Follow the extraordinary journey of George Steeves, a queer man, as he promotes and performs his educational and enterta | dG1fMkhNanZnaFVKNlk
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00:00Growing up in school, I was called every single name in the book, to my face, and behind my
00:09back.
00:10Don't go chasing waterfalls.
00:13I'm a singer, I'm an actor, and whenever I'm not doing either of those things, I'm driving
00:19for Uber to pay my bills.
00:21And I have a one-man show that I created called Magic 8-Ball, my life with Asperger's.
00:28Who here is at least familiar with Asperger's?
00:31I was diagnosed with Asperger's at 11 years old in 2000.
00:35One of the things that kept me going, that got me up out of bed every morning, was my
00:40dream to be an entertainer.
00:47I auditioned for American Idol nine times.
00:52I never made it on TV.
00:57Then in 2014, I was watching this episode of Oprah's Master Class, and Whoopi Goldberg
01:03was featured on the episode.
01:05She decided to put together this one-woman show, so then I thought, maybe I should do
01:10a one-man show.
01:12I went to my friends Penny and Crystal Wilson and asked them to be producers.
01:17This seems like it's four hours to five hours long.
01:20At this point, it's not at the level where I would want to promote this.
01:25This is my life story, and I tried to cut out as much as I possibly could.
01:29All I need to know is the most compelling parts.
01:31I wanted to premiere my one-man show at the 2017 Hollywood Fringe Festival.
01:38For two months, we cut things, we added things.
01:42Opening night was the first night that we did the show from start to finish without
01:46stopping.
01:47Thank you all so much!
01:51One of the most rewarding things about doing this show was getting the chance to meet people
01:54in my audience who were also on the autism spectrum.
01:57At age three, I was diagnosed with autism.
02:01I sensed that everything was kind of weird because everybody would be over here talking
02:07and I'd be left over here, you know, pretty much by myself.
02:11The autism spectrum is a very wide spectrum.
02:14Some of these kids on the spectrum will never be able to speak.
02:18Kids would talk down to me, they would call me names, they would sometimes tease me.
02:28Every mother knows if their child is a little different.
02:31We didn't want them to be labeled, we didn't want them to be treated differently.
02:35It's that gay faggot!
02:36Ew, no, you're a goth!
02:37You gay guy?
02:38Ew, freak!
02:39Queer!
02:40Every voice deserves to be heard, and I will speak for those who cannot speak.
02:50Welcome to Montrose, my first hometown.
02:57There's a lot of red, a lot of Republican, and a lot of Trump supporters.
03:00What I must warn you of is for the authenticity of the play, there will be a little profanity.
03:08These are church people!
03:10This is my first time doing a conservative audience, it's the first time my mom has seen it.
03:15I thought I was only attracted to women, not that I'm opposed to being with a woman, but
03:19if a person makes me happy, do I rob myself of that happiness just because the person is a man?
03:29Next month in August, I will be going to Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland.
03:34It's the biggest theater festival in the world, this is a big deal.
03:37I have worked really hard for this.
03:39Wait, wait, let me tell you something, hold on a second.
03:41We're supposed to work as a team.
03:43And I'm still going, but our relationships have started to sink.
03:51That threw me off.
03:52He punched him.
03:53No way.
03:54How am I going to continue doing this show after that?
03:56That's never happened to me before.
03:58I didn't need to win American Idol.
04:00I don't need to fit in.
04:02I don't need to be normal.
04:04I don't need anything to validate me.
04:06I validate me.
04:08My life with Asperger's is truly like this magic eight ball.
04:12Life is going to have so many different questions and answers.
04:16But if you learn to just roll with it, you're going to be okay.
04:36That's my life.
04:39Thank you everybody.
04:40That's my life.
04:42Thank you so much everybody.
04:44That's my life.