The six-part series, On Tour with Asperger’s Are Us, premieres on HBO April 30.
Asperger’s Are Us comedy troupe will perform live at the Nomad World Pub, 418 E. Wilson St., Madison, on May 27.
