You’re i nv i t ed…� Original one-man show, Jesters Incognito, celebrates creativity and mental wellness. Hamilton, ON - This July, HAW! productions premiered the original production of Jesters Incognito at the 11th annual Hamilton Fringe Festival, receiving rave reviews. Jesters Incognito

is an exciting one-man show about the making of the creator’s full-length young adult novel, combining comedy, music and cartooning for a dramatically hilarious recovery story that unlocks the author’s key to mental wellness. Jesters Incognito has remounted many times since, and is currently on unofficial tour to theatres and schools across Ontario. For twenty years, Harrison fills sketchbooks to cope with his Bipolar. He writes the story of Vincent, a cabbie lost in a futuristic world where live entertainment is outlawed. Both Vincent and Harrison know there is a cure to society’s Doldrums: Break the law, perform offline, and become a jester. Jesters Incognito mirrors Harrison’s life, and life for Hamilton’s independent artists in today's media-conglomerated society. In Vincent’s technologically saturated world, one mega-corporation reigns supreme, and an underground group of artists and entertainers find innovative ways to express themselves against the law. This is the story of where creativity and mental health intersect, how one real-life jester rose above the noise and survived to tell his story. HAW! is Harrison Wheeler, a cartoonist, author, comedian, musician, and educator living with Bipolar 1, Guillian Barre Syndrome, and over eight years of recovery from substance abuse. With Harrison’s his improv, novel, and innovative cartoons - Harrison is an advocate for mental wellness in the Hamilton community. Surprise yourself! Come see Jesters Incognito and celebrate mental health!

Awards:�Best in Venue @ Hamilton Fringe 2014 Critic’s Choice Award, View Magazine 2014 Finalist People’s Choice Award in Montreal 1999 Fringe

JESTERS INCOGNITO is more than a one-man

show. It’s more than whimsical comedy, music,

and cartoons. This performance is more than championing Bipolar, or

cheating death, or writing a novel. Jesters Incognito is

even more than an exploding flapwagon! And we all know

how explosive those are...

PRESS�

Full article interview. Winter 2014. Niagara AP Press. http://www.niagarafallsreview.ca/2014/12/03/harrison-

wheeler--jester-in-the-courthouse

Complete Fringe Reviews. Summer 2014. View Magazine. http://www.viewmag.com/42847-

Hamilton+Fringe+Festival+2014+Reviews.htm

The Fringe is Coming. Summer 2014. Raise the Hammer. http://raisethehammer.org/article/2242/the_fringe_is_coming

Fringe Review. Summer 2014. Not My Typewriter.

http://www.notmytypewriter.com/2014/07/hamilton-fringe-festival-2014-jesters.html?m=1

Truly. Madly. Deeply. Hamilton Art Show on Mental Health.

Spring 2014. Hamilton Spectator. http://www.thespec.com/whatson-story/4509669-art-and-

mental-health-truly-madly-deeply-/

Harrison Wheeler�905 630 4189

harrisonwheeler@gmail.com�www.harrisonwheeler.ca�

@haw_inc�

WHO IS HAW?� Harrison A. Wheeler (HAW!) is a cartoonist,

author, comedian, musician, public speaker, and

educator with Bipolar I and over 8 years of

recovery from substance abuse. He grew up in St.

Catharines, Ontario before leaving home to study

music at McGill University. From age 19,

Harrison’s creative career hiccupped as he lost the

ability to play his primary instrument, the trumpet,

and he found himself lost at university without

direction. “I chose education,” laughed Harrison.

“I’m a performer at heart and love kid’s imaginations, so it seemed like a simple life fix.

To be honest though, teaching never spoke to me the same way the creative arts do.”

Still, Harrison’s passion for art gained great momentum and

continued successfully in the realms of comedy, music, writing, and cartooning as he

excelled in his studies. By 24 however, at the cusp of graduating university, Harrison

experienced a severe manic break from reality. Even though his creativity

peaked, he became increasingly depressed and eventually turned to drugs to help elevate

his mood. That first episode derailed Harrison’s life and sent him spiraling into suicidal

depressions, manic phases, and terrible suffering. For the next decade he spent long

stretches of time in mental hospitals and treatment centers as his mental state and

addictions worsened. He continued to draw and write when he could ~ his sketchbooks

became void, painful repositories of colour or hope. “I never admitted I was mentally ill

or an addict for the longest time. I thought I was a loser. I had lost total self-confidence

and believed that I had failed. It’s so destructive to think like that, but I didn’t have the

mental wellness to see life any other way.”

Fortunately, Harrison’s family was a strong advocate and uncovered alternative

treatments to compliment the care he received in hospital and successfully rehabilitate

him. After stumbling toward recovery through Ottawa, Nunavut, Niagara, Vancouver,

and even Japan, by age 35 Harrison finally achieved a balance that allowed him to

become a contributing member of the community. He returned to education as a stable

career and began a Master’s Degree and a secure position as Vice Principal. “I always

knew there was another piece to the puzzle missing,” Harrison recalls. “Despite my

career wins, I was still sad. Why was that? I knew I was an addict and that empowered

me. I understood my mental illness too. Yet I felt a persistent nagging to open up my

sketchbooks and gather my ideas, however broken and meaningless. I knew I had a ton of

stories in there, good ones, and that if I ignored my lust for creativity I would never be

happy. I didn’t want to die without something tangible written down, I wasn’t content

pretending to be an educator.”

In 2010 Harrison began to write. He wrote straight for three years, pulling all nighters

and locking himself up on weekends, telling no one of his book project. He finished the

first draft of his novel just as a terrible flu took over his body. Unbelievably, a week later

he was put in an induced coma at St. Joe’s Hospital, diagnosed with an autoimmune

disease called Guillian-Barre Syndrome. “I woke up paralyzed from the neck down. I was

shocked, but I wasn’t scared. I spent 6 months learning

to walk again, and in that time I reflected on my life

and figured out who I was. I have Bipolar. I have an

addictive personality. I have an autoimmune disease,

too. But I AM an artist. That was the final piece. And I

guarantee that if I deny my creative self its need to

create, I’ll never survive.”

Harrison’s novel, Jesters Incognito, defends his belief

that every person on Earth has a creative spark that can

empower fulfillment, confidence, and connective

spontaneity, together. He aims to develop his artistic

goals full time while serving as a vibrant, optimistic voice for mental wellness.

CREATIVITY CAN SAVE YOUR LIFE

“One–man show. Two marvelous stories. ... Jesters Incognito is a mash–up of comedy, music and cartooning, a dramatically hilarious recovery story that unlocks the author’s key to mental wellness.” – Hamilton Fringe “Two marvelous stories”? You bet! “[A] mash–up of comedy, music and cartooning” ? And it

works! “A dramatically hilarious recovery story... ”? Definitely! Harrison Wheeler’s creation, Jesters Incognito, is both the story of Wheeler’s struggle to learn how to survive and how to live with mental illness, and the story of a team of jesters he created to help him with this struggle — jesters he becomes in this hilarious, energizing, and thought–provoking one–man show. I was very impressed by the ways in which Wheeler weaves the two stories together. His weaving involves a near–perfect combination of just–right music, mesmerizing images, a slideshow of his brilliant sketches and key details of his personal narrative, and unforgettable characters — all members of Jesters Incognito, a secret society of rebel artists and entertainers. Over the course of sixty minutes, Wheeler skillfully brings to life four super funny jesters: Mr. Meister, a cabbie and the leader of Jesters Incognito, who dispenses such sound advice as “life is a game; celebrate the madness or die”; Hum Dinger, an ESL teacher by day and wacky entertainer by night; Dingleberry, a German hipster and “angry pacifist”; and Letitia Turnstyle, a soulful cross–dressing rapper with one heck of an afro. Wheeler’s imaginative approach to addressing something as personal and painful as mental illness makes for both an accessible and a powerful theatre experience — an experience that leaves audiences feeling happy and thinking about human resilience and the power of art. Jesters Incognito is an inspiring feast for our senses, funny bones, and souls. You don’t want to miss this show. (RC)

JESTER’S INCOGNITO: Critic’s Choice Review�View Magazine, Hamilton Ontario, July 2014�

�

�

During his breakdown, Harrison Wheeler wasn’t thinking about a possible theatre show. He was clinging to reality.

After years of ominous signs, the St. Catharines-born writer and teacher suffered a complete psychotic “break from reality” in 1999. Diagnosed with Bipolar I, he spent the next few months trying to differentiate what was real and what wasn’t. And somehow, he kept notes. And kept writing as he battled for control over the next decade. “I think I’ve had about six or seven hospital admissions for long periods of time,” he says from his home in Hamilton. “I managed to have good chunks of healthy years, but the combination of going off my medications or not being compliant with doctor’s orders sent me back.” The illness led to addictions, which led to depression. And it was all captured in his sketchbooks, which eventually became his self-published novel, Jesters Incognito. Somehow, it was a comedy. And somehow, Wheeler has turned it into a one-man stage show coming to St. Catharines Saturday. “I’m just born this way, I look at life through humorous eyes,” he says. “I think pretty much everything is funny, and that’s something that really helped me through this whole process. “If I wasn’t built with this life lens, then I’d be in a much different spot right now. But my imagination has always been on the brighter, more optimistic, funnier side of things.” Premiering over the summer, Jesters Incognito is a tribute to the creative spirit. It follows a cabbie adrift in an alternate universe where live entertainment is outlawed. To bring some joy back to the world, he decides to become an outlaw jester, performing underground for the masses. “Before I was even sick, there was a story in my head forming about jesters in an otherworldly setting,” he says. “That idea just kept popping up in my

JESTER IN THE COURTHOUSE Ful l Art ic l e i n the St . Cathar ines Standard , Dec . 2014�

sketchbook over years and years. Slowly I was able to form a tangible plot from it.” The show earned critical praise over the summer, and more importantly for Wheeler, inspired others suffering from mental illness. “That’s been far beyond what I had expected would happen,” he says. But don’t expect a preachy show, he adds. Mental illness may have inspired the show, but it’s not the driving force behind it. “At no point in the show does anyone feel like they’re being educated or schooled,” he says. “People who like straight-up comedy would get a lot out of it.”

PERFORMANCES TO DATE:�

Hamilton Fringe, Hamilton, Summer 2014

Staircase Theatre, Hamilton, October 2014

Sullivan Mahoney Courthouse Theatre, St. Catharines, Dec. 2014

Pearl Company Theatre, Hamilton, Jan. 2015

��

UPCOMING PERFORMANCES:�

SpringWorks Theatre Festival, Stratford ON, May 2015

http://www.springworksfestival.ca

Hamilton Fringe Festival, Hamilton ON, July 2015

http://hamiltonfringe.ca