Submitted photo Ethan Crough stands on the stage at the Exhibit Columbus installation “A Carousel For Columbus.”
Columbus resident Ethan Crough has loved being onstage since childhood. He’s even relished situations when scenes go wrong because that’s when his creativity and improvisation sparks that has tickled audiences.
“I realize that would be mortifying for some,” he said.
The local teacher has two free scheduled performances left of his long-hoped-for one-man, monologue-style show “What Now, Ethan Crough?” at 5:30 p.m. Thursday and at 5 p.m. Nov. 22 at the Exhibit Columbus installation “A Carousel for Columbus” on Fourth Street downtown. He has done several shows in the past few weeks for a handful of audience members, and is hoping for more.
In his roughly 30 to 40-minute ever-evolving presentation, the former regional TEDx Talk regional speaker tells of his childhood with a form of dwarfism and more. Those who know him realize that he has a quick, dry wit that helps put listeners at ease. But he said strangers apparently have to adjust.
They don’t seem to know if they can comfortably laugh at dwarfism jokes,” Crough said.
He wants to be able to do so.
Yet, he declines to take his humor to the level of nationally touring comic Brad Williams, whose online video-clip humor linked to dwarfism and more Crough sees as “ridiculously bad.”
He eventually would like to work toward a 75-minute show that he labels “a journey with a beginning, middle and end” that he would present sometime in the future at places such as Fringe Festivals and the like.
Crough has long used his physical situation to educate people via media interviews and more.
