You’re invited...DECEMBER 6 @ 8PM, COURTHOUSE THEATRE, 101
King Street, ST. CATHARINES, ON
Original one-man show, Jesters Incognito, celebrates creativity and mental wellness.
Hamilton, ON - This July, HAW! productions premiered the original production of Jesters Incognito at the 11th annual Hamilton Fringe Festival, receiving rave reviews. Jesters Incognito
is an exciting one-man show about the making of the creator’s full-length young adult novel, combining comedy, music and cartooning for a dramatically hilarious recovery story that unlocks the author’s key to mental wellness. Jesters Incognito has remounted many times since, and is currently on unofficial tour to theatres and schools across Ontario.
For twenty years, Harrison fills sketchbooks to cope with his Bipolar. He writes the story of Vincent, a cabbie lost in a futuristic world where live entertainment is outlawed. Both Vincent and Harrison know there is a cure to society’s Doldrums: Break the law, perform offline, and become a jester. Jesters Incognito mirrors Harrison’s life, and life for Hamilton’s independent artists in today's media-conglomerated society. In Vincent’s technologically saturated world, one mega-corporation reigns supreme, and an underground group of artists and entertainers find innovative ways to express themselves against the law. This is the story of where creativity and mental health intersect, how one real-life jester rose above the noise and survived to tell his story.
HAW! is Harrison Wheeler, a cartoonist, author, comedian, musician, and educator living with Bipolar 1, Guillian Barre Syndrome, and over eight years of recovery from substance abuse. With Harrison’s his improv, novel, and innovative cartoons - Harrison is an advocate for mental wellness in the Hamilton community. Surprise yourself! Come see Jesters Incognito and celebrate mental health!
Awards:Best in Venue @ Hamilton Fringe 2014Critic’s Choice Award, View Magazine 2014Finalist People’s Choice Award in Montreal 1999 Fringe
JESTERS INCOGNITO
is more than a one-man show. It’s more than whimsical comedy,
music, and cartoons. This performance is
more than championing Bipolar, or cheating death, or writing a
novel. Jesters Incognito is even more than an
exploding flapwagon! And we all know
PRESSFull article interview. Winter 2014. Niagara AP Press.http://www.niagarafallsreview.ca/2014/12/03/harrison-
wheeler--jester-in-the-courthouse
Complete Fringe Reviews. Summer 2014. View Magazine.http://www.viewmag.com/42847-
Hamilton+Fringe+Festival+2014+Reviews.htm
The Fringe is Coming. Summer 2014. Raise the Hammer.http://raisethehammer.org/article/2242/the_fringe_is_coming
Fringe Review. Summer 2014. Not My Typewriter.http://www.notmytypewriter.com/2014/07/hamilton-fringe-
festival-2014-jesters.html?m=1
Truly. Madly. Deeply. Hamilton Art Show on Mental Health. Spring 2014. Hamilton Spectator.
http://www.thespec.com/whatson-story/4509669-art-and-mental-health-truly-madly-deeply-/
Harrison Wheeler905 630 4189
www.harrisonwheeler.ca
WHO IS HAW?Harrison A. Wheeler (HAW!) is a cartoonist,
author, comedian, musician, public speaker, and
educator with Bipolar I and over 8 years of
recovery from substance abuse. He grew up in St.
Catharines, Ontario before leaving home to study
music at McGill University. From age 19,
Harrison’s creative career hiccupped as he lost the
ability to play his primary instrument, the trumpet,
and he found himself lost at university without direction. “I chose education,” laughed
Harrison. “I’m a performer at heart and love kid’s imaginations, so it seemed like a
simple life fix. To be honest though, teaching never spoke to me the same way the
creative arts do.”
Still, Harrison’s passion for art gained great momentum and
continued successfully in the realms of comedy, music, writing, and cartooning as he
excelled in his studies. By 24 however, at the cusp of graduating university, Harrison
experienced a severe manic break from reality. Even though his creativity
peaked, he became increasingly depressed and eventually turned to drugs to help elevate
his mood. That first episode derailed Harrison’s life and sent him spiraling into suicidal
depressions, manic phases, and terrible suffering. For the next decade he spent long
stretches of time in mental hospitals and treatment centers as his mental state and
addictions worsened. He continued to draw and write when he could ~ his sketchbooks
became void, painful repositories of colour or hope. “I never admitted I was mentally ill
or an addict for the longest time. I thought I was a loser. I had lost total self-confidence
and believed that I had failed. It’s so destructive to think like that, but I didn’t have the
mental wellness to see life any other way.”
Fortunately, Harrison’s family was a strong advocate and uncovered alternative
treatments to compliment the care he received in hospital and successfully rehabilitate
him. After stumbling toward recovery through Ottawa, Nunavut, Niagara, Vancouver,
and even Japan, by age 35 Harrison finally achieved a balance that allowed him to
become a contributing member of the community. He returned to education as a stable
career and began a Master’s Degree and a secure position as Vice Principal. “I always
knew there was another piece to the puzzle missing,” Harrison recalls. “Despite my
career wins, I was still sad. Why was that? I knew I was an addict and that empowered
me. I understood my mental illness too. Yet I felt a persistent nagging to open up my
sketchbooks and gather my ideas, however broken and meaningless. I knew I had a ton of
stories in there, good ones, and that if I ignored my lust for creativity I would never be
happy. I didn’t want to die without something tangible written down, I wasn’t content
pretending to be an educator.”
In 2010 Harrison began to write. He wrote straight for three years, pulling all nighters
and locking himself up on weekends, telling no one of his book project. He finished the
first draft of his novel just as a terrible flu took over his body. Unbelievably, a week later
he was put in an induced coma at St. Joe’s Hospital, diagnosed with an autoimmune
disease called Guillian-Barre Syndrome. “I woke up paralyzed from the neck down. I was
shocked, but I wasn’t scared. I spent 6 months learning
to walk again, and in that time I reflected on my life
and figured out who I was. I have Bipolar. I have an
addictive personality. I have an autoimmune disease,
too. But I AM an artist. That was the final piece. And I
guarantee that if I deny my creative self its need to
create, I’ll never survive.”
Harrison’s novel, Jesters Incognito, defends his belief
that every person on Earth has a creative spark that can
empower fulfillment, confidence, and connective
spontaneity, together. He aims to develop his artistic
goals full time while serving as a vibrant, optimistic voice for mental wellness.
CREATIVITY CAN SAVE YOUR LIFE
JESTER’S INCOGNITO: Critic’s Choice Review
“One–man show. Two marvelous stories. ... Jesters Incognito is a mash–up of comedy, music and cartooning, a dramatically hilarious recovery story that unlocks the author’s key to mental wellness.” – Hamilton Fringe “Two marvelous stories”? You bet! “[A] mash–up of comedy, music and cartooning” ? And it works! “A dramatically hilarious
recovery story... ”? Definitely! Harrison Wheeler’s creation, Jesters Incognito, is both the story of Wheeler’s struggle to learn how to survive and how to live with mental illness, and the story of a team of jesters he created to help him with this struggle — jesters he becomes in this hilarious, energizing, and thought–provoking one–man show. I was very impressed by the ways in which Wheeler weaves the two stories together. His weaving involves a near–perfect combination of just–right music, mesmerizing images, a slideshow of his brilliant sketches and key details of his personal narrative, and unforgettable characters — all members of Jesters Incognito, a secret society of rebel artists and entertainers. Over the course of sixty minutes, Wheeler skillfully brings to life four super funny jesters: Mr. Meister, a cabbie and the leader of Jesters Incognito, who dispenses such sound advice as “life is a game; celebrate the madness or die”; Hum Dinger, an ESL teacher by day and wacky entertainer by night; Dingleberry, a German hipster and “angry pacifist”; and Letitia Turnstyle, a soulful cross–dressing rapper with one heck of an afro. Wheeler’s imaginative approach to addressing something as personal and painful as mental illness makes for both an accessible and a powerful theatre experience — an experience that leaves audiences feeling happy and thinking about human resilience and the power of art. Jesters Incognito is an inspiring feast for our senses, funny bones, and souls. You don’t want to
miss this show. (RC)
JESTER IN THE COURTHOUSE Full Article in the St. Catharines
During his breakdown, Harrison Wheeler wasn’t thinking about a possible theatre show. He was clinging to reality.
After years of ominous signs, the St. Catharines-born writer and teacher suffered a complete psychotic “break from reality” in 1999. Diagnosed with Bipolar I, he spent the next few months trying to differentiate what was real and what wasn’t.And somehow, he kept notes. And kept writing as he battled for control over the next decade.“I think I’ve had about six or seven hospital admissions for long periods of time,” he says from his home in Hamilton. “I managed to have good chunks of healthy years, but the combination of going off my medications or not being compliant with doctor’s orders sent me back.”The illness led to addictions, which led to depression. And it was all captured in his sketchbooks, which eventually became his self-published novel, Jesters Incognito.Somehow, it was a comedy. And somehow, Wheeler has turned it into a one-man stage show coming to St. Catharines Saturday.“I’m just born this way, I look at life through humorous eyes,” he says. “I think pretty much everything is funny, and that’s something that really helped me through this whole process.“If I wasn’t built with this life lens, then I’d be in a much different spot right now. But my imagination has always been on the brighter, more optimistic, funnier side of things.”Premiering over the summer, Jesters Incognito is a tribute to the creative spirit. It follows a cabbie adrift in an alternate universe where live entertainment is outlawed. To bring some joy back to the world, he decides to become an outlaw jester, performing underground for the masses.
“Before I was even sick, there was a story in my head forming about jesters in an otherworldly setting,” he says. “That idea just kept popping up in my sketchbook over years and years. Slowly I was able to form a tangible plot from it.”The show earned critical praise over the summer, and more importantly for Wheeler, inspired others suffering from mental illness.“That’s been far beyond what I had expected would happen,” he says.But don’t expect a preachy show, he adds. Mental illness may have inspired the show, but it’s not the driving force behind it.“At no point in the show does anyone feel like they’re being educated or schooled,” he says. “People who like straight-up comedy would get a lot out of it.”
PERFORMANCES TO DATE:Hamilton Fringe, Hamilton, Summer 2014
Staircase Theatre, Hamilton, October 2014
Sullivan Mahoney Courthouse Theatre, St. Catharines, Dec. 2014
Pearl Company Theatre, Hamilton, Jan. 2015
UPCOMING PERFORMANCES:SpringWorks Theatre Festival, Stratford ON, May 2015
http://www.springworksfestival.ca
Hamilton Fringe Festival, Hamilton ON, July 2015
http://hamiltonfringe.ca
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