SLES participants staged their own version of The Assembly documentary in Mittagong with comedian Anthony Ackroyd joking around and also getting serious in response to their questions.
Members of The Disability Trust’s School Leaver Employment Supports program in the Southern Highlands spent several weeks preparing to interview Anthony after their coordinator Mandy was inspired by the ABC documentary which aired earlier this year.
In the six-part series, a group of people with autism received journalism traineeships (including The Disability Trust’s newest Board Member Andrew Radford) and they interviewed famous Australians, including Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, singer Delta Goodrem and AFL legend Adam Goodes.
The Disability Trust’s Communications Coach for the Mittagong SLES Group, Mandy Bransgrove, came up with the idea of staging a Southern Highlands version of the documentary while watching TV one night.
“One fateful evening, my husband and I were looking for something to watch, and we came across The Assembly and we just binge-watched it,” she explained.
“We were just so taken with the whole concept, the idea, the fact that it was adults living with autism, the whole journalism thing. It just completely took me to another place.
“I said I think I’m going to show the guys at SLES, they’re going to love it. They were absolutely captivated by the whole idea, it was so incredibly relatable to them.
“So I said to them would you like to give it a go to become journalists?”
The SLES participants jumped at the chance and spent several weeks learning the ins and outs of researching interview questions.
Mandy said they wanted to find “someone famous” to interview for their own version of The Assembly and she immediately thought of Anthony, who lives in the local area.
The veteran comedian turned up to be grilled by the budding journalists and despite not knowing what to expect, he said he was thrilled to have been part of the experience.
Each participant asked him a range of questions about his career, why he moved from Sydney to the Southern Highlands, how to deal with nerves on stage and many other topics, both serious and light-hearted.
“It was a really beautiful experience,” he said.
“The questions were really perceptive and interesting and funny. I thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience. It was fantastic to be able to answer their questions and share some of my experiences.
“They were very interesting questions such as did my children ever take me seriously when I was disciplining them. And I had to say not really. It’s wonderful to be asked questions by people who maybe think slightly differently but uniquely, it was really nice.
“I felt really listened to and that they were taking that on board. That worked really well.”
Anthony spoke with the participants about his own experiences of being bullied as a kid who was “a bit different”.
“Difference can cause some people, because of their own basic ignorance, to make assumptions about other people and to make themselves feel better by bullying. That experience is pretty common and it’s really not about you being bullied, it’s about the problems of the other person.”
Jayden, who was one of the SLES participants who quizzed Anthony, said it was a fun experience to come up with a list of topics and then whittle it down to a few key questions.
“I enjoyed listening to Anthony, he’s a very charming man,” he said.
“We did extensive research from multiple sources and sorted through what to ask.
“I’ve learned that comedy is a very extensive process despite how it might seem on the surface.”
Mandy said she was proud of the way the SLES participants stepped out of their comfort zone for this exercise.
“People with autism, they do think differently,” Mandy added.
“And it’s a wonderful way of thinking. They often mention that as their superpower and I think this experience is going to stay with them for a long time.
