Co-production: A one-night stand?

By Laurence Clark, comedian, writer and actor who has cerebral palsy

I’m excited to be performing at SCIE’s Festival of Co-production on 7th July.  I first came across c-oproduction when I was working on a project with Trafford Council for Breakthrough UK about ten years ago.  It was explained to me as follows:

• Consultation is a one-night stand
• Co-production is a long-term relationship.

I’ve used this definition whenever asked ever since!
At the festival I’m going to perform an extract from my new stand-up comedy show Independence which is going to be at the Edinburgh Fringe festival from 3-28 August.

Independence is somewhat of a hot topic at the moment, whether it’s the EU referendum or Scotland.  But this show isn’t about either of those things, because that would be a bit dull.  Instead it’s about what independence means to me.  As someone who has used self-directed support for all of my adult life, for ages I’ve wanted to do a show about my experiences.

Also independence often gets misunderstood by the general public.  It’s not about doing everything yourself because, for someone like me that’s never going to happen.  You might as well ask me to solve world hunger as tie my shoelaces.  Both would take me the rest of my life and end in abject failure!  But it’s not the stuff I cannot do that frustrates me, it’s the myth that it’s not OK to ask for help.  After all, as John Donne once wrote “no man is an island”, except the Isle of Man!