Comic with Asperger delivers quick wit, awkward jokes and a lesson

Before he takes the stage, Michael McCreary gets the jitters.

And boy, is that an understatement.

He holds his knuckles to his ears. He shakes his leg as he lopes and paces around the dressing room. So prevalentare his tics, that you can't help but think that there's something more than pre-performance anxietygoing on here.

And, indeed, there is.

McCreary, a 20-year-old stand-up comic fromOrangeville, Ont., hasAsperger'ssyndrome, a condition that falls along the autism spectrum.

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Along with a tendency to display repetitive movements, the condition is marked by difficultiesmaking eye contact and communicating with others. At first blush, that makes comedy an unusual choice for McCrearya profession in which performers mustmake aquick and strong connection with a crowd.

It's less like a comedy show and morelike group therapywhere everyone else is too polite to tell me to shut up.- Michael McCreary, comic

But McCreary, who first took to the stage at theage of14and now performs under the name AspieComic, isn't fazed.He considers his condition the fuel that propels his routine.

"Comedy is one of the only mediums that turns failureinto a strength turns it into a weapon that you can use toentertain people."

"When I go out there on stage," he says, "it's less like a comedy show and morelike group therapywhere everyone else is too polite to tell me to shut up."

You can watch IoannaRoumeliotis'full story in the coming days onThe National oronline right now.