Since she was six years old, Jess has experienced motor and vocal tics as part of the condition. Over the years, she's not only learned to live with them, but also to embrace them, as part of who she is.
Jess says “biscuit” 16,000 times in one day. And it's not because she's hungry, or thinking about food. Tourette's can trigger those affected to say almost anything they've ever seen or experienced in their lifetime.
Most of what people know about the condition is based on myths and stereotypes, and Jess believes it is her job to set the record straight. Since being diagnosed, she's made it her mission to educate people.
She's coming to Australia all the way from her home in the UK with her show 'Backstage In Biscuit Land'. The two-woman solo-show weaves comedy, puppetry, singing and tics to explore spontaneity, creativity, and things you never knew were okay to laugh about.
Because of Tourette's, Jess is neurologically incapable of staying completely on script for every single show, and this makes the performance all the more special and memorable. Joined by her assistant Chopin (Jess Mabel Jones) Jess will take audiences on a big journey, celebrating the humour and creativity that it so often mocked and treated negatively. No two performances of this show are ever the same. Chopin says that Jess has given her a crash course in improvisation.
The show will turn tics into a source of creative energy and fun, while all at once aiming to inform and educate audiences, and bust some of the myths commonly heard about the condition.
Jess has done great things since embracing her differences, including multiple interviews with popular television shows and even a TED Talk at the Royal Albert Hall in London. She has created her own website called Touretteshero, where she openly and willingly shares all her new tics and encourages others to read, laugh and even create art out of them.
The website also includes a blog, where Jess constantly pens her thoughts, giving people the chance to experience the day-to-day life of someone with Tourette's. She believes that the condition is truly something special, because it brings words and phrases together to create things that people without the condition might never think of putting together, for example “disable the crisp” and “give me a massage with Marmite”. In the gallery of the site, people have submitted creative pieces of art that display what Jess's tics describe.
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'Backstage In Biscuit Land' will be a funny, informative performance that will make sure to let you know that it's okay to laugh at tics if they're amusing, as long as you're educated about the condition. It will turn something people tend to look down at into something people can love, appreciate and begin to understand.
Backstage In Biscuitland Dates
12-16 October – Malthouse Theatre (Melbourne)19-23 Ocober – Queensland Performing Arts Centre
