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You're listening to Comedy Central. Please

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welcome Ryan O'Connell, welcome.

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Hi, are you all right? I'm

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good. Thank you for having welcome to the show, and

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uh, congratulations on your show. First

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and foremost, thank you. Thank you. Yeah, it's it's

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a it's a journey that you have been on that

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I don't think anyone would have predicted, including yourself, because

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you first wrote about your life, um,

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and it was meant to just be you know, a paperback

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and you're gonna get the story out there, and all of a sudden

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it blows up and Jim Parson's sees

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the story and he goes, I love this. We should make it into

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a TV show. And that's what you've done. You've written

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a story about your life and you've based it on a true

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story, your life as a disabled person who

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is also gay. And it's one of the funniest premises

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ever because you come out as

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gay, but then you're afraid to come out to your friends

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as disabled. Rush pretty wild.

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I know, usually it's flipped the other way,

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right, Yeah, but I come from a very gay

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family, so being gay was like m b D for

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me. Like I just also like what closet

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is this bit you're gonna hide in. So

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to me, I grew up with a mild case of crup

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of policy, and like no one understood what scrup of

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policy was like because

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you know, it looks different everybody. You can dress it out and you can dress

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it down. So I never really related

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to it. And so when I got hit

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by a car when I was twenty years old, I moved to

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New York to go to school, and everyone has seen my limps from

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a car accident, and I thought like, oh, genius,

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like life hack, I can just be an accid MCTIM now,

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because because anyone can get in by a car,

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I mean I hope, I hope we don't get

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hit by a car like anyone could. So

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everyone's like, oh my god, that's so sad.

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And then with CP they're just like confusing, you

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know what I mean? So I thought I did a life

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hack, but it actually kind of ended up like hacking my life, do

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you know what I mean? Right? But you know what, I what I really loved

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about the story, and it is a true story, but what I

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what I really like is that it's like you heck into

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the human condition. We are

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more like we're more apt, and we're

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more apt to dealing with things that we understand.

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So you go, you go, oh, you got hit by a car, that's why

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you have Everyone's like, we'll treat your normal Ryan. And

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then if you go like, oh, no, I have cerebl posy, and people

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like, oh shame, Oh we can't treat your normally.

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But but in the story, you show how you live in this world

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where the truth comes out and then you really

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start being yourself. Yeah, I was Poy in

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the bubble and then the bubble pops. Um.

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Yeah. No, it's it's a journey though. I mean this

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character struggles with you know, internalized

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able is um and you know, when you're growing

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up and enable a society like you're

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basically taught to hate who you are if you're

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disabled, and you know, the journey

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to self love is really long, like maybe four

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seasons were

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I don't know much growing to do

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so much, growing so much, growing so

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much, you know, so much

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growing too. You

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know what I love about you is uh. I

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remember watching the show and I was like, you have

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such a sneaky way about you because you're so self

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aware and you're also aware of the world and how we

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perceive you as a person. You're almost like an emotional

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kaiser associe. That's what you are, genuinely,

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because you use it against people, and you do that in the show

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as well. Was that difficult making jokes

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where people start out being uncomfortable and then realizing

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that, no, these jokes aren't about you or

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the disability, but rather about how the world struggles

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to figure it out with the disability.

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Yeah, I mean, I think when you make jokes that should never be on the

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powerless, that it should always be a powerful um.

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So it was really important to me that my disability

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never be the punchline. But I think that

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when you give a disabled person the

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agency and license to tell their own story, the creator,

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writer and starr, I think you're gonna get the best story possible,

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Like duh, you know, because

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I lived it. So it was

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really really important to me that I create

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like an accurate representation of being disabled.

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Was that was that strange for you though? When when you

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had to audition to play yourself? Yeah?

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I didn't love that because

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because because you you didn't even plan

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to start in anything. I mean, you you you've been a writer

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for a long time and you were doing really well and then you

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had the show, but you didn't plan to start

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and it's yeah, no, I'm not a

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wh actor. I mean I I'm a writer, you

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know what I mean? So, like it was never my

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journey to act, but then I am.

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When we sold the show, they just kind of assumed

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that I was going to play it, and I think they assumed I was

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an actor, which law, I'm not. So half

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halfway through they were like, we we

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should like have him screen tests to play him.

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And then so I did that and I think that they

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were really scared. But well

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I got it, like val Like

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I got it. How do you how do you audition to

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be? Like? How does someone even give you notes on yourself?

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You know what? I like that? Right? But you know what, I think it would

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be more you? Is you? How

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do you think you would act in this moment? Is

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that strange for you? Being in a show about your life

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playing a version of yourself? Do you like?

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Where where's reality? And where's the joke? How

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do you? How do you work with that? Yeah, it's a little twisted,

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sister, I mean because I'm not an actor, Like I'm

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not like I'm not able to detach it's not

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like you know what I mean. Like, I feel like every time would do a scene,

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you do this emotional scene, and if you're like a trained actor, you can

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go out of the moment like anyways, here's like this funny

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meme of the cat wearing a hat and like, and

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then you go back into the moment and focused. I

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was still like slimed. I was like hanging over

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here with residue all over me, like I was still very

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much in the moment, and I couldn't I couldn't

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separate. So I don't know, I mean, it's just a weird emotional

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month of filming. I will say some of the

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moments are brought to life because

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you don't seem to separate. It doesn't seem

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like you you detach at any point. One

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of the moments that really sticks with everyone

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is, for instance, there was a gay sex

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scene in the show, and it is a gay

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sex scene that many people have never seen before

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on TV. And I like that you chose to

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do that very specifically. Why Yeah,

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no one seen it, but many people have lived it.

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So I'm just when that happens, I'm just confused.

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I'm like, I know plenty of people who have been having anti

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sex for a long time, and why has it not been,

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like been shown in an accurate way.

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And I really got my goat when I saw Call Me by Your Name,

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which I really love, But when they panned away

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to the moon, I was very unst right

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in the middle of it's like the six scenes about a

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stop and then all of a sudden, the camera just goes like you

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you know what happens. We see him

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having sex with a peach, yes, a

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girl, but no actual gay

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sex like Ronney, Like I don't understand,

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like one of these things is not like the other, like

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one who like. Um, so it was really

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important to me that we really show gay

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sex in its total honesty, which

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you know is like it can be awkward, it can be sexy,

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it can be weird. It's like it's all the things,

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and um, it was really I was like the bodyguard

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of the sex scene, like I didn't want anyone to touch it, like right,

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I just really it was important for me that we did it right.

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And um, that scene was not fun to

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shoot. I mean it

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was really really difficult to just be on my

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back for eight hours. Um,

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but I think we did it. You did it

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you did it. I think you've made a show that has a lot

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of hots. It's really funny, it's uncomfortable

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at moments in the right way. Um, and

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most importantly, it's a show that I think could

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easily stick with people for full five,

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maybe even six seasons. Oh six, now

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now that flicks hello are

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their ears ringing? Oh man? Thank you so much

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for being on the show. I really appreciate. Super funny show

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especial. It's currently streaming on Netflix,

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