What if someone walked into surgery and awoke quadriplegic never having been warned of this risk? What if they not only survived but also endured the horrors of this disability with hope and humor? What if they returned to school, earned a masters degree in theater and then a law degree and got married? And then had a son and became widowed. What if they wrote a funny and tearful book about it? What if they wrote a play, too.

Someone did. That someone is Brian Shaughnessy. Not only is Brian an individual with a disability – quadriplegia – he is also an attorney, actor, director, writer, husband, father, entrepreneur and quite possibly the funniest man on four wheels. The Squeaky  Wheel SQUEAKS!, is his brutally honest story of living life from an electric wheelchair. The story focuses on his challenges and accomplishments without sentimental back-patting. The audience will be laughing through the tears.

Brian’s friend, collaborator and former teacher Mark Medoff, Oscar nominee and Tony award winning author of Children of a Lesser God, had this to say about the book from which the play is taken.

“Brian Shaughnessy tells his story of suffering and survival with extraordinary humor and compassion. Fate dealt him what might seem an impossible life. His journey is harrowing, horrifying, and finally inspirational. His dignity, his humor, his life have informed my own. I am indebted to him for all he is. ”

Brian awoke from surgery at the age of 24 paralyzed from the neck down. He was not told of this possible outcome and got a wheelchair. Nonetheless he returned to school, earned a BA in Theater and English, then a Master’s degree in Theater in Hawaii and went into law school (where those acting classes paid off!). Brian is now a practicing attorney in Honolulu. The book tells this story of love, guts and humor.

Brian earned the title of, “Second Funniest Person in the Twin Cities” at Acme Comedy Company in Minneapolis and performs his one-person show, “The Squeaky Wheel SQUEAKS!, around the US at various Fringe Theater Festivals where he will offer his book and other cool “Squeaky” products.

The Squeaky Wheel SQUEAKS!, goes on the road this summer. Catch him at the following Fringe Festivals:

• July 8-25: Capital Fringe Festival (Washington, DC.)
• July 25-Aug. 1: Kansas City (Missouri Fringe Festival)
• Aug. 5-15: Minnesota Fringe Festival (Minneapolis-St. Paul)

The Squeaky Wheel Squeaks!
Review by David J. Hoffman, July 11, 2010
Published at dctheaterscene.com

Which would YOU choose? A lifelong ride in an electric wheelchair, paralyzed from the neck down? Or a one-way ticket to oblivion, – call that, to round off the metaphor, a seat in the electric chair where YOU can pull the switch?

The Squeaky Wheel Squeaks! is a solo performance about one man’s real-life answer to this haunting and existential question, Prince Hamlet’s same agonizing choice of “to be or not to be, that is the question.”

Brian Shaugnessy is a Hawaii-based author and playwright and boy does his squeaky wheelchair squeak and also spark – striking a thousand points of hopeful light both on stage, from the printed page, and in person afterwards over an impromptu late lunch as well.

Minnesota-born and 52 years old this year, he is also an actor and director, attorney and entrepreneur, widower and father, and quite possibly the funniest man on wheels.

His one-man show begins in stark light on the Goethe Institute Main Stage as he wheels on stage, turns and faces the audience and begins quietly: “”I am Brian Shaughnessy and I am the Squeaky Wheel.”

He pauses, for full dramatic effect, and then states plainly: “I am so blessed I should be twins. I can’t believe I’m saying this myself, but there it is!” Later, he adds, “if you want a happy ending, leave now.”

He calls his tale – of how he awoke in sheer terror from spinal surgery in 1983, suddenly without any warning beforehand a permanent quadriplegic – one of “cynical hope” and “reluctant optimism.” Purely judged as a theatrical performance, Brian’s song to us is indeed one of hope although it is optimism darkened with many days of despair followed by salvation from his death-seeking brought about by a triumph of will and grace and then lifted high on the wings of love with his marriage to Amy and their adoption of now 8-year-old Amadeus and finally caught again in a downdraft of depression when Amy’s death from cancer came in 2007.

His book, upon which the play is based, was written in a sunnier time, in 2005. Brian tells his story still with self-deprecating humor, now updated to the present, including a brief appearance by his adopted son – bright-eyed half Samoan-native Hawaiian Amadeus Yun Chi Shaugnessy – who suddenly bounds on stage, with “Squeaky Wheel” pencils for sale (another sly, self-deprecating touch) to proclaim with a hug “I love you, Papa.” The boy’s mom, a Hong-Kong-born Chinese oncology nurse who married Brian in Hawaii in 1999, taught him to use the British-styled “papa” in stead of “daddy.”

After her death three years ago, Brian confesses “Amadeus and I have been crawling out of that hole ever since” affirming that “I’m made of stuff that kryptonite can’t touch” and “there’s a yin to that yang where you might rock but I roll.”

His friend Mark Medoff, Oscar nominee and Tony award winning-author of the play Children of a Lesser God puts it this way: “Fate has dealt (Brian) what might seem like an impossible life. His journey is harrowing, horrifying, and finally inspirational.”

By all means, see this show for its simple and un adorned first-person story-telling, a soliloquy from the soul. It is tearful and funny, minus any sentimental back-patting. I consider it a “must see”.

It continues at the Goethe Institute 6 PM Thursday July 15 and 5 PM Saturday July 17. Then he takes the show, with Amadeus and his traveling aide Sean – native Hawaiian chief cook (literally) and bottle-washer also, plus second-banana Marty, from Los Angeles – on the road to Fringe festivals in late July and August in Kansas City MO, his hometown of Minneapolis, and Boulder CO. Copies of his book are also available for $18.88 online.

By Laura & Mike Clark · Jul 13, 2010
ShowBizRadio.com

Brian Shaughnessy tells his story in frank language, with a fine command of the stage. After a few minutes you forget he is speaking from a wheelchair, except when he uses it to emphasize a point. Anyone who has dealt with a life-changing medical event will recognize their story in Brian’s story. He calls his story one of “cynical hope.” We’ve come a long way since his medical mutilation in the early 1980s, yet this is a story that still must be told.

Occasionally Shaughnessy’s acerbic speaking style will make you uncomfortable. And if you stay past the first conclusion, you may not like the final conclusion.

Another excellent one man show that is not the usual type of show people think of at a Fringe Festival.

Hip Shot: ‘The Squeaky Wheel SQUEAKS!’
Review by Sophia Bushong · July 17, 2010
Fringe & Purge, Washingtoncitypaper.com

They say: “What if someone walked into surgery and awoke paralyzed-never having been warned of this risk? What if someone not only survived but also endured the horrors of disability with hope and humor? What if that someone traveled, worked, entertained, returned to school, earned a masters degree, a law degree and got married? What if someone wrote a funny and revealing book about it? Someone did.”

Sophia’s take: If I’d known then what I know now… So goes the old saying, and maybe it’s overused. Yet the idea is one worth bearing in mind when structuring any type of narrative, no matter how humorous and admirable the story may be. The life story of Brian Shaughnessy (actor, writer, attorney, quadriplegic), as he tells it, is full of humor and faith, in spite of the fact that the fates have dealt him a marathon test of physical and emotional endurance. After becoming paralyzed at age 24 during a surgery gone wrong and losing his fiancee as a result, Shaughnessy did what I think many of us would – spiral into a deep depression and contemplate suicide. Instead of swallowing a bottle of Valium, he goes back to school and becomes an actor, playwright, world traveler, lawyer, husband and father. “I’m so blessed I should be twins,” he begins, and you believe him.

The only obstacle in the way of following Shaughnessy on his remarkable journey is one he puts there in the beginning of the show: He describes his idyllic Hawaiian wedding for the audience “so that you can get through what comes next.” By telling the members of his audience that all will be well in the end, before we really know anything about what happened to him, he denies us the possibility (to whatever extent we each are capable) of living vicariously through his words, and understanding what he went through. The thing about digging deep within one’s self to find faith and keep hope is that you have to do it without knowing what amazing people and experiences lay in store. Simply telling the tale as it actually unfolded may have been more impactful, in the end.

Shaughnessy is at the peak of his powers when speaking of how his family dealt with his paralysis, especially his father. The strong and reliable father, who cries out his grief and helplessness in a parking lot, alone, is a tragedy many families have seen play out in the face of any number of tests.

How Shaughnessy would prevent this set of circumstances from afflicting other families is a question he leaves unanswered in The Squeaky Wheel SQUEAKS! It’s hard to believe this writer and lawyer has no opinions on how the medical profession should improve its process of disclosing the risks of surgery, or of what steps our society could take to provide better services for the disabled. At 45 minutes, The Squeaky Wheel has time to spare for answers. I hope Shaughnessy will consider offering them – he certainly has the ears and the respect of his audience.

See it if: Personal narratives about the triumph of the human spirit will intrigue you.

Skip it if: You’re looking for solutions, in addition to experiences.

By Elizabeth Stice, Honolulu Advertiser
September 11, 2006

One word sums up Brian Shaughnessy: character.

First, because he’s someone many would describe as a “character”: Funny, warm and friendly, he’s an aspiring comedian, with personality to go around.

Like most characters, he also has a great repertoire of true stories guaranteed to amuse almost any audience. Those stories come with a life widely lived: Shaughnessy is an author, actor, aspiring screenwriter, comedian and activist on behalf of people with disabilities.

Shaughnessy, 48, has been a quadriplegic since 1983, but that fact is only one of the many notable things about him. Character isn’t just something Shaughnessy is; it’s also something he has, especially if we associate that trait with fortitude and triumph over circumstances.

You can learn more about him by picking up his book, The Squeaky Wheel: An Unauthorized Autobiography, which he self-published in December 2005. The “squeaky wheel” in the title refers, of course, to his wheelchair, as well as his outspoken style.

He says, “I had done lots of theater stuff, written some plays and a screenplay or two, and I always had a drive to do art. I felt like, well, this might be interesting. I hadn’t written a novel, the subject matter I liked, and I thought I should be OK with it.”

He also wanted to use the book to explain what happened to him, and how he reacted.

Adopting Hawai’i

What happened? A red-headed ladies’ man in college with an interest in writing going back to junior high and an increasing interest in theater, his life changed radically when he became a quadriplegic at 24, as a result of unexpected complications during surgery on a spinal cyst. But as anyone who takes the time to get past their curiosity and into a conversation with him knows, he has refused to let it hold him down.

Always hoping for a full recovery and supported by a network of friends and family, he finished his undergraduate education. Then, in 1987, Shaughnessy came to Hawai’i for a master’s program in theater at the University of Hawai’i-Manoa. Aside from short trips and summers away, he’s been here ever since.

Though Hawai’i was very different and far away from his Minnesota hometown, Shaughnessy made friends easily, and he says he rarely had trouble finding a date, either, in his single days.

Now married, he says, “I have a new family here that I would take a bullet for, and friends who’ve earned the right to be called family.”

Hawai’i was a good fit for Shaughnessy in other ways, as well. “I don’t like winter,” he says, smiling. “Hawai’i is beautiful, and the people are wonderful.”

Shaughnessy wrote and directed plays as part of his program at the University of Hawai’i. He also had a chance to get familiar with the university’s KOKUA office, which serves students with disabilities.

Since becoming a quadriplegic, Shaughnessy has faced problems with personal care attendants, state programs, housing, and airline travel. Interaction with groups like KOKUA and his own life experiences prompted the next stage in Shaughnessy’s life: law school.

“I went to law school to make it easier for the next schmuck who finds himself in my position,” he says. “Bureaucracies are ridiculous. It’s awful to see a person further disabled by the system.”

Since graduating in 1999, he has used his degree to help people navigate special education litigation, and he spent some time at the Disability Rights Legal Center on the campus of Loyola Marymount School of Law in California.

Comic Approach

His keen sense of humor is another important aspect of his life. He’s done stand-up comedy, though he jokes, “I don’t know if it can be called stand-up when a person in a wheelchair is doing it. Maybe it’s sit-down.”

Last week, he opened for comedian Augie T at Augie’s Wednesday night show at the Sheraton Waikiki.

Quite sarcastic, Shaughnessy “really hasn’t made any adjustment” to his humor since moving to Honolulu, he says. “Either it goes or it doesn’t go.”

Brian recently placed second in the Twin Cities Funniest Person Competition in Minneapolis, leading some to suggest he might be the funniest person on two wheels. While in California he got a shot on stage at the Comedy Store. “it was very exciting because this club shows up on TV — Letterman started there, and Richard Pryor. They do a lottery (for an audience member to have a chance on stage), and I made it.”

It was a bit of a struggle for him to make it on stage, he says, because the route was practically all steps and narrow doorways. “They needed oil and a shoehorn to get me up there,” he notes, laughing, but they finally did.

That combination of humor and drive may help Shaugnhnessy with his next big project: turning his book into a movie. The potential project involves director Tom Brady, who is helping to pitch the project.

Shaughnessy acknowledges that “for every hundred options contracts, one gets turned into a movie” but he has high hopes: “In an ideal universe, we’ll get the money, make it low-budget, with lots of control for (Brady) and I; he gets to direct it, and we find an actor who’s interested.”

That actor would ideally be a person with a disability, as Shaughnessy would like to see more people with disabilities in movies and on TV.

Whether or not his book becomes a feature film, Shaughnessy says he gained a great deal from the process of writing. He says he “gained the ability to acknowledge what I had been through.”

Though others commonly told him he was inspirational, he was dismissive of praise. “I always felt like I was watching Brian go through this from above,” he says. “Now, after almost 24 years, I feel more integrated. I feel there’s more to be done.”

Family Ties

Shaughnessy has had more on his mind than the movie deal. His wife, Amy Shaughnessy, 45, was recently diagnosed with nasopharyngeal cancer, though Brian Shaughnessy says she’s “turned the corner.”

Shaughnessy met his wife, who is from Hong Kong, while she was working as a nurse; they married in 1999. They have a 5-year-old son, Amadeus.

According to Brian, if he can only communicate one thing, it is how important his wife is to him. If he’s with his wife, and he has his son Amadeus on his lap, people think, ‘Wow, that is the cutest thing in the world’,” he says. “They don’t know anything else about me, but they know it’s a family. And it gives people hope, and not just people with disabilities. I know that’s part of my role here on earth.”

We all do it. You see someone in a wheelchair waiting for the bus or the paratransit van and you say to yourself, “poor guy.” Pity seems to be your first reaction. You don’t mean to be that way, but in your wildest dreams you cannot imagine life confined to a wheelchair, and you pity the person who has been resigned to that fate.

Then I met Brian Shaughnessy in 2001 at the Maui Writers Conference. He rolled into my retreat group one morning with his partially completed manuscript for The Squeaky Wheel and over the next six days I fell in love not only with his book, but with him.

The Squeaky Wheel is the story of a journey, albeit a horrific one … but one that is taken with courage and more importantly, with humor. When I first picked up The Squeaky Wheel, I remembered the bare manuscript pages I had read some five years before. I enjoyed them then. What I got with the book in today’s version totally floored me. Brian tackles topics that would devastate most normal people … tales of horrific bladder infections, falls out of his wheelchair, untimely defecations in public areas … and he treats them with humor … almost blithly. As you go through the pages of The Squeaky Wheel, you can readily see how Brian has accomplished so much in the face of so many challenges. You can only do that when your sense of humor is in overdrive.

Brian is an accomplished attorney, playwright, actor, businessman … and the list goes on. His greatest successes were attained after the surgery that left him wheelchair bound. Each one was hard-fought for, as he battled the many afflictions which befall a person who lives his life seated in a motorized wheelchair.

Brian discusses his daily challenges in an almost light-hearted way. He talks about studying his law school texts from a hospital bed as he recuperated from yet another necessary medical procedure or another bout with the pressure sores so commonly suffered by people challenged by the horrors of quadraplegia.

If you’ve ever said to yourself, “not me … I’d rather be dead before I’d live in a wheelchair,” you NEED to read this book. Brian said the same thing at first, but then went on to create a life far more accomplished than the one he had before “the chair.” From falling in love and having a fairytale wedding on the beach in Hawaii … to tackling the rigors of law school and passing the Hawaii Bar Exam … to a successful practice as an attorney specializing in disability law … Brian allows us the privilege of taking this journey with him, and becoming his friend and confidant.

Reading The Squeaky Wheel has changed me … no doubt about it. I no longer look at someone in a wheelchair in the same way. Now, instead of pity, I have a curiosity to hear their story … and to see if they are surmounting the challenges in their life just like my friend, Brian Shaughnessy.

I would encourage you to read this book. At close to 400 pages, I read the book in two sittings. I just couldn’t put it down. The reading may be difficult, even painful, at times … but you’ll be enriched by a story told with humor, and with a brutal honesty combined with an incredible spirit. Once you finally put it down, you’ll never be the same again. At least I’m not.

Originally published at justbookz.com

Brian Shaughnessy gives the 1999 University of Hawaii Law School Graduation Speech.

Brian Shaughnessy gives the Top 10 Reasons to go to law school in his 1999 University of Hawaii Law School Graduation Speech.

During the 1980s, Brian Shaughnessy wrote a letter to David Letterman, and it was read during the show.