What is it?

Starting at the beginning, BBC Ouch is the segment of the BBC that focuses on disability and its contributors are all people who have disabilities.

Ouch Storytelling Live is, as you probably guessed, a live event that is run during the Edinburgh Festival and is now in its 3^rd year. In short, people (members of the public, not celebrities) who have experienced disability, chronic illness, mental illness, etc get up on stage and tell their story to a small audience.

Picture courtesy of BBC Ouch!

Are their stories worth hearing?

It’s subjective obviously but my answer would be a definite yes. Ordinary people get up on stage and regale the audience with thought provoking and often moving stories about how their disability has impacted their life. That doesn’t have to mean they’re summarising their whole life, sometimes they focus on a specific moment or event in their life that made them rethink the way they thought of themselves and their disability.

It’s not just about the stories, it’s the skill with which the story tellers engage with the audience. It’s interesting, moving and importantly, it’s entertaining.

This year’s theme is ‘Going Out’. Apparently this is open to interpretation.

When and where is it and who’ll be there?

It takes place in George Heriot’s School in Edinburgh (Fringe Venue #25) on Thursday the 9^th of August from 7pm to 9:30pm.

This year is hosted by 2018 Britain’s Got Talent winner Lee Ridley, a stand-up comedian who navigates around the minor inconvenience of not being able to speak.

Lee has Cerebral Palsy and has his audience in stitches with a little help from a text-to-speech app on his iPad. Lee was previously on BBC Ouch Storytelling Live as one of the story tellers, but that was before the spotlight hit him!

Other story tellers will be members of the public who have been selected to take part and that, unfortunately is all I am able to tell you right now.

Sounds brilliant! Where do I get tickets?

You can apply for tickets on the BBC website right here, but hurry! Closing date for applying is 11pm on Sunday the 1^st of July 2018. Because it’s a popular show with limited seating, tickets will be distributed by random draw.

Can we see a sample of what to expect?

Yeah, alright. This is the show from last year, helpfully uploaded to YouTube by BBC Stories (and you thought paying your TV license was a waste of money!) …

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