Committee POV: Aidan Greene in Conversation

Duncan is a mentor for the WayWORD 2025 youth committee. He was previously on the 2023 committee where he invited and chaired Aidan Greene. As part of his volunteer role he has been attending workshops, including the Tango workshop at the 2024 festival.

One of the final events of WayWORD 2023 was entitled ‘In Conversation With… Aidan Greene.’ Having seen (and split my sides because of) him at the Edinburgh Fringe, I was definitely keen to have him at the festival. I wanted to highlighted how stammers should never be laughed at, but laughed with.

Duncan (left) on stage with Aidan (right)

This conversation was a first for me. Growing up with a stammer, I realise that there wasn’t a lack for role models. BUT it was always about overcoming a stammer, never how you can live and work with one.

The interview came about because of the 2022 Caucus, when I was in my first year of uni. In theme with being a time of firsts for me, this caucus was my original exposure to WayWORD (I write this, going into my final year of both my undergrad and being part of the festival). Despite being the one to initially suggest bringing in Aidan to speak to him, I was reluctant to actually claim the event as my own. It did, after almost a year of unsuccessfully trying to self-sabotage, eventually dawn on me that part of the appeal would be two stammerers in conversation.

This idea of balancing a speech impediment in a professional and personal capacity was the main theme of all of my questions which I asked him. During our interview, both myself and the WayWORD organisers felt that it was imperative to create as chill a time as possible. As much as we wanted to ensure Aidan had a positive experience, it was actually Aidan who created a great atmosphere for me! It was his jokes and genuine personality which shined throughout the entire event. One of the parameters of the interview was that we wanted to give the audience a taster of his comedy, as we hoped that many of them would be in attendance at his performance at the Spotlight event later that evening.

My questions were things which I had wanted to ask relating to his experiences and thoughts on making a career out of his stammer. One of the biggest things was acknowledging that it was that it was our stammers that we made jokes about. Being in conversation with Aidan allowed me to see how someone can meld the personal with the humour of it.

I definitely found a new role model in Aidan Green.