Philip Patston introduction
Photo of Philip Patston by Caglar Kimyoncu
Philip Patston's act was one of the great hits of Equata's Above and Beyond Festival in 2003. A dynamic writer, comedian, speaker and activist, Philip created and organised Giant Leap, New Zealand's first international disability arts festival. He is also the founder of IGODAP (the International Guild of Disabled Artists and Performers) a global network promoting disability arts and culture. Caglar Kimyoncu and Joe McConnell met up with Philip on a recent visit to London.
I believe that the last time Caglar and you were together, you both jumped in a river. Could you tell us more about that?
We didn't quite get to the river, otherwise we probably wouldn't be here today. We bungy jumped off the Auckland Harbour Bridge. That was in aid of promoting the Giant Leap Festival. The idea was to grab media attention by doing something that was on the edge. It was also about risk taking - a bit of a metaphor for putting on such a festival for the first time in New Zealand.
Tell us about the Giant Leap Festival.
It was great. The outcome was more than I had ever imagined. It lasted for a week. We had about 18 different performances, workshops and seminars. We created a really amazing space. The festival felt very inclusive and valuing of diversity. We had world-class acts. It was important to make a statement about the internationality of disability arts, because New Zealand tends to be a bit provincial and can be quite patronising around disability. It was important to have artists like Julie McNamara, Mat Fraser, David Roche and Victoria Maxwell to demonstrate that disability arts is a global thing and is taken very seriously in other countries where it is funded well. The festival was the culmination of 4 years work: promoting, fundraising and programming. It was smaller than other international disability arts festivals, but it felt like there was a real ownership by disabled people. There were non-disabled people involved in making it happen, but they were not running the show.
I love the article you wrote for OUCH, some time ago, about growing up gay and disabled. Could you tell us more about your work as a writer and performer?
I guess I've been writing on and off for most of my life. Most of my writing is non-fiction. I currently write a monthly column for a gay magazine, Express, in New Zealand.
I literally fell into comedy. I did a comedy course in 1995. I felt that life was boring and wanted to bring in some more creativity. The course ended with a performance at the local comedy venue which was a terribly inaccessible pub. I had to be lifted up a flight of stairs and was actually dropped 10 minutes before going on stage. This was a real show must go on experience. I met a producer of a stand-up comedy TV show and ended up doing feature slots on that for about 8 years. It snowballed from there up to the time I won an award in 1999 which was probably the peak of my comedy career. But I soon got sick of competing in the small comedy market we have in New Zealand.
Diversity is something that does not always go down well. For example, we have a comedian, Mike King, who makes hideously racist and homophobic jokes. He's one of the most popular performers in New Zealand. He's often included at the end of politically correct conferences to kind of make it all OK again. We once performed at the same gig where he was the link between the acts. Although he was affable and supportive towards me, he followed my performance by cracking a totally homophobic joke, which totally devalued who I am. I thought of taking him to task about that but decided not to. When you're in the artistic world and start censoring people you get into a dangerous area. Mike King obviously attracts an audience who want homophobic jokes. Until this audience stops laughing at his jokes, he has no reason to stop.
So I got sick of doing the pub gigs, the line-up gigs and having to go on after racist blokey acts and win the audience over. These days I just do festivals, conferences and a few corporate gigs. I do this alongside my other work - consulting and training. I've also been doing storytelling work with young people.
last updated: 2005-07-01 00:00:00
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