Our first MadMatched event of 2024 happened upon Saturday the 30th of November at Fruitworks Canterbury; featuring seven booked acts ranging from Comedy, to Music, to Poetry, ‘Unhappy Hollidays’ ironically put everyone in the right mood for Chistmas!
Our night, as always, was split into three parts, three acts, three acts, then our wonderfully eclectic headliner, Sallyann Fellows! We had laughs with Adam Dorr and Timoteo Kiss Freitas (who came all the way down from London!), we were lulled by Autumn Willows’s etheric guitar playing, and were moved by Red Frederic’s poetry about family connection… and his love of grapefruit and poet Nick Goodall’s blend of hilarity and poignant political satire.
MadMatched, name inspired from the 1990s movement ‘Mad Pride’ where Neurodivergent+ individuals claimed more assured and self-actualized identity by taking back words like ‘Mad’ and championing their own writing, communicative and political agendas on ‘Mad’ terms. MixMatched wanted to unite Neurodivergent+ performers on stage, in our supportive environment to propel these changes within the arts; in their own words, styles, and humour, our seven diverse performers stormed (in a quiet and accessible way) MixMatched stage, in a highly energized and hugely entertaining night!
Many members of our community, who have supported us over our three-year project, supported as audience members, and too part in our Turkey-themed caption contest winning caption being “I didn’t expect this when you said going to Turkey this Christmas!”
Hosts, Emma and Alice, were proud to host such a spectacular event, where they were also able to promote their ‘Atypical Love’ Anthology, which was for sale by the bar. If you enjoyed this, then our next Performance night is coming in January! – ‘Humps and Hurdles’ 24th, Sundowners in Margate!
Our Performers!
Act One:
Timóteo Kiss Freitas
Timóteo Kiss Freitas, a Brazilian stand-up comedian, is not only known for his towering stature but also his witty observations and occasional puns. As an autistic comedian, he brings a fresh and unique perspective to the stage, offering relatable yet humorous insights into his own experiences.
Red Frederick
Renaldo Frederick has been gracing the film and theatre stages of Trinidad & Tobago since he won a Most Promising Actor Award in the Secondary Schools Drama Festival in 2009. He is a graduate of the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama and is here tonight performing poetry.
Lexi Wolfe
Lexi Wolfe is from Sheffield (despite the accent) and is an award-winning actress, writer and filmmaker. She talks less about her teenage poetry (The Wolf Stirs) than her more recent foray into poetry (The Benefit of Foresight).
Act Two:
Nick Goodall
Nick Goodall is a stand-up poet, and sometime actor and performer. Widely known as ‘The Bard of Broadstairs’ he writes mostly on the themes of love, death, and observation of interesting people. And trains, far more often than you might expect.
Adam Dorr
Adam Dorr is MixMatched success story- he performed comedy for the first time on the MixMatched stage, now an up-and-coming comedian. He does autobiographical and social commentary based on the autistic experience. He performed his own show titled In-Adam-Quate at the Faversham Fringe Festival and won the June 2024 Clap Back Comedy Heat MC.
Autumn Willow
Autumn Willow is a wistful realist with a distinctive voice and an indie folk-ish songwriting style. Her human and quirky music captures the beauty, absurdity and pain of everyday life as a neurodivergent person in a neurotypical world.
Act Three
Headliner- Sallyann Fellowes
Sallyann is a multi award-winning neurodivergent comedian utterly mystified by the world she inhabits, and sure as Haribo doesn’t get the human race. She loves animals, bridges and anything weird. She’s the most likely person to fall over nothing or get lost in a toilet.