Asperger's Are Us

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1

- I find it easier

to make people laugh

once they start

to understand me,

get my sense of humor.

But if you just ask me

to tell you a joke,

well usually, I'll probably

tell you an anti-joke,

with a true story.

- It's always fun,

'cause whenever someone asks,

I run away in fear.

- So, even though I'm pretty

analytical in general,

I tend not to analyze

comedy very much,

just because for me,

it is what it is.

You don't really need

to know more than that.

Of course, there's

also a science of it.

- The best way to be funny

is to always explain your jokes

right after you tell them.

You need to be like,

"Get it?"

- When I got my

diagnosis 10 years ago,

I knew I need to meet

more people like me,

'cause I never have.

I spent 20 years in utter

isolation and confusion.

And two is, I have to make it

so no one else has to do that.

When we started

this comedy troupe,

all we could focus on is,

let's come up with stuff

that makes us laugh.

Jump on my train yeah

My little train of thought

Jump on my train yeah

My little train of thought

I know what I have

Do you know what you got

Jump on my train yeah

My little train of thought

The season's shifting, yeah

But I'm cool to hot

Jump on my train, yeah

My train, my

train of thought

- Are there challenges? Yes.

But, it's not all bad,

and we've developed these things

which we think are very funny

and we like to

share with people.

- I might be here at

this comedy show tonight.

- Yeah, it's great to support

people with disabilities

by just throwing

your money at them.

The famous people, yeah

They go out looking proud

They're standing right 'round

And breaking holy ground

The famous people

They got their demons

I got my demons

But in my she's believin'

Hey famous people yeah

Step on my train

And make a movie

And it will be

the real thing

- Mom?

- Dad?

- You want to

put me into foster care,

and then adopt some other kid?

- Exactly!

You're understanding perfectly.

- I'm gonna go get another

one from the truck!

- Everyone always says,

"Oh, your name is so funny."

And I'm like, "No, we really

do have Asperger's," but

two years or something

into the troupe, I realized

I guess the name is funny,

'cause it's

grammatically incorrect,

but I never thought about it.

- Well Microsoft Word

always corrected it.

Asperger's is We.

Jump on my train yeah

My little train my

train of thought

I love you so much

- Doing great.

I love you so much

Last time, everybody

close your eyes.

Think about what

you love the most.

I love you so much

Good morning, everyone.

Okay.

I love you all,

thanks for watching!

I got shirts and bags and hair

if anyone wants

to buy that hair.

It's free.

Thanks for doing that.

- That was a great set!

- Thanks, tight!

- Never done that before.

- Well, that's what she said.

All right, I'll be in the can.

- That is what she said.

- I was in elementary

school and I saw this

video about Kenya,

and it said they run everywhere.

I was like, "Why

don't we do that?"

It's better exercise,

you get there faster.

No downside.

So ever since, I just

run everywhere I go

if I'm by myself.

So then everyone was like,

"Noah's weird, he

runs everywhere."

And I didn't mind,

'cause I was like,

"It's better to be

right than popular."

But, as I get

older, I recognize,

it depends on the situation.

- Next stop, West Newton.

- So this is my actual brain,

and one of the

benefits of having a

in vogue medical

or mental condition

is that there's

a lot of research

that you could get paid to do,

and I did that over at MIT.

Down there, it says ANAT,

but it looks like ANAL.

It's a true story.

My old social worker Steven Hoyt

invented this.

And ironically,

it's put right over

a hole in the wall.

'Cause I used to

have an anger problem

where I'd have violent outburts

and I would break things.

I don't do that any more.

I know that that's not okay

and I can control myself,

partly due to the

six R's of anger.

For decades, I was

known as Aaron.

I decided when I turned 18

to go my New Michael,

instead of my slave name, Aaron.

That's the story.

You know, many people

still from high school

still know me as Aaron,

or sometimes people have

a hard time remembering

to call me New Michael who've

known me all those years,

so I always correct 'em though.

I don't give anyone a pass,

for the most part.

- And where

does New Michael come from?

- It comes from the heart.

My name is New Michael.

My dad's Old Michael.

I'm New Michael.

- It's a job.

- Waiter, waiter?

- Serving somebody.

- We all met at a summer camp

for kids with Asperger's.

It was like a chance for

kids on the autism spectrum

to meet other kids on

the autism spectrum.

That was probably the

most important part.

Myself, Ethan, Jack, all had

really big senses of humor.

We were always in the

same group together.

For us, like,

you knew you were winning

if everybody was laughing.

- You're gonna

recognize it like this.

- Noah also joined the group

to meet other people

with Asperger's.

He just joined as a counselor.

- I was in a group with

Ethan and New Michael,

and Noah was one

of our counselors,

and by that point, we had

pretty developed senses of humor

and like we were actually

sort of objectively funny.

Well, as objective

as humor can be.

- They became some of my really

good friends at that camp.

To a point where we started

hanging out outside, as well.

Well some of us had the idea

to start a comedy group.

So, that's how Asperger's

Are Us was born.

- These guys were 17

when this troupe started,

so three or four 17

year olds and me,

and it was very much like

the work I have to do

as a camp counselor of,

I'm gonna separate

you guys right now,

take two minutes and then talk

to each other like adults.

- I think me and Noah definitely

are the Pauls and the Johns

of the group.

It's just like sometimes the

days of the early Beatles,

they would mistake John as

the leader of the group.

That's what's happened with us.

It would bother me more so

because it would make it out

to be like, you know,

sort of like how it was

when he was our counselor,

and like he's

basically directing us

and thinking of the ideas,

and it was tough.

Maybe it bothered me more

so than the other guys,

because I was, you know,

the McCartney of the group.

But it doesn't really

happen much any more,

it doesn't really

bother me much any more.

- We usually do

have nowhere to rehearse

and just have to wander around.

It's been three years,

you'd think we'd have a

rehearsal space by now,

but we don't.

How you feelin' Ethan?

You okay?

- What's wrong? Tell us.

You don't want to get what?

Kicked out?

We're not gonna get

kicked out of the mall.

This is perfect.

No one will care if we're here.

Oh, okay, I'm sorry.

We'll go.

Sorry about that,

we didn't know.

We can do it right here.

This is where I...

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