Go Faster Stripe has partnered with Joe Wells to record and release his show I Am Autistic for free on YouTube this Friday 27th October 2023.
The show, recorded in The Bill Murray Comedy Club, is about identity, neurodiversity, and the pressures of Joe finding social media fame. In 2020 Joe’s video about having a (severely) non-autistic brother went viral (4.5 million views and counting) which led to Joe becoming an unelected spokesperson for autistic people. The show follows Joe’s attempts to say something useful with his newly found platform whilst looking after his own mental health.
I Am Autistic is the first show that Go Faster Stripe has released in its entirety for free in this way and will be followed by Wil Hodgson's show Barbicidal Tendencies on Saturday 4th November 2023, and more shortly after that. Go Faster Stripe's Chris Evans stated that “it's a shame to work on something so good that's not seen by many people – so this seems like a good way to fix that. We are hoping, of course, that anyone who likes what we are doing might pay it back by joining our club which will make future releases this way sustainable.”
Joe Wells is a stand-up comedian and writer. Having started his stand-up comedy career as a satirist, with shows including Night of the Living Tories, 10 Things I Hate About UKIP, and I Hope I Die Before I Start Voting Conservative, he has since focused his shows on his experiences of being autistic, with Joe Wells Doesn't Want To Do Political Comedy Anymore (also available on Go Faster Stripe) and “I Am Autistic”. Joe is the co-host of the Neurodivergent Moments podcast, alongside Abigoliah Schamaun which has seen the likes of Rufus Hound, Shaparak Khorsandi and Deborah Frances-White talk about their differently Wired Brains. Joe has spent the last year touring I Am Autistic, developing a new show, King Of The Autistics, opening for Frankie Boyle and appearing on Rosie Jones’ Disability Comedy Extravaganza
Go Faster Stripe is a little comedy recording business formed in 2005 and based in Cardiff. They record the live sets of comedians who are ace, but tragically overlooked by the mainstream. They started doing DVDs, then transitioned to mostly downloads and streaming, but still like to dabble with assorted physical curios. Their subscription service, the GFS Club, helps fund this. It gives access to any three downloads from their back catalogue, all shows released from signing up onwards, tickets to any live events held or recorded by GFS, a free t-shirt and other physical rewards, all for £5 a month. They are hoping that hosting shows on YouTube, with early access for GFS Club members, could be the next evolution of what they do. But they'll find out for sure soon.
Watch Joe Wells: I Am Autistic below
picture by Ed Moore
