Norwich Arts Centre

> Norwich Arts Centre

“It's our differences that make us,” said comedian Steve Day – probably the only deaf comedian in the UK, in his show at Norwich Arts Centre last night.

And as he unfolded his life before us, you couldn't help feeling he was right.

What a story he told.

The young boy growing up in inner-city London, pretending he could hear when he couldn't, desperate not to be different, doing anything to get his girl – even if she thought he was stupid.

The young adult, with his lead weight hearing device designed for grannies of 80, which could communicate with other electrical devices – like washing machines – better than with people.

The man dubbed 'whistling Steve' whose isolation led him to close the door each night in his single room in Ipswich and pray to die.

This was really difference with a vengeance.

But it made him, and it made this act: Steve Day not only knew dark places, but he took us there and showed us – the headaches, the useless NHS consultants, the people who turned their back… and we all came back laughing. That's really something.