Audio Story Seven

http://www.radiodiaries.org/josh-in-new-york-city-growing-up-with-tourettes/

         

          This radio diary follows Josh, a sixteen-year-old in Manhattan, who happens to have Tourette’s. He looks normal –in fact, he seems fairly confident, describing himself as smart and attractive, with a good body – but feels different. He says that, even on the streets of New York, he’d seem pretty weird. He describes his ticks as if they were balloon inside of him – they keep inflating, and getting bigger, until they finally explode and get released. He has many various ticks, including just screaming and cursing, and repeating sounds of phrases he hears. Sometimes, he will just go up and grab and shake people – thankfully, however, this tends to be limited to his parents. Josh relays the experience of recently seeing an episode of Maury dealing with Tourette’s, and how talk show hosts always tell people how beautiful they are, especially when they’re ‘so horrendously ugly’. He doesn’t want sympathy from others. He doesn’t want people thinking, ‘Poor Josh’. He was to teach himself not to care what others think of him, because, most of the time, he just can’t control what comes out of his mouth. Josh interviews others, and is told that his Tourrette’s can be funny, but it can also be a pain in the ass. The recording ends with his mother’s piano playing, after Josh venting that his syndrome makes him mad, and that he doesn’t deserve it.

          I thought that this story had a very natural feel to it. It didn’t really feel professionally recorded or edited – it seems like Josh pretty much did it himself. Many of the cuts aren’t smooth, and change from scene to scene without a transition. I also liked that it included some sounds that may have normally been left out. For example, Josh’s friends hamming it up in front of the recorder, or his bickering with his mom. These sounds give the story a realistic feel to it, and doesn’t seem orchestrated. Ambient and background noises make the story really good as well, such as the sounds of Josh’s various ticks, or his multiple prank phone calls. Ultimately, though, the story is polished enough that the meaning and message is able to shine, while still raw enough to feel like a natural story told by a sixteen-year-old.