Kristen Gooch 0:09

Welcome to True Tales by Disability Advocates Podcast, authentic voices of people thriving with disabilities, where individuals use the art of storytelling to change the world.

John Beer 0:22

The True Tales by Disability Advocates Podcast is produced by Art Spark Texas' Speaking Advocates Program. The free virtual training is open to people of all disabilities, no matter where you live.

Kamand Alaghehband 0:35

 Keep listening to hear how life's challenges can spark a desire to speak out and advocate for yourself and others.

Kurt Wilkinson 0:50

Hello, you're listening to the True Tales by Disability Advocates Podcast. Changing the world one story at a time. This is the show where advocates harness the power of storytelling to build community with their peers and develop empathy in others. Hello, everyone! I'm Kurt Wilkinson.

Jennifer McKinney 1:13

I'm Jennifer McKinney.

Adam Greibel 1:14

I'm Adam Griebel.

John Beer 1:16

I'm John Beer.

Kurt Wilkinson 1:17

And we are your hosts for season three. Hello everybody! Welcome to the True Tales by Disability Advocates Podcast, where we bring stories to life. I am here with fellow host of the show, John Beer. John, how are you doing, John?

John Beer 1:47

Very good, Kurt. Thank you so much for having me on the show.

Kurt Wilkinson 1:51

Yes, we're so glad to have you back. Thank you for helping us out with this season, John. And I'm sure you're super excited about our guests that we have.

John Beer 2:02

Absolutely. I've been looking forward to this. We're gonna have a good conversation. Let me introduce you all. Again, my name is John Beer, and I would like you all, if you would, to introduce yourselves, what you do, and if you're all right with disclosing your disability.

Rand Metcaffe 2:18

My name is Rand Metcaffe. My disability is cerebral palsy. I've been with Mickee Faust for what 30 years now.

Terry Galloway 2:34

And I'm Terry Galloway, and um my disability is that I'm I'm deaf as a doornail. And uh I've been deaf since I'm going deaf since I was probably popped out of the womb. I now have two cochlear implants. I used to have uh um what people refer to as deaf speech, but a lot of people just thought I was polish. So I got cochlear implants. I've been doing um the Actual Lives for a long, long time, and Mickee Faust for even longer. And I'm also an independent solo artist, and I wrote a memoir called Mean Little Deaf Queer, in which I wanted to talk in part because all the people I've been saying to say, tell your stories, tell your story stories turned on me and said, tell your story.

Kurt Wilkinson 3:22

Yes, that's what we're all about on this podcast is telling your story.

Rebecca Metcaffe 3:26

I'm Rebecca Metcaffe, and I'm Rand's better half.

Rand Metcaffe 3:30

Indeed.

Rebecca Metcaffe 3:31

I um I I received a traumatic brain injury in a car accident 20 years ago. And the benefit from that, the most the gift from that was that my son, who was four months old, was in an accident next to me. And his carseat clamshelled, and he was uninjured, but I was immediately put into a coma. But the gift was that I was able to die for my son and show him how much I loved him and still live.

John Beer 4:01

Thank you.

Kurt Wilkinson 4:01

Thank you for sharing that.

John Beer 4:02

Yes. And now Rand is here because he was one of the original storytellers in Actual Lives years ago. Uh and Terry is one of the co-creators of the program in 2000, and Rebecca is good enough to help us facilitate our conversation. So we're looking forward to having a great conversation with you all. I have multiple sclerosis, I use a wheelchair because of that, and I'm from the Speaking Advocates program at Art Spark Texas, which is a direct descendant of Actual Lives. So I'm really interested in hearing your origin stories here.

Rebecca Metcaffe 4:45

Yeah, good.

John Beer 4:46

All right, so let's kick off by listening to a story from Rand called Drive by Healing.

Rand Metcaffe 4:55

I used to jog every day, two or three miles a day with my dog.

Rebecca Metcaffe 5:03

I used to jog every day, two or three miles a day with my dog.

Rand Metcaffe 5:08

One Sunday morning, I was jogging as usual, and a van passed me and then pulled back to the curb.

Rebecca Metcaffe 5:22

One Sunday morning, I was jogging as usual, and a van passed me. It pulled over to the curb.

Rand Metcaffe 5:29

Four college-age people got out. One guy had a beard. He looked exactly like Jesus.

Rebecca Metcaffe 5:41

Four college-age people got out. One guy had a beard, the other, eh, he kind of looked like Jesus, but nicely dressed.

Rand Metcaffe 5:50

He grabbed, he grabbed my hand and shook it.

Rebecca Metcaffe 5:55

Jesus grasped my hand and shook it. I tried to get my hand back, but he wouldn't let go. The other three people surrounded me.

Rand Metcaffe 6:04

And the first guy said,

Rebecca Metcaffe 6:08

And the first guy said,

Terry Galloway 6:10

God did not mean for you to be like this. May we pray for you?

Rand Metcaffe 6:16

I was thinking, oh fuck, here we go again.

Rebecca Metcaffe 6:22

I was thinking, oh fuck, here we go again.

Rand Metcaffe 6:26

I was looking at my dog, she was looking back at me, and I I got evil thought in my head. So I said, Okay, you can pray for me. God knows I need it.

Rebecca Metcaffe 6:49

I was looking at my dog, she was looking at me, and then I said, Okay, you can pray for me. God knows I need it.

Rand Metcaffe 6:58

So they smiled at me and began to speak in tongues.

Terry Galloway 7:06

Oh, pray God...

Rebecca Metcaffe 7:07

So then they began earnestly praying,

Terry Galloway 7:09

Oh god...

Rebecca Metcaffe 7:11

and then they began to speak in tongues. What the fuck?

Rand Metcaffe 7:16

I was standing there, standing there with my dog looking at me. For five minutes.

Rebecca Metcaffe 7:26

I was standing there, standing there and my dog looking at me. I swear for five minutes.

Rand Metcaffe 7:32

After they all stop. I said "Praise God, another miracle!" And then I took one step.

Rebecca Metcaffe 7:47

After they all stop, I said, "Praise God, I think I'm healed!" And then I took a step.

Rand Metcaffe 7:54

"Oh my god! What did y'all do to me? I can't even feel my hands. I can't walk. What the hell?"

Rebecca Metcaffe 8:12

I started yelling. "Oh no! Oh my God, what are you doing to me? I can't walk. Oh my God, I can't feel my legs. Oh, I can't feel my legs, I can't walk. I don't think I can talk now."

Rand Metcaffe 8:29

They didn't know what to do. And oh that was so much fun. I was getting bored and getting hungry for lunch. I yelled "Thank you God! I am healed!

Rebecca Metcaffe 8:46

They didn't know what to do, and oh, that was fun. I was getting bored and getting hungry for lunch. I yelled, "Thank you, God! I am healed!

Rand Metcaffe 8:58

And they they got in the van as fast as they could and drove away.

Rebecca Metcaffe 9:08

I thank them. They didn't know what to think. And they got back in the van and took off.

Terry Galloway 9:15

And drove like hell! When we would do this on stage, we had captioning. Yeah, people who know uh Rand or know anyone with CP, it's easier for them to understand, I think.

Kurt Wilkinson 9:27

But that was an absolutely wonderful story, Rand. Thank you so much. I think that is so hilarious. I'm not personally a very spiritual person myself. And when I was in college, I was in uh some uh secular groups such as Individuals For Free Thought. And we all in that group thought it was hilarious to mess with the like super preachers that would sometimes come to our campus and harass the students, and messing with them was a lot of fun, at least giving them some of their medicine. So I thought the story was hilarious.

Rand Metcaffe 10:08

I do like to mess with people.

Rebecca Metcaffe 10:13

I think that story also stemmed from being bullied at church as a child.

Rand Metcaffe 10:23

You want to hear about that? Well, um, ??? the kids the whole place and got bullied in Sunday school, my neighbor is a ??? Republican , but in Sunday school he usually teased me, mocked me.

Rebecca Metcaffe 10:46

And beat you, right?

Rand Metcaffe 10:48

Yeah, we got into fights. It would then continue week after week after week, and nobody would say any words about um bullying me. That the influential teacher is attending nothing was going on.

Terry Galloway 11:13

Wait, the adults, Rand I didn't get to that . So some they would pretend the teachers would pretend that nothing was going on when these kids in Sunday school were bullying.

Rand Metcaffe 11:22

Yeah. Because I think because they have powerful profession in the church.

Terry Galloway 11:35

Because those kids had what, uh powerful petitions,

Rebecca Metcaffe 11:39

parentship powerful.

Terry Galloway 11:40

Yeah, thank you.

Rand Metcaffe 11:48

Yeah they could do anything that they want to.

Terry Galloway 11:48

They, yeah,

Rand Metcaffe 11:49

But the idea is to get teased in church but everywhere else I was accepted by the m.

Rebecca Metcaffe 12:04

The irony was that he didn't get he was he got bullied in church, but never anywhere in the neighborhood.

Terry Galloway 12:11

Oh

Rand Metcaffe 12:11

 Yeah. I was one of the guys.

Terry Galloway 12:11

Terry Galloway 12:11

 

Rebecca Metcaffe 12:11

He was just one of the guys.

Terry Galloway 12:16

But Rand, that's why you're so skeptical, you know, about religion and so skeptical about that because you saw hypocrisy at work.

Rand Metcaffe 12:24

I did.

Terry Galloway 12:25

Yeah, yeah. I love that.

Rand Metcaffe 12:27

Yeah, you can do it too. I have a friend who is a massage therapist. And uh

Terry Galloway 12:38

Wait, he's a therapist?

Rebecca Metcaffe 12:40

He has a friend

Kurt Wilkinson 12:41

A massage therapist.

Rebecca Metcaffe 12:42

 with massage therapy

Rand Metcaffe 12:43

Oh I see. He has a client they were talking about, you know. Where are your friends? And he goes, I'm from Freeport. He's here. My sister, I had a girlfriend who grew up in Freeport with Rand Metcaffe and she said, Oh my god, I'm in, that class, that Sunday school class.

Terry Galloway 13:24

She was in that Sunday school class.

Rand Metcaffe 13:27

And she was traumatized by how I was being treated.

Terry Galloway 13:34

Wait, wait, wait. That person, the person that the massage therapist was working on was in Rand's Sunday school class? What was the last part?

Rand Metcaffe 13:42

People were the kids in class, but uh I wasn't being teased by her. She watched our bully.

Rebecca Metcaffe 13:54

So she was an onlooker. I mean, she didn't do anything to stop it, but she wasn't part of it.

Rand Metcaffe 14:01

Well, uh

Terry Galloway 14:02

trying to stop it.

Rebecca Metcaffe 14:03

She didn't she didn't try to

Terry Galloway 14:04

She didn't try to

Rebecca Metcaffe 14:05

just complicit , yeah,

Terry Galloway 14:06

right.

Rand Metcaffe 14:09

Well, she was afraid.

Terry Galloway 14:11

She was afraid.

Rand Metcaffe 14:13

Afraid. But I had no idea that my bully was affecting people in that way.

Terry Galloway 14:25

That your bullying was say that again after...

Rand Metcaffe 14:29

She was a bystander, but she was affected by the way I was bullied.

Rebecca Metcaffe 14:38

She was affected by

Terry Galloway 14:38

Yes, she was a bystander, but affected by the way you were bullied. Oh, I love that Rand.

Rand Metcaffe 14:43

I had no idea. I I thought it was a me against them. I had no idea there was a bystander being influenced by this.

Terry Galloway 15:01

So it was them against everybody else. And wait, is that right? That the body wait, how did you feel that Rand? Because this is a wonderful and complex thing about bullying.

Rand Metcaffe 15:11

Yeah.

Terry Galloway 15:12

I really love this. So, so um I want to make sure, and you guys have to forgive me because I'm deaf. And uh and Rand and I have a long history of trying to communicate despite the fact that I'm deaf. And he used to write down before Rebecca came into his life, he used to use his good hand to write in cursive all the questions and and responses to questions because I I could not, I'm I was too deaf, and I there was no way that I was going to be able to read his lips. You know, so so but we worked it out. It was a hard, crude kind of conversation. But Rand, I want you to repeat that last part.

Rand Metcaffe 15:48

But more than two. I used to get into fights.

Speaker 2 15:54

Get in to fights about it.

Rand Metcaffe 15:55

We can. I will I would fight them.

Terry Galloway 15:59

You would fight

Rebecca Metcaffe 16:00

with them back?

Rand Metcaffe 16:02

And then uh I would I would meet my parents to go to regard the church. And they would notice I would come every day of class. And I would tell them I fell.

Terry Galloway 16:24

So when your parents would see the arm bit, it wasn't fair.

Rand Metcaffe 16:27

  I wouldn't tell them.

Terry Galloway 16:29

You wouldn't tell them.

Rand Metcaffe 16:30

No.

Terry Galloway 16:30

You just told em you fell.

Rand Metcaffe 16:31

Yeah.

Rebecca Metcaffe 16:32

Yeah.

Rand Metcaffe 16:33

Every week. And I put him back

Rebecca Metcaffe 16:34

 But Rand...

Kurt Wilkinson 16:39

So you were so you were throwing hands, Rand. You were going up to your bullies and you were fighting them back.

Rebecca Metcaffe 16:45

Yeah.

Rand Metcaffe 16:45

Well, I came home, I think my mom could say no.

Kurt Wilkinson 16:53

Your mom would say no. It was against your parents' wishes, but you fought back.

Rand Metcaffe 16:58

I didn't want to tell my parents because um we were so religious. It was so important to

Terry Galloway 17:10

Because their religion was so important.

Rebecca Metcaffe 17:13

Because they were very religious,

Terry Galloway 17:15

They were very religious.

Rebecca Metcaffe 17:16

And...

Kurt Wilkinson 17:17

Yes, it wouldn't be very Christian.

Terry Galloway 17:20

Okay.

Rand Metcaffe 17:20

I really didn't want my mother to find out

Terry Galloway 17:27

That it was...

Rand Metcaffe 17:27

Well, I care about my mother.

Terry Galloway 17:30

You you loved your mom so much you didn't want her to find out that it was there at Sunday school. You were getting bullied. She was so, oh man, Rand. I don't mean that.

Kurt Wilkinson 17:41

Yeah, I I'm so sorry that you had to deal with all of that bullying as a kid. And sadly, I think that's quite a common experience for disabled people in Sunday schools. There is there is a kind of culture there where it's kind of expected that you will be healed by the religion, and if not, then there is something uh that to them seems wrong. Uh, I actually did a play as well uh called My Body Is Not a Prayer Request that uh was about a lot of commentary about uh the failure of especially American Christianity to be uh accessible and to treat people with disabilities well in their congregations.

Rand Metcaffe 18:26

Yeah,

Terry Galloway 18:27

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

John Beer 18:29

Interesting, yeah,

Rand Metcaffe 18:30

  Yeah.

Terry Galloway 18:30

Yeah, yeah. The whole healing trope is just it's everywhere.

Rand Metcaffe 18:34

 Yeah. They were taken back a little bit with Drive by Healing

Terry Galloway 18:34

Terry Galloway 18:34

You know,

Rebecca Metcaffe 18:42

that his manages Drive by Healing.

Kurt Wilkinson 18:47

Yeah, but well that's what they hope. You know, you gave them what they wish that they could do every day is just to point at someone and say, You're healed.

Rand Metcaffe 18:57

Very fun.

Terry Galloway 18:58

Yeah, but I like it, it fucks them over.

Kurt Wilkinson 19:02

Yeah, they never expect it to actually work.

Rand Metcaffe 19:04

 Yeah they probably fail all the time.

Terry Galloway 19:10

Yeah, but what I loved about it is that Rand took back the power.

John Beer 19:13

Yeah, that's....

Terry Galloway 19:13

He took back the power. And in such a funny, clever, wonderful way. He took back the power. Yeah.

John Beer 19:21

It's like you turned the tables on them and you started trolling them, you know?

Terry Galloway 19:26

Yeah.

John Beer 19:27

You got a way for the people than I do when I'm confronted by that.

Terry Galloway 19:32

Yeah, yeah.

John Beer 19:34

Rand, when you tell when you tell that story, how often do you get other people with disabilities saying this happened at some point this happened to me?

Rand Metcaffe 19:43

I know people come back to me and say it happened to me. I have maybe because it's very emotional that they don't want to um talk about.

Terry Galloway 20:02

They don't want to talk about it.

Rebecca Metcaffe 20:04

Maybe maybe people don't maybe people who are disabled don't see the story as funny necessarily.

Terry Galloway 20:11

Well, that's...

Rebecca Metcaffe 20:13

I mean we think it's hilarious and we use humor to to as healing.

Terry Galloway 20:19

Yeah.

Rand Metcaffe 20:19

I'm trying to.

Terry Galloway 20:21

But we have a lot of it, and and whatever the thing's about, and we have a lot of that. I've I've heard a lot of that in Actual Lives. We've heard a lot of that. Just a lot of it. Yeah, yeah. But that is one of my favorite stories. It's so horrible. It's so terrible.

Kurt Wilkinson 20:37

Yeah, it's it's both funny and terrible because I think people with disabilities, when they hear that story, they can have an empathetic response. And it can be like, oh, that stuff happens all the time. It's so funny. Or it could be like, hey, that kind of stuff happens to me, and I'm actually really annoyed about it. And it is discrimination.

Terry Galloway 20:59

  Yeah, yes, it is.

Kurt Wilkinson 20:59

And it's kind of the disabled person's choice, uh, whether to have it bounce off of you and you kind of see the humor in it and you think it's funny, or also kind of rightly so, you do see it as offensive and see it as something that people with disabilities shouldn't have to deal with day to day.

Rebecca Metcaffe 21:18

Wow.

Rand Metcaffe 21:19

Yeah.

Terry Galloway 21:19

Yeah.

John Beer 21:20

I think that's why it's important you're telling that story because you're building community among disabled people. Because you know, we we realize, oh, that doesn't just happen. I have a Rand too. You know, like drive by you like what about like that?

Rebecca Metcaffe 21:38

I heard myself telling that story to other people because it's it's just a it's a fun story, but it's also a good illustration of people's reactions to disabilities.

John Beer 21:48

Right.

Kurt Wilkinson 21:49

Yeah.

John Beer 21:50

And, and...

Kurt Wilkinson 21:50

Someone might have had a similar experience and thought that it was just for them.

Rand Metcaffe 21:54

Yeah.

John Beer 21:56

Yeah. The non-disabled people that hear your story. Do you think they're taking the point and learning something?

Rand Metcaffe 22:03

 Who knows?

John Beer 22:10

I mean, do you ever hear like a good thing?

Terry Galloway 22:12

 Fuck em if they can't take a joke!

Rebecca Metcaffe 22:19

And we try to we try to find it fun to make people feel uncomfortable.

Rand Metcaffe 22:23

 Yes!

Kurt Wilkinson 22:33

Awesome. Well, I think we've had a wonderful discussion based on this story. Rand, would you like to help us with uh your story, Body Amnesia?

Rand Metcaffe 22:47

Yeah.

Kurt Wilkinson 22:48

Wonderful.

Terry Galloway 22:49

Yes.

Rebecca Metcaffe 22:50

I just want to say one thing. I am not the wife.

Terry Galloway 22:54

Yeah.

Rebecca Metcaffe 22:55

Well, let me be clear. This is from a previous marriage.

Terry Galloway 22:59

Yeah.

Kurt Wilkinson 23:00

Gotcha.

Rand Metcaffe 23:00

 The opposite

Terry Galloway 23:02

Okay.

Kurt Wilkinson 23:03

Wife of the past becomes wife of the present.

Rand Metcaffe 23:11

If the body has a memory, mine has amnesia.

Terry Galloway 23:18

If the body has a memory, mine has amnesia.

Rand Metcaffe 23:24

My brain conveniently forgets what my body is doing.

Terry Galloway 23:31

My brain conveniently forgets what my body is doing.

Rand Metcaffe 23:36

My wife at the time look at, observed, and studied my body. I was a science project.

Terry Galloway 23:51

My wife at the time looked at, observed, and studied my body like I was a science project.

Rand Metcaffe 23:59

She asked me questions nobody dared ask.

Terry Galloway 24:06

She asked me questions nobody ever dared ask.

Rand Metcaffe 24:11

But then I had to think about my body in ways I never had before.

Terry Galloway 24:22

But then I had to think about my body in ways I never had before.

Rebecca Metcaffe 24:26

Rand, why is it harder for you to swallow food than it is to drink from a straw?

Rand Metcaffe 24:32

Hell I don't know.

Terry Galloway 24:34

Hell if I know.

Rand Metcaffe 24:36

Once I was eating popcorn in my usually gimpy guy way. Grab huge handfulls and stuffing them into my mouth getting more on me than in me.

Terry Galloway 24:59

Once I was eating popcorn in my usual gimpy guy way, grabbing huge handfuls of the stuff and stuffing it into my mouth. Getting more on me than in me.

Rebecca Metcaffe 25:11

Rand, have you ever thought about using your fingers like tweezers to pick up the popcorn and put in your mouth?

Rand Metcaffe 25:18

Wow. What a revelation.

Terry Galloway 25:22

Wow. What a revelation.

Rand Metcaffe 25:25

I tend to throw myself out to the world in full tilt.

Terry Galloway 25:34

I tend to throw myself out to the world's full tilt

Rebecca Metcaffe 25:39

Rand, have you ever thought about slowing down and keeping your heels on the ground?

Rand Metcaffe 25:44

No. I never thought about it. But I'm thinking about it now.

Terry Galloway 25:53

No, I never thought about it, but I'm thinking about it now.

Rand Metcaffe 25:58

Are these just habits? Is it laziness on my part? Is it a guy thing?

Terry Galloway 26:10

Are these just habits? Is it laziness on my part? Is it a guy thing?

Rebecca Metcaffe 26:17

Rand, maybe you're angry with your body.

Rand Metcaffe 26:25

Angry with this body? This body? This body that takes all my concentration just to speak. You can tell how well that's working out.

Terry Galloway 26:43

Angry with this body? This body? This body that takes all my concentration just to speak. You can tell how well that's working out.

Rand Metcaffe 26:56

This body? This body that could sabotage me at any moment if I relax and quit thinking about swallowing.

Terry Galloway 27:15

This body? This body that could sabotage me at any moment if I relax and quit thinking about swallowing.

Rand Metcaffe 27:26

This body that makes drool spout from my mouth. Always with such lousy timing always at the worst time. Like when I'm eating or having sex or talking before a live audience.

Terry Galloway 28:01

This body that makes drool sprout from my mouth and always with such lousy timing, like when I'm eating or having sex or talking before a live audience.

Rand Metcaffe 28:16

So for God's sake, don't make me laugh with a mouthful.

Terry Galloway 28:23

And for God's sakes, don't make me laugh with a mouthful.

Rand Metcaffe 28:34

Angry with this body that when I try to command my good hand as opposed to the evil one, to caress my lover's back struggles to convey my love and tenderness.

Terry Galloway 28:58

Angry with my body. This body that when I try to command my good hand as opposed to the evil one, to caress my lover's back struggles to convey my love and tenderness.

Rand Metcaffe 29:14

Angry with with this body? This body that had to have somebody wipe its ass until the age of seven.

Terry Galloway 29:34

Angry with with this body? This body that had to have somebody wipe its ass until the age of seven.

Rand Metcaffe 29:41

This body couldn't dress itself until the age of eight.

Terry Galloway 29:46

This body that couldn't dress itself until the age of eight.

Rand Metcaffe 29:53

This body that made me feel so alienated, desperate, and horny.

Terry Galloway 30:06

This body that made me feel so alienated, desperate, and horny.

Rand Metcaffe 30:14

Maybe I am angry with my body but it's calling me to wake from my amnesia.

Terry Galloway 30:27

Maybe I am angry with my body, but it's calling me to wake up from my amnesia.

Rebecca Metcaffe 30:39

Jesus Christ, that's powerful.

Terry Galloway 30:41

And Rand, that's that's why it needs to be told. That's why, darling.

Rebecca Metcaffe 30:47

You know, you have a gift for conveying your love and tenderness. You do.

Terry Galloway 30:54

And Rand...

Rebecca Metcaffe 30:56

I feel every moment.

Terry Galloway 30:57

And he did a great job of reading it.

Rebecca Metcaffe 30:59

Yes.

Terry Galloway 31:00

I I think he has performed this several times before. And he and every time it's new, but you can uh he because he's performed it, I think he was articulating it better. I I don't know whether that is so to you, but it was certainly so to us.

Kurt Wilkinson 31:21

I did. I heard that very clear. That was very powerful. Uh thank you very much, Rand.

Rand Metcaffe 31:28

I'm very surprised by my reaction.

Terry Galloway 31:33

You're surprised by your own reaction. It's really powerful.

Kurt Wilkinson 31:39

And thank you for telling your very personal story, even when it's still quite emotional for you. And it's okay to feel emotions. That's your own life, that's your lived experience.

Rand Metcaffe 31:50

But the sad story is right...

Terry Galloway 31:54

But Rand, it it is it, you know, that's what makes it so I want to say it's important. It's important in a really profound way, and that's what makes it so. Because it's just like when you it and in Macbeth, when you said that one line, and you said it with such effort and and vehemence and precision that it woke people up.

Rand Metcaffe 32:24

This is what Actual Lives is about.

Terry Galloway 32:28

It's what Actual Lives is about, waking people up, moving them, moving them, you know, moving them, yes, yeah.

Kurt Wilkinson 32:38

Yeah. I think by by telling your true self Rand, it allows others to see your true self and to see and to tell themselves, wow, uh, that person can do those things. I didn't think that they could. And I think it's wonderful that you've been able to act in Shakespeare and affect a lot of people in a lot of different ways.

Terry Galloway 33:03

Yeah. He would, do you know that story?

Kurt Wilkinson 33:07

No, I haven't heard of uh his Macbeth story.

Rand Metcaffe 33:10

Well, it's it's... intellectual.

Rebecca Metcaffe 33:16

Uh Rand had a particularly poignant line. Um, and it affected, I you could hear the audience just fall silent and hush.

Terry Galloway 33:27

Rand was in uh a production of of uh of a Mickee Faust production called A Movable, uh Murderous Movable Macbeth. And uh he and Rebecca were playing Familiars of the Witches, and then Rand was playing The Knight, and um and Rand had a particular line, and this came about because we were having just a workshop in Faust about how to showing people who've never done Shakespeare, how to say Shakespeare, and how it's uh it's conversational, it can be. And there's one line that's one of the most important lines in that play, which is "The Queen, my Lord, is dead." And Rand was given that line. And so when he came out, he had practiced and practiced this line. And he didn't even really want to do Shakespeare. He didn't really want to do the line, but we had this, we had everybody say the line in that workshop, and the one that stopped people in their tracks was Rand. Because he arti- did you want to try that line? Oh you do need a rest what I say.

Rand Metcaffe 34:36

  I need a rest.

Kurt Wilkinson 34:38

Yeah, you can't, you can't, you can't put him on the spot like that.

Terry Galloway 34:42

It was wonderful. And and in this case, the disability worked to enhance the art. Because that line has to stand out. "The Queen, my Lord, is dead."

Rebecca Metcaffe 34:59

Now you're getting emotional.

Terry Galloway 35:00

 Huh? Yes.

Rebecca Metcaffe 35:00

Rebecca Metcaffe 35:00

  He's getting emotional right now.

Terry Galloway 35:01

Yeah. Do you want to try it?

Rand Metcaffe 35:05

"The Queen, my Lord, is dead."

Terry Galloway 35:11

No, you did it better the first time.

Kurt Wilkinson 35:15

I did like I did like that though. It's like he's so shocked that he was grasping for air.

Rand Metcaffe 35:29

I've got that going

Terry Galloway 35:29

It was better onstage.

Kurt Wilkinson 35:29

Yeah, no, I can imagine it. I I I've got the pipes. I can imagine him projecting that very well. Big, big projective voice. I can imagine.

Rand Metcaffe 35:40

I can try one more time.

Kurt Wilkinson 35:44

It's all right. We don't need to put you on the spot.

Terry Galloway 35:46

Okay.

Rand Metcaffe 35:46

  Okay. Good.

Kurt Wilkinson 35:49

He's like, okay, good.

John Beer 35:52

You know why I like you Rand? You go in the same piece, you go from funny to frustrated to angry, and then you bring in some taboos that nobody else talks about. So it's just really gutsy writing. Thank you.

Terry Galloway 36:09

Everything he writes is like that, except the silly stuff.

Rand Metcaffe 36:14

 You can have fun. We can have a good time.

John Beer 36:19

But even that too, Rand. You've delivered this to big audiences, and there are people that you don't know who you're talking to, and you can't even see them, probably, because of the stage lights. So, uh, how do you, Rand, screw up the courage to tell such personal things to so many people? It's it's something I can learn from.

Rand Metcaffe 36:42

I don't be ???. And be courageous. I'm trying to be honest.

Terry Galloway 36:52

Wait,

Rand Metcaffe 36:53

I 'm trying to be honest.

Terry Galloway 36:55

You're trying to be honest, not courageous. Like honest.

Rand Metcaffe 37:00

Yeah.

Kurt Wilkinson 37:00

Well, I think he's both. Honest and courageous.

Terry Galloway 37:03

Yeah.

Kurt Wilkinson 37:04

And I think I love that about you.

Rebecca Metcaffe 37:06

You performed this for so many people. You went to DC and performed it.

Rand Metcaffe 37:10

Yeah.

Rebecca Metcaffe 37:10

You went national. And that's hard. That's hard to think about doing.

Kurt Wilkinson 37:14

I think there's a lot of different kinds of courage there. I don't think it's just the courage of going out and talking to people about your story, but I think it is that courage to have that dialogue with yourself in the way that theater as it was was formed in the beginning. Uh, there's a lot of people that struggle to even have that bit of self-introspection. And I think that's something that disability can help with, because it kind of forces you to really look at yourself, look at your body, look at your mind.

Rand Metcaffe 37:46

  It sure does.

Kurt Wilkinson 37:47

And the way that it affects you, uh, and how you can best help your body and mind go through the world.

John Beer 37:55

Mm-hmm.

Terry Galloway 37:56

Mm-hmm. But you can see that throughout Rand's life, though, too. You know, this same kind of thing makes him crawl up the steps at the Capitol. You know, then it's the same thing that got you arrested. How many damn times have you been arrested?

Rand Metcaffe 38:09

Nineteen

Terry Galloway 38:09

For civil disobedience. Because...

Kurt Wilkinson 38:13

So were you actually, were you a part of the Capitol Crawl back

Rand Metcaffe 38:16

Oh yes!

Kurt Wilkinson 38:17

at ADA? That's excellent.

Rand Metcaffe 38:22

Were you there too? Yeah.

John Beer 38:22

 So you've been...

Kurt Wilkinson 38:23

I wasn't there. I uh I wasn't quite born yet. I was born in '97. But I do... I wanna...

Rebecca Metcaffe 38:30

  You're a young spring chicken!

Rand Metcaffe 38:33

Those were the best days of my life.

Kurt Wilkinson 38:43

That's gotta be. That's gotta be some great memories. I do want to personally thank you, Rand, for being literally a part of the group that gave me the rights that I enjoy as a citizen of these United States in helping getting that ADA law passed uh about seven years before I was born.

Rand Metcaffe 39:07

Yes. Do you realize that 500 people with disabilities took over the rotun da and really got arrested?

Rebecca Metcaffe 39:24

500 people got arrested.

Rand Metcaffe 39:26

500.

Rebecca Metcaffe 39:27

Wow, 500.

Rand Metcaffe 39:28

500

Kurt Wilkinson 39:30

And I've heard that...

Rand Metcaffe 39:31

They didn't know what to do with that.

Terry Galloway 39:35

 They didn't know what to do!

Kurt Wilkinson 39:38

Yeah, well, it's it's crazy. You get enough disabled people around there and they'll just take over the place.

Rand Metcaffe 39:54

I was with ADAPT.

Terry Galloway 39:54

A DAPT, yeah.

Rand Metcaffe 39:55

But they were all over. We all had several disabilities. We would take over bathrooms, blocks, buses.

Terry Galloway 40:03

Buses.

Rebecca Metcaffe 40:14

For those people who aren't familiar with the story of the capital steps, can can you kind of tell people what happened?

Rand Metcaffe 40:20

Well, um, okay. Well we were there first to get the ADA passed. Um they were they were they were dragging their feet. So I got all the guys to be at the capitol during that day. We then decided to go up to the rotunda until we get a committment to everyone in the rotunda all that day and then they began to arrest us one by one.

Rebecca Metcaffe 41:17

But you have like blood on the...

Rand Metcaffe 41:22

People who were quiet hauling up the stairs, they jumped out of their wheelchairs and began to climb up the stairs, and there were blood everywhere.

Terry Galloway 41:39

Blood?

Rand Metcaffe 41:43

Crawling up.

Terry Galloway 41:44

Oh, they got crawling up the stairs...

Rand Metcaffe 41:47

Yeah.

Kurt Wilkinson 41:48

Scraping of the knees and stuff like that.

Rand Metcaffe 41:50

Yeah. But we all did that, and it was so moving.

Kurt Wilkinson 42:01

Yeah, it was a great sacrifice that you all did.

Rand Metcaffe 42:06

I won't forget that.

Terry Galloway 42:07

You know that PBS series that uh the PBS uh special they did about the ADA bill

Rebecca Metcaffe 42:12

"American Experience"

Terry Galloway 42:13

You catch a glimpse of Rand up there, you'll see him.

Kurt Wilkinson 42:15

Oh, that's excellent.

Terry Galloway 42:16

He said, remember the little girl who climbed up the steps, right? Well, she took all of his thunder.

Rand Metcaffe 42:21

 I don't care.

Kurt Wilkinson 42:24

You weren't you weren't quite small and cute enough, Rand. You had to work on your image. You have to be smiling for the cameras.

Rand Metcaffe 42:35

I was ???.

Kurt Wilkinson 42:39

Yeah, there uh I saw that Netflix documentary "Crip Camp," and there's that scene of the capitol crawl in there, and there's a little boy there.

Rand Metcaffe 42:47

 I know that movie, yeah.

Terry Galloway 42:51

"Crip Camp" is a wonderful. Oh that's a great, oh, that's a great one.

Rand Metcaffe 42:54

 ???... uniqueness of ADAPT.

Kurt Wilkinson 43:00

I've heard a lot of stories uh from people who have been arrested. It can be kind of weird because even if someone uh who's disabled, like I've never actually been arrested before, and when I think about it, I'm like, how would that happen?

John Beer 43:17

Well, I think Rebecca mentioned them from the email.

Rebecca Metcaffe 43:20

Right place at the right time.

John Beer 43:22

The big man will let you out of the out of the uh jail in Houston because it was not accessible.

Rand Metcaffe 43:29

Right, uh, yeah.

Rebecca Metcaffe 43:35

We particularly enjoy irony. That was the most ironic thing. I know and he was arrested um for disobed for absurd.

Rand Metcaffe 43:44

Civil disobedience.

Rebecca Metcaffe 43:44

For civil disobedience. And about making public buses accessible. And then they couldn't keep them. So they had to drop the charges, but they couldn't keep them because they weren't accessible.

Rand Metcaffe 44:01

The jail was inaccessibile.

Rebecca Metcaffe 44:04

Yeah.

Rand Metcaffe 44:05

The jail.

Terry Galloway 44:06

I think you guys should have started a gangs of New York. Everybody with a disability, we're gonna form a gang.

Kurt Wilkinson 44:20

I mean, you were, you were, you were who the police were chattering about on the radios in DC. I mean, that's gotta be some kind of clout right there. I was I was gonna say it's very important for us to make sure that the Capitol is accessible. It's very important for us to make sure that buses are accessible. Maybe not as important for the jails to be accep-, accessible. Maybe, maybe those can wait.

Rand Metcaffe 44:52

Yeah.

John Beer 44:53

Yeah, Rand, I wanted to tell you that my grandfather was in a wheelchair, used a wheelchair in the 1970s, and he could get basically nowhere in public. And I started using a wheelchair in the 90s, and I could go almost everywhere. There's a lot of work to do yet. But the difference between his life and my life is you. So we stand on your shoulders. So thank you for that. Thank you for your work.

Rand Metcaffe 45:25

Thank you.

John Beer 45:26

And nineteen arrests holy cow. I thought you looked familiar. I probably saw you on the on the wall of my post office or something.

Rebecca Metcaffe 45:39

America's most wanted.

John Beer 45:41

Wanted rabblerouser .

Kurt Wilkinson 45:43

Rand's got a famous mug.

Rand Metcaffe 45:45

  I do.

Kurt Wilkinson 45:50

How about next we hear uh our last story from Rand today? Although Rand has so many stories.

Rand Metcaffe 45:58

"You Can Call Me Al" That's pretty funny.

Kurt Wilkinson 46:01

Rand, we would love for you to read for us. "You Can Call Me Al".

Rand Metcaffe 46:06

In college, I was walking around campus. Every once in a while, people would wave to me. They called me Al.

Rebecca Metcaffe 46:23

In college, I was walking around campus. Every once in a while, a person would wave to me. They called me Al.

Rand Metcaffe 46:32

This would happen every day for about six weeks. I wonder who the hell is this Al? I'm serious. Everywhere I would go.

Rebecca Metcaffe 46:49

This would happen every day for about six weeks. I wonder who the hell is this Al? I'm serious. Everywhere I go.

Rand Metcaffe 46:59

One day I saw this guy walking toward me with a familiar CP shuffle way of walking.

Rebecca Metcaffe 47:18

One day I was I saw this guy walking towards me with a familiar CP shuffle way of walking.

Rand Metcaffe 47:26

He runs towards me. He throws his arms around me. We are two lost buds.

Rebecca Metcaffe 47:42

And he runs towards me. He throws his arms around me. We are two lost buds.

Rand Metcaffe 47:51

He goes, "Hey Rand!" I go "Hey Al!" But wait...

Rebecca Metcaffe 48:01

He goes, "Hey Rand!" I say "Hi, Al!"

Rand Metcaffe 48:07

You have to know the rest. I'm about six feet tall. He's about five eight. He weighs about two hundred pounds. And I was really skinny. And get this, Al was Hispanic and I am white.

Rebecca Metcaffe 48:43

But wait, you have to know the rest. I am about six feet tall. He's about five eight. He weighed 240 pounds and I was really skinny. And the best part, Al was Hispanic and I am white.

Rand Metcaffe 48:59

What do you really think about that experience now?

Rebecca Metcaffe 49:04

What do you think about that experience now?

Kurt Wilkinson 49:08

That is a story that I personally empathize with a lot. Uh, because I often, especially in college, uh, I would have these people wave to me, come up to me, like act like they're my best friend, and then they're like, "Yeah, you're that guy, right? I saw you like at a concert in Tennessee like five years ago or something". And I'm like, "I've never been to Tennessee in my life". Sometimes it's just figuring out, okay, this is the one other person in a wheelchair that this person has interacted with in their life.

Terry Galloway 49:47

 Exactly.

Rebecca Metcaffe 49:48

I witnessed it too. I witnessed people come to him and say, "Hey Wayne," and Rand says, politely, "I'm not, I'm not Wayne, I'm Rand". And I say, "No, you're not. You're Wayne!" And I and he said, "No, I'm I'm Rand." And I say, "No, I saw you, and you and you talked to me, and you are Wayne."

Kurt Wilkinson 50:13

You think that you know you? I know you, buddy, okay?

Rand Metcaffe 50:17

 Everywhere you go! Everywhere you go you hear about it that we all look alike.

John Beer 50:31

All the handicaps look alike.

Rand Metcaffe 50:35

But here's the kicker. I can be a Wayne. He's my doppelganger. My Wayne.

Rebecca Metcaffe 50:47

Um we we met Wayne actually actually at a pharmacy. We were he was staying in line, and we were walking down the aisle of the grocery store, and we saw him with a familiar CP shuffle, and I was like, hey, guys, Wayne. And we had never met him before.

Rand Metcaffe 51:05

But he looked like he could be my brother.

Rebecca Metcaffe 51:09

Yeah, they look a lot alike to be fair.

Terry Galloway 51:11

Except, wouldn't it have been funny if that actually wasn't Wayne? And if it's somebody named Alex and you're going, "No, you're not Alex, you're Wayne!"

Kurt Wilkinson 51:21

  Y'all end up confusing yourselves.

Terry Galloway 51:37

These are great stories, Rand. These are really thank you. And Rebecca, thank you. Because thank you for for uh talking through with Rand, you know, and and and uh and and and organizing this, you know, helping to organize it. Thank you, for that.

Rebecca Metcaffe 51:53

Welcome, welcome.

Terry Galloway 51:54

Yeah, that was great.

Terry Galloway 51:55

 

Kurt Wilkinson 51:56

Yeah, all three of you have been wonderful thus far. I'm so glad that we were able to work together uh to get this episode off the ground so that way we can make sure that as many people hear these stories from Rand as possible. Uh, because they really do, they stand the test of time, they're still relevant today, uh as they were many decades ago when these were first written and first performed.

Terry Galloway 52:25

They really are.

Kurt Wilkinson 52:25

Uh and I think,

Rand Metcaffe 52:26

Thank you so much.

Kurt Wilkinson 52:28

Yeah, you're very welcome, Rand. Uh I can st- uh when you were reading it, I could still feel the power that's in it, even decades later. Uh and I want to thank like all three of you for the work that you've done over the decades. Like, I'm sure for you it's just life, and you don't really imagine yourself doing anything else, but it's been really actually truly helpful to a lot of uh people in the disability disability community all across this country.

Terry Galloway 53:00

And I just want to say, um, like the last word of my my uh memoir is actually Rand. The, his name, Rand.

Rebecca Metcaffe 53:07

  I'm so touched by that.

Terry Galloway 53:08

Yeah, yeah. And so I just think maybe the last word in this podcast should also be Rand.

Kurt Wilkinson 53:15

Rand, what would you like to say to the people?

Rand Metcaffe 53:17

 Fuck em if they can't take a joke!

Terry Galloway 53:21

Before we go on stage with Faust, it's very important that we all say fuck em if they can't take a joke. Because...

Kurt Wilkinson 53:31

That's the last word from Rand. If you can't take a joke, fuck you! Thank you so much for joining us.

Terry Galloway 53:39

Goodbye.

Rebecca Metcaffe 53:40

Goodbye.

Rand Metcaffe 53:41

Bye!

Terry Galloway 53:41

Goodbye.

John Beer 53:42

Thank you all.

Kurt Wilkinson 53:43

Bye-bye! Thank you for listening to the third season of the True Tales by Disability Advocates Podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, oh please share it with your friends and talk about us on social media. If you'd like to let us know what you think of the podcast, consider leaving us a review on social media or on your favorite podcast platform. Don't forget to follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. Goodbye, everybody, and have a wonderful day.

Kamand Alaghehband 54:15

All episodes of the True Tales by Disability Advocates podcast are free on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and anywhere you get your podcasts.

John Beer 54:31

Funding for the True Tales podcast is supported by GTOPS, The City of Austin grants for technology opportunities, and by a generous grant from the FS Foundation. Lighting paths, firing ideas, sparking creations.

Kristen Gooch 54:44

To learn more about the speaking advocates program, sign up for our newsletter at artsparktx.org. That's A R T S P A R K T X dot O R G.