Francesca Martinez

As anyone who's into standup knows, the real knack is about nailing a stage persona and then playing with subverting it. Francesca Martinez has a cheeky, sunny onstage persona that she occasionally likes to shatter with sheer wickedness, to brilliant effect. She has cerebral palsy (which she refers to as being 'wobbly'), and her frank disclosures about living with the condition cover everything from sex to 'drunk' driving. Her words will make you giggle and cringe in equal measure- after all, there aren't many of us who haven't judged a person based on their physicality. We like to think that we wouldn't have been one of the 'bitches' in school that she refers to, but let's face it, many of us could have been- and that's why we need more people like Francesca telling their stories.

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