The Squeaky Wheel Gets the Laughs

Some people fear disability and comedy. Not so our guest this month. Steven Verdile created the satirical website The Squeaky Wheel to create and publish funny stories with disability as a theme. 

Steven explains how the site came about, what inspired the name and how the growing team of writers write the material. An expanding and loyal readership means the site is thriving. It’s even been the answer to a US newspaper crossword clue.   

Making it sustainable is a wish of Steven’s. Making sure they push the boundaries of comedy but don’t step over the line of appropriateness is a frequent consideration. Making it professional and paying people is in the plan.   

Take a dive into some of the funniest headlines and then listen to the pod and find out what The Squeaky Wheel is all about.   

Website https://the-squeaky-wheel.com

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/thesqkywheel/

Twitter @TheSqkyWheel

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/TheSqkyWheel

Steven https://www.stevenverdile.com

Private Eye https://www.private-eye.co.uk

The Onion https://www.theonion.com

BBC Access All https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02r6yqw

Transcript

Announcer  
Welcome to the Way We Roll with Simon Minty and Phil Friend.

Simon Minty  
Hello and welcome to The Way We Roll with me Simon Minty.

Phil Friend  
And me, Phil. Friend.

Simon Minty  
It is lovely to be back because we've been a little bit quiet of late, Phil. 

Phil Friend  
Well I mean, where have you been? What have you been up to? I know where I've been. I've been on holiday. Where have you been? 

Simon Minty  
I went away to I also got COVID I just think our schedule got a little bit knocked sideways. I would say thank you to all of the listeners who've written saying, you know, where have you been? Where have you gone? We were worried about you. That's been overwhelming.

Phil Friend  
I honestly I'm still opening the letters. With my letter knife.

Simon Minty  
I found a lot of them went to the spam or I'm assuming that because it's been a bit quiet. But anyway, good to be back, isn't

Phil Friend  
 it is Simon?

Simon Minty  
It is lovely to be back. We won't do that kind of when people do blogs. They just kind of go well, I'm gonna write it regularly. Now. We do have shows planned for the rest of this year. But every now again, there's a little blip. But thank you. It is lovely to be back and which is lovely to be speaking to everybody again. Now. Um, this month, it is a topic after my own heart, disability and comedy. Are you ready, Mr. Friend?

Phil Friend  
I was born ready just a long time ago. Let's start shaking things up.

Simon Minty  
There's a website called the Squeaky Wheel. It popped up on our radar A little while back, and I loved it immediately. It does disability and comedy in an informed way. It's satire its silly, it's edgy.

Phil Friend  
The website is like a news site with punchy headlines and funny stories. For example, "trains running more efficiently than ever after four year old autistic hacks the system".

Simon Minty  
And there's more so "woman trying to hold door open for wheelchair user is actually blocking the doorway with her foot" and the last one "blind man kicks off New Year with ableism jar and becomes an instant millionaire.

Phil Friend  
There's plenty more like that. But let's find out more about the creator and what's behind the Squeaky Wheel. All the way from New York City. Welcome to our guest, Steven Verdile. Hello, Steven.

Steven Verdile  
Thank you for having me.

Simon Minty  
I think the Squeaky Wheel is very special, Steven, because getting the tone right? It's difficult and can take skill. And we're going to I got a double question. How'd you get that tone right? But also maybe go back a little bit? How did you take this from an idea to a reality?

Steven Verdile  
Sure. So the Squeaky Wheel the first idea is sort of started in my head about three or four years ago, I just graduated college, I have been working sort of in the TV and film industry. And I always wanted to try to find a project where I could connect my experience with disability, my skills as sort of a designer and creator and sort of my interest and my passion for comedy and all things that are sort of silly. So I've been working through all these different projects, things about sort of representation in television, some projects were more more around, like screenwriting, and I was thinking should I try and do a short film or a small sort of video piece. And as I was writing all the jokes and headlines in these different pieces that I thought were sort of comments on disability and society that I thought sort of was my experience and method to share. It started to sort of feel like a newspaper and more of a more of a mocking of the way that we're normally hearing stories. There's a lot of disability in the media already. And sometimes it's not portrayed in the most sort of exciting or innovative way. And it was fun to make fun of that. And that was sort of where it came about. I also worked for the newspaper at my university when I was in school. So I had that sort of newspaper voice back in my head from my my years of college and all of that came together I started putting stories online and then pretty quickly, it found a little bit of an audience and people were excited and we have tonnes of people who are writing for us and run all the social platforms and really grew quite fast for just coming up on about a year since our our first story was posted about a year ago.

Phil Friend  
How many roughly if you know how many people follow you now then from nothing to where you are

Steven Verdile  
I think across all our platforms, it's almost 10,000.  So it's certainly I mean, it's modest it's not a, not a million. But also, what I find more important than the, the number of followers is we have very engaged followers. So all of our posts really get a lot of comments, we can see that people are sharing, people make jokes back. My favourite thing is when people put jokes in the comments, and they started building upon our stories, because that's really what it's about. And we just have a small really engaged audience.

Simon Minty  
We have some empathy with that we don't have 10s of 1000s of listeners, but our listeners are discerning. It's a good listenership and may be engaged, they're knowledgeable, I get that we, we haven't asked you where did the name come from,

Steven Verdile  
Actually started sort of as a placeholder, because as I was building out, as I read the stories, I thought I need a website, and I put together a quick website, I didn't really spend much time on that part of it. My day job is as a graphic designer, so I have a lot of experience in that area. But I was like, let me focus on the writing, I don't want to spend a million hours making a website looking pretty with a logo and choosing a name, and it sort of just popped in my head. That's fine. For now. Eventually, I'll come up with the real name. And then the longer I used it as the placeholder I was actually, I think it's kind of funny. Because the tie up between wheel and wheelchair, the Squeaky Wheel sort of the expression of something is making a little noise. And being a little bit annoying. As I said, that's sort of what we're trying to do. We're trying to be a little bit annoying.

Phil Friend  
I went around my kitchen this morning, and I use a power chair, I think like you do Steven, and went around my kitchen this morning, because I can hear the clicking noise coming from a wheel. And it turned out that I got a pebble stuck in the tyre and it was so this squeaky wheel. I mean, it really appealed to me when I saw the name because it is a kind of it's if you use a wheelchair, you get really hacked off if one of the wheels makes it squeak.

Steven Verdile  
Absolutely, I think that works as a sort of as a as a metaphor for what we're trying to do is that what it means to sort of be squeaky to be annoying, and to be a little bit of a nuisance that people will pay attention. Because if you're if you go along too easily, sometimes you get skipped over.

Simon Minty  
Yeah, as a little add on to that. It is interesting, sometimes that sort of first throw away working title stays. And that's all it is. I don't know if you came across BBC Ouch, which in the early days did some comedy and satire not quite the same, very different. But the name Ouch was about?  Wooh!,  kind of as you say that slightly awkward, slightly uncomfortable. And that's what that was about. So yeah, that first thing can be the end product. Highlights you said you grew very rapidly in that first year, what have been some of your favourite moments since you launched,

Steven Verdile  
I would say the two things that sort of bring me the most, the most joy from the Squeaky Wheel is first and foremost, whenever someone comes to us, and they want to write a story for us. That's always really exciting. Because I was very worried when I started that it would just be me. And I can only speak as someone with a very sort of narrow experience of disability, I know what it's like to use a power wheelchair. I'm a straight white guy who's 25 years old. I live in New York. So I sort of have a very particular experience. I didn't want to tell maybe that. I was really interested in people coming from different backgrounds, people with different disabilities, sort of shaping their experiences of disability. So having people who are interested in writing, and volunteering their time, and their really good ideas to help us grow was really exciting. And so many of them are so so talented. So that was really, really fun to have them reach out. And then the other thing is a lot of the disability influences and people who I looked up to, or I followed on Twitter and social media, they would start to share our stories and comments. And it's really exciting to say this person who does such great work, right, I respect so much like the stuff that I make and that's always exciting.

Phil Friend  
Have you sort of felt that you're a kind of vehicle for disabled people who can't for what ever reason get their voice heard elsewhere in a written sense, you know, there may sounds like many of the contributors are writers or would like to be writers, but can't find a way into that kind of do sense. That's what's going on a bit or

Steven Verdile  
There's definitely obstacles to sort of the traditional comedy writing areas of work, especially stuff like TV and film, it's incredibly hard to break into. But that's why I wanted to start this, I knew, obviously, this is a small project I was doing for fun, there was no budget, I wasn't going to be able to pay people. So it's all gonna be volunteers. If it's going to be volunteer, I need to make this as worthwhile as I can for the people who are offering their time. And the way to do that is to give this opportunity  to people who sort of need that platform, Squeaky Wheel became a platform for people who don't necessarily have a tonne of experience in writing, but really, they have a strong voice. And I mean, to be honest, there's not a lot of publications online where you can write stuff like this, and it's going to be published, it's just doesn't fit well into, you know, Rolling Stone magazine because it's such a niche.  And that's been exciting. Absolutely good sort of positive story for that is we have a copy editor who edits our stories, and I started working with her at the very, very beginning. And she had never worked with as a copy editor before. But she said, You know, I love your stories. I don't want to write, but I want to be a copy editor. Can I be the copy editor for the Squeaky Wheel? And I said, Absolutely. And just last week she did her her first full time job as a copy editor now, and Squeaky Wheel was her first experience. So that was really exciting that she did that our experience led her to a new career.

Simon Minty  
Although you're like, oh, no, we're gonna lose her now she's working full time!

Steven Verdile  
Fortunately, she's staying on at least for now, we'll see! She's training others, which is great. She's training our new coppy editor.

Simon Minty  
There's a model that you got, which I quite like, I mean, I've shared the Squeaky Wheel, the two or three comedians, good writers that I know and said, Look, they're taking stories and funnies. And I rather than you said, maybe just having four staff writers that have got to keep churning this stuff out, you can have 50 people. And it's always very encouraging. Because I doing this, there's two or three little ideas that came to my head. And I thought, Well, why could jot this down? Um, and that, I don't know, there's something wonderful about having a something you've written go up, I think that can be really powerful. And again, it's more sharing. So I think it's a really nice model. It feels, I don't know, I'd like to, I'd like to write for it, because I want to be part of it as well.

Steven Verdile  
And we also tried to make it seem really flexible. There's no deadlines. I tell everyone, there's no, you can write one story a year, or you can write one story a month, you can write as, as little or as often as you want. There is some sort of, you know, filters and approvals, because we can't just be putting anything out there to keep our quality sort of high. But I've worked with everyone and I make sure that if they have an idea if it needs a little tweeking but we'll make work,

Phil Friend  
How often do you does it get published?

Steven Verdile  
So I mean, certainly variable. Our goal is always to post two or three stories a week. So we're posting fairly frequently. I, myself try to write about one story a week. That's just me. I certainly write the most but we have tons of writers. So often, it'll be one or two stories for me three stories from the rest of the group. And then, for example, I was sick for about five or six weeks in the spring, and I wasn't writing anything, but people were sending in stories and we were able to sort of keep active that way. So anywhere between five and 10 stories a month

Phil Friend  
I was gonna follow that up with has there been pushbacks have there have been people so shocked by what they've read, you know, threatened to shut you down or you know, I mean, have you have you experienced. There's a reason for this question because there's a big debate about you will know this Steven, I can see you're smiling. About you know, can you say anything you like about disability and live to tell the story. Has there been examples from your point of view?

Steven Verdile  
There's been a very, very small amounts of it. So definitely less than I was expecting. I was expecting there to be more when we started sort of putting these stories out there. I think it comes in two forms. First, you have people who come, and they just don't really understand. Either that it's satire, they think it's true. Or they think it's for me, and bring sort of bullies. Oftentimes, they don't realise that it's people with disabilities who are writing stories to begin with. And if I thought that I would also think it's a little weird. If it was all these people with no disabilities writing all these stories disability, I would say, yeah, that's kind of weird. Stop doing that. So I understand where they're coming from. And the other thing is, there's people who have disabilities who are really thoughtful, Who've said, Oh, I've loved all your stories. But this one, this one joke, this one part, maybe not my favourite part. And that's valid I'm open to criticism and thank you for pointing it out. We've had a couple of times, where people have said, Oh, you use that word, you might not have realised this word is sort of a slur or it's offensive. And we simply said, Thank you for pointing out, you know, we'll keep that in mind. We won't make that joke again, our goal is certainly not to offend anyone, we're not like, we're not trying to stir up controversy. And we do want to be sensitive, because it's a very sort of sensitive area. And we feel like if we treat our readers sort of with respect, and we acknowledge that we don't want to upset them that they'll be understanding with us that we're treading a very touchy line and we may slip up every now and then.

Simon Minty  
I have an example. I retweeted this because I thought it was a sublime. But so one of your headlines very recently, this is written by Linda. "Oops, Supreme Court realises its abortion ban applies to disabled foetuses to". Now for me, that's a brilliantly crafted headline. And there's so many layers in that. And it's on such a controversial subject as well for some people. So I mean, when that landed, did you go womp? And, okay, let's see where it lands when we put it out there.

Steven Verdile  
Yes so definitely. There's maybe one story a month, that's the one that are all sorts of we know its, the big one. And I read it to see what other satire publications like The Onion,  what are they writing? So I could sort of see what what we're working with and sort of what the what the voice is. And then we have a group myself and all the other writers, and I said, Alright, guys, this decision came out today, I think most of us aren't too happier with it so what can we say? And that story was sort of written as a team rather than written from one person individually. But Linda, I would love to shout out, Linda, that was her very first article she wrote for us. So she pitched that headline. I said, That's it. That's the one. Yeah, there was probably 100 different headlines that we had for that topic. And I was like, you've got it this is your first story. We're gonna make it work. There's a lot of editing and making sure that one was perfect. Because it's one that is important. For us. It was a big moment. I'm sure that our voice was heard on it.

Simon Minty  
I adore the political and the funny. And there's just so many as I said, send me letters and well done you as a team. And Linda, 

Announcer  
Thank you for listening to The Way We Roll with Simon Minty and Phil Friend.If you enjoy the show, don't forget to subscribe, rate and share.

Simon Minty  
We're not gonna focus on this too long. But just you mentioned a little bit you do have a day job. You're creative content manager for NBCU corporate comms team, is that right?

Steven Verdile  
That is very specific and correct. 

Simon Minty  
 What does that involve? I mean, you've talked about graphics and design and stuff. 

Steven Verdile  
Yes, I've been with the company since I was in college. As an intern for NBC Universal, and I work there now is my day job is a great place to work. I love working in TV and film. And I do all sorts of things from employee graphics, and some design for the offices that is around the buildings. I don't touch a lot of the stuff that's on air. I do mostly digital stuff for websites and social media, things like that. And another sort of exciting part of my day job is I'm a leader for NBC universals, My Abilities Group, which is a group for employees with disabilities. And we get to sort of speak about disability issues within the company and work on things like representation on screen. So I sort of have a two sided role there. And that's exciting.

Phil Friend  
You you have SMA don't use Steven, and do you live in New York? Do you employ PA's and things of that sort? That? Is that how you manage?

Steven Verdile  
Yes, so I have homecare nurses who work with me, they're excellent. They come with me into the office when I go into the office, or they come to my apartment. And I've been super lucky that I've had the same group of about five people for the last seven or eight years. No one has left no one has, has moved so I have a really good support system that allows me to focus on my job, and my work so I don't have to sort of worry about that at the same time.

Simon Minty  
Fabulous. Have you come across Baroness Jane Campbell from here in the UK? 

Steven Verdile  
I have not

Simon Minty  
. Right, we will introduce you. She's another SMAer as she would say. She has a belief that anyone with SMA is immensely   intelligent. And you are confirming that. She's one of the big disability rights leaders in the UK. She's our Judy Huemann of the USA, and

Steven Verdile  
oh, I know who you're referring to now. 

Simon Minty  
She's a fabulous person and I will introduce you but then I apologise now because she will grab you and you will be doing all sorts of things with her before you know it because

Phil Friend  
I had polio. So in the hierarchy of disability as Jane points out to me that you know, SMA is at the top of the pile and polios are at the bottom of it. We get into this heirarchy,  I think there's a headline for Squeaky Wheel there somewhere, you know, controversy over you know, impairment groupings. But there is a truth in it. I don't know an SMAer actually, that isn't some kind of genius. It's quite extraordinary,

Simon Minty  
Don't confirm it for her. She's painful enough as it is.

Steven Verdile  
I can say I know a lot of people with SMA, and some of them confirm it, but some of them do not. I can rect it for you guys.

Simon Minty  
Thank you, Steven actually Phil's led us beautifully in we've got a couple of headlines to pitch to you. So be kind on us. We need to work them up. So first one "disabled person lets the side down by making the same mistake as not disabled people by speaking to the assistance dog and not the person". Oh, tumbleweed, though, that was a bit.

Steven Verdile  
Love it. It took me a minute to process. The another thing I will say these headlines are written so well to read them. But when you're verbally sometimes it's like Oh, 

Simon Minty  
That's where we need your copy editor. And so here's a little bit behind that. So when I was in New York very recently, there was someone who I presumed had SMA. They were in Central Park, they were surrounded by lots of cool cats and stuff as in cool people. And I deliberately slow down on mobility scooter, so we sort of had to be because I thought it was you and I thought it was and I thought it was gonna be you. And then as I got nearer to this person, their assistance dog started barking at me. So here's my intro and then afterwards I thought you know what, I've just done disability 101 And I've messed it up completely. But it wasn't you this person had blonde dyed hair. But you anyway, I move on. I'll second pitch. 

Steven Verdile  
I think I know who that was! it's a small group. There's only a few of us I think it was someone who was actually might have been on vacation, same time that you were at. 

Simon Minty  
Yeah, like the other one.  We've got another one now, which is "All people with dwarfism. Do know each other?" That will be the one that suits for me. Our last proper pitch. "Veteran disabled campaigners spend most of their time telling the next generation that their idea wasn't the first time as they did it back in the day".

Steven Verdile  
And I think we definitely need more. More veterans stories, We haven't really touched the veterans area. It's a missed opportunity. That's definitely something to look into.

Simon Minty  
I will rework these and I will send them over to you one day.

Steven Verdile  
Absolutely.

Phil Friend  
I suppose there's a difference too. Isn't there the meaning of the word "veteran" in the US, which talks about your military and people who've been maybe injured as a result of various things. Whereas over here a veteran will reply to me, old farts who, you know, keep on I frequently say to Simon, oh, back in the 80s we did that, you know, why are you still banging on about the most common one is language? What should we call each other? And I just fall asleep in the discussion because it's so old fashioned?

Steven Verdile  
Also, I thought you were referring to the American version of veterans. Yeah, I thought that was very funny.,

Phil Friend  
that could be a double double whammy. Yeah, I suppose. The other thing it reminds me of Steven and I don't know if you've heard of Private Eye, a British publication. It's been around for years and years, and it was set up by people from, I think Cambridge University, Peter Cook, very famous comedian, long dead unfortunately, with Dudley Moore, Peter Cook and Dudley Moore, but Peter Cook was a satirical legend, I mean, absolutely brilliant. And when I read your stuff, it reminded me very much of Private Eye if you get a chance to have a look at a online copy of Private Eye, you'll see what you mean. But it's mainly about government, attacking government and pomposity and those kinds of things,

Steven Verdile  
I think there's definitely a lot of sort of British influence in satire in general, a lot of our stories seem to do really well. And outlay and a lot of the comedy I watches is from England. So it doesn't surprise me that it has a similar voice,

Simon Minty  
as an add on Private Eye is very successful, because people in the political establishment will feed them stories. And it's almost a bit like the Squeaky Wheel. But there's people within the disability community want to feed you stuff, because that's where it that's where the voice can kind of come out. I mean, we're bigging this up, but there's something in that absolutely.

Steven Verdile  
Yeah, I think also, when its coming from sort of platform with the, with the logo and a website and established audience, you feel safer to say stuff that might be a little bit edgy than if you to say that from your own personal twitter or something. And that's exciting because people come to us and they say, Well, if the Squeaky Wheel publishes it, that means that a whole team of people agree with it and think it makes sense. It automatically gives it a little bit of sort of reputational legitimacy around what you said,

Phil Friend  
have any of the sort of call it mainstream, any mainstream media or other group picked up on anything that you've been doing and wanting to know more? are you attracting that kind of attention?

Steven Verdile  
Um, I mean, certainly nothing too major. At the moment, I think a lot of it is because it's sort of  a little edgy and controversial. I think that it wouldn't necessarily read that well, to a mainstream audience. I'm not sure how it would be perceived, I think it could be developed, it could develop just has to be sort of discussed very mindfully. But the one part, the one example, that I thought was quite interesting, and funny is, we have a magazine called USA Today. Because US Today it's a pretty big publication. And one of my friends texted me and said, the Squeaky Wheel is an answer in the USA Today, crossword puzzle. What? This does, nobody's gonna get this question, right? No one knows about the Squeaky Wheel. It will mess up the crossword. And they said, no, no. And it was a question. The answer was satire. It said, the genre of the Onion and the Squeaky Wheel or something like that was the clue. And I had to figure out I was like, how did US Today find out about us? Why are we in the crossword? It turns out that there crossword editor is someone who's disabled who follows the Squeaky Wheel. And they were trying to give us a little shout out that way

Phil Friend  
It has to be, it had to be. Brilliant. You're the answer to a crossword puzzle. If nothing else you've achieved in your life that's something

Simon Minty  
As you said it, I thought there's gonna be a disabled person somewhere in the back here. I will when I do at the end of my training or courses, and I go further information, one of the things I do is recommend Phil's book because they've written a book about disability. I always recommend our podcasts but I also now put the Squeaky Wheel in and I say, when you want some light relief, that actually is something that is very smart as well come here. So I hope we keep promoting you and pushing you because it I want it to be that disabled audience because I love the fact that we're all part of it, but I also want everybody to read it to

Steven Verdile  
appreciate that support.

Phil Friend  
What's what Next then for us, Steven, when you think about the next two, three years, what do you what do you hope to see happen to the Squeaky Wheel in that sort of period of time.

Steven Verdile  
So I think are sort of the next thing I've been working on is we built this really fun thing that we all enjoy. And I want to make sure that it's something that's sustainable, something that can last. It's a lot of work that goes into and don't want people to get burnt out. From I've written all my ideas, I have nothing left or we've made every single wheelchair joke, that's possible. And there's none left. So I don't want to worry about those things. So I think the main goal is to make it sustainable. And part of that is looking at, you know, how can we possibly raise some money so that we can pay our writers that's been sort of one of our priorities is, people are doing great work. And I really wish that I could compensate them. So I'm trying to figure out different ways to bring in some revenue, and then see if there's any opportunities there. Or looking at maybe making some fun merchandise and T shirts and things like that. Which I think could be exciting, and really just figuring out how to make it last how to keep it growing.

Phil Friend  
Yeah, because I think what makes it very special using that word in an appropriate sense is, is the number and the variety of contributors you could reach or employ with a small e. Because that would you know, in a sense, if you've got half a million wheelchair users writing jokes for you, or stories for you, then you'd never exhaust wheelchair jokes, would you? Because coming up with it. But the other idea Yes, about merchandising, or advertising or those kinds of things so that you get some income to pay people's contributions makes a lot of sense.

Steven Verdile  
Yeah, it's not, I will say this, I'm not someone who wanted to run a business. I hate money I don't like thinking about money, I don't like to worry about money. I didn't want this to be an operation to make money. That was never the goal. But I do want the people who spend their time to contribute interest to be compensated. And I think that would also bring in some of the best writers to people who are really experienced and have those levels of skills that deserve compensation that really can bring in more people,

Simon Minty  
You've reminded me Abnormally Funny People with a comedy troupe that we set up in 2005. And I set up with a chap who Steve Best and I said to him, this could be one of those who's brilliant for a year, and then it fades. And I don't want that to happen. So we spent a long time not getting paid just to keep that going. What is lovely is 17 years later, there's a whole load of new comedians that have come to it. But also in the UK, there were two things. One, we had something called the Arts Council, and that will fund things and that's a, you know, a public money. Or the other part was occasionally to have a good corporate that said, Look, I'll sponsor you. I don't know whether I want to put my name on it, because you're a bit edgy. But I like what you do. So do you think do you have an Arts Council equivalent? Or do you think some corporates might even fund this,

Steven Verdile  
we don't have sort of a direct equivalent to the Arts Council. But we do have a lot of sort of nonprofit organisations and sort of charitable groups and universities and things like that, where there might be some ways to collaborate with them. I've definitely said I would love to be, I'm sure you guys see on social media all the influencers that sell whatever they're selling smoothies, pyjamas, and stuff like that. I said, it would be so fun if we could be the advertiser for you know, wheelchairs or, or urinals or the sort of medical things that don't really their advertising is so boring. I don't know what sort of branded wheelchair you guys use. But all of the advertising for every wheelchairz I find very boring. So I feel like if we could work with Permobil, if you're listening out there, we really want to work with you.

Phil Friend  
I think one of the things you've already said that I I'm impressed by was the you know, taking people on who then show real skill and ability that then go on and do other things. In the written word sense, Simon is being a bit modest about Abnormally Funny People because several of the people that came through that process are now household names in the UK in terms of comedy, and they've gone on to really great things and they in some ways got their first major opportunities to appear with the like the Edinburgh Fringe and stuff like that. So I mean, the model works that I suppose that's what I'm saying the model works if you bring people together and give them a chance, their talent kind of shine through, 

Simon Minty  
Notice as Phil said, some of the names not mine. So my little word for you, Stephen, make sure you get to the front of the queue, because they'll all make it and you'll be going hold up. I thought this was .........

Phil Friend  
We've had BAFTA nominees that came through the Abnormally Funny People so, I think the vehicle sorry, what am I saying here §the reason you need to be sustainable is so that you can be a vehicle for disabled people to showcase their talent, isn't it? That's really what it's about. It's great, brilliant.

Simon Minty  
And then the labour of love is great. But your point, I mean, we one on one question was magic wand, what would be three things you've sort of alluded to them, maybe advertising, writing, paying the people that are part of it. And the sustainability is there any other wish that we'd be like this would change the game.

Steven Verdile  
The big wish is to make sure it's stable, it's sustainable. And that sort of, if I disappeared for six months that it would crumble to the ground, that's my fear, I want to make sure that this is something that can operate sort of independently of any one person. And right now, I'm doing a lot of the backend stuff. So I'm trying to bring in as many people as I can, sort of to support me and to keep it going.

Phil Friend  
Although, as you said earlier, you were you were unwell for six weeks, and it carried on so that you're obviously building a structure already that works. But you want to increase that, don't you? Yeah.

Simon Minty  
And back to stars and working Phil and I run a business together, the partnership work, Abnormally Funny with Steve sometimes that you need that extra person, don't you to be just that collaborator. But anyway, we're getting way too involved as veterans, again, 

Steven Verdile  
Thank you for your advice I need all the insight I can get. I tell everybody I've no idea what I'm doing, I'm just figuring this out as I go along, I did not set out for this to be a big and I have to learn and adapat as it grows.

Phil Friend  
Well. I think you can rest assured that if Simon and I can help you've only got to ask that's not a problem at all, we've got we maybe, know, somebody or we can do something.

Simon Minty  
We will of course be putting all the links and stuff. But if people want to check out the squeaky wheel, if they want to write what are your suggestions.

Steven Verdile  
So if they want to follow us on Instagram, as soon as they are our main platform, you can find us at the Squeaky Wheel that is sqkywheel   The Squeaky Wheel . You can also find us at our website, the-squeaky-wheel.com if you want to write you can either message us on social media or there is a form on our website. 

Phil Friend  
That's great. We'll make sure that those details are up there on the website and all of our connections know about it.

Simon Minty  
Thank you so much for your time, Steven. And I know I remember just finding it. I can't remember who sent it to me. And I remember reading it going, Oh, this is I love this. I love this as exists. I love the tone. I love what you're doing. And so it is one of my go to is every week or two, I just go and dip in and just start enjoying some of it. So thank you. It's a lot of work. I know. Well done you its brilliant. 

Steven Verdile  
This was this was fun.

Phil Friend  
We wish you well. And if we can help as I said earlier, just you let us know. But thank you very much. Been a pleasure.

Simon Minty  
Thank you very much to Stephen. always lovely to speak to someone across the pond. And as you can tell, I got very excited because it's all about disability and comedy.

Phil Friend  
Yes, yes, it was but a bit different. Bit satirical bit sort of not standupee a very thoughtful guy. I'm really interested in what he's trying to do. And obviously if any of you listening to that want to know more we've of course put we'll put the show notes in his contact details in the show notes and stuff like that. But yeah, I enjoyed I enjoyed that was a slightly different take on disability and very funny.

Simon Minty  
And his point the sustainability, how do we keep this going? How do we make sure people will get paid? I totally get that and that's a big ask so yeah, we wish Steven well the whole Squeaky Wheel team which there's clearly some fabulous people so amazing.

Phil Friend  
So there we are. So if you want to get in touch with us, we're in the usual places, but obviously our email address is The Way We Roll, no it's not actually it's mintyand friend@gmail.com He's smiling again because I got it wrong. Simon?

Simon Minty  
You can also go to Beacon if you search beacon and The Way We Roll you'll find all of the links and you can sign up to our mailing list so you will never miss another show. Next month is going to be Gordon who is the Chief Exec of RIDC the Research Institute for Disabled

Phil Friend  
Consumers 

Simon Minty  
Thank you very much

Phil Friend  
That should be an interesting show so stay ready for that one

Simon Minty  
if you don't know them I always say they're the Which for disabled people yeah the consumer magazine not Witches of Eastwick or something you're not engaging at all are you? Alright I'm still doing comedy

Phil Friend  
I'm trying to see how often we can get sued for taking Which or Consumer Associations name in vain!

Simon Minty  
anyway that will be next month we've hope you've enjoyed this month drop us a line follow us to all that stuff it would be lovely to hear from you.

Phil Friend  
Yeah, take it easy stay well see you soon.

Announcer  
This is The Way We Roll presented by Simon Minty and Phil Friend. You can email us at minty and friend@gmail.com or just search for minty and friend on social media. We're on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn

Transcribed by https://otter.ai