#1 Book Tree

#2 Beer Tree

#3 Lego Tree

#4 Minimalist Tree

#5 Human Tree

#6 Storage Tree

#7 Mirror Tree

#8 Decoration Tree

#9 Cake Tree

#10 Ladder Tree

Photos : Reddit
May 4th marks the start of Deaf Awareness week in the UK. The UK Council on Deafness, founded in 1993 and the national umbrella organisation for charities and professional bodies working in the field of deafness, co-ordinates deaf awareness week which involves UK wide series of national and local events to raise awareness. Deaf Awareness Week aims to promote the positive aspects of deafness, promote social inclusion and raise awareness of the huge range of local organisations that support deaf people and their family and friends.s of the needs of the 1 in 6 deaf or hard of hearing people in the UK.
To celebrate, we are showcasing 10 famous people who are deaf or have partial hearing, and how they have inspired others in their chosen fields.
Ben Cohen MBE is a former England rugby union player and activist. Cohen was also a member of the England national team that won the 2003 World Cup and has played club rugby professionally in both England and France. In 2011, Cohen founded The Ben Cohen StandUp Foundation, Inc., which is, according to its website, “the world’s first foundation dedicated to raising awareness of the long-term, damaging effects of bullying, and funding those doing real-world work to stop it”. Specifically, it has worked with gay charities and has focused on homophobic bullying.
Speaking to the BDA, Cohen said, ”I’m clinically Deaf. I’ve had tinnitus – ringing in my ear – my whole life, but it doesn’t both me. It’s part of my life.
I miss things in conversations. In fact I missed the entire 2003 World Rugby Cup speeches! But I’ve never let my deafness restrict me. It ended up making me one of the top rated point scorers because I never heard players calling out! That meant I never passed the ball!’
Umesh Damdor Valjee, MBE is a South African-born English deaf cricketer. Valjee is former captain of the England national deaf cricket team, and was awarded with the England Disability Cricketer of the Year in 2011. He is a right-handed batsman and very occasional right-arm medium pacer. Valjee came into professional cricket after being signed to British Deaf Sports Council in 1989. He is the longest-serving deaf cricketer of England, and wear same number shirt (No. 1) as was worn by Tom Armitage—the first capped England player.
Horsley was born in Malton, North Yorkshire. At the age of 2, Horsley was taken into hospital and treated for meningitis; the doctors and Georgia’s family all believed she was fine and had recovered, but during a school health check the school nurse discovered that she was deaf in her right ear. Whilst Horsley had not previously revealed about her deaf ear during the Miss England trials, but, after not hearing her number as she was called to the finals, she decided it was to time to be open about it. Horsley is now actively supportive of people with deafness. In 2013, McFly member Danny Jones, Georgia’s long-term boyfriend, proposed during their holiday in Cyprus and they were married on Saturday 2 August 2014 in her home town of Malton, North Yorkshire. Their baby Cooper Alf Jones was born on January 27, 2018.
Pete Townshend is an English musician and songwriter best known as the lead guitarist, second vocalist, and principal songwriter for the rock band The Who.
Townshend suffers from partial deafness and tinnitus, believed to be the result of noise-induced hearing loss from his extensive exposure to loud music. The Who were renowned as a very loud band in their live performances; some particular incidents include a Who concert at the Charlton Athletic Football Club, London, on 31 May 1976 that was listed as the “Loudest Concert Ever” by the Guinness Book of Records, where the volume level was measured at 126 decibels 32 metres from the stage. Townshend has also attributed the start of his hearing loss to Keith Moon’s famous exploding drum set during the Who’s 1967 appearance on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour.[
In 1989, Townshend gave the initial funding to allow the formation of the non-profit hearing advocacy group H.E.A.R. (Hearing Education and Awareness for Rockers). After the Who performed at half-time at Super Bowl XLIV, Townshend stated that he is concerned that his tinnitus has grown to such a point that he might be forced to discontinue performing with the band altogether. He told Rolling Stone, “If my hearing is going to be a problem, we’re not delaying shows. We’re finished. I can’t really see any way around the issue.”
In March 2011, Roger Daltrey said in an interview with the BBC that Townshend had recently experienced gradual but severe hearing loss and was now trying to save what remained of his hearing: “Pete’s having terrible trouble with his hearing. He’s got really, really bad problems with it…not tinnitus, it’s deterioration and he’s seriously now worried about actually losing his hearing.”
Referring to that, in July 2011, Townshend wrote at his blog: “My hearing is actually better than ever because after a feedback scare at the indigO2 in December 2008 I am taking good care of it. I have computer systems in my studio that have helped me do my engineering work on the forthcoming Quadrophenia release. I have had assistance from younger forensic engineers and mastering engineers to help me clean up the high frequencies that are out of my range. The same computer systems work wonderfully well on stage, proving to be perfect for me when the Who performed at the Super Bowl and doing Quadrophenia for TCT at the Royal Albert Hall in 2010. I’m 66, I don’t have perfect hearing, and if I listen to loud music or go to gigs I do tend to get tinnitus.”
James “Deaf” Burke (8 December 1809 – 8 January 1845), was one of England’s earliest boxing champions. He was also deaf. Burke, who trained in the area around the River Thames, stood 6 feet 2 inches (188 cm) tall and weighed 14 stone 4 pounds (200 lb; 91 kg). On 30 May 1833, in a particularly brutal fight for the English heavyweight championship that lasted 3 hours and 6 minutes, Burke defeated Simon Byrne, the Irish champion. Byrne died three days later from his injuries. Burke was promptly arrested and tried for Byrne’s murder, but was acquitted on 11 July 1833 and subsequently freed.] The former English champion Jem Ward, who had earlier retired rather than face Burke in the ring, refused to hand over the championship belt or acknowledge Burke as heavyweight champion. Following Byrne’s death and the resulting stigma from having killed his opponent, Burke found it impossible to obtain opponents in Britain. He went to the United States and fought the new Irish champion Sam O’Rourke in New Orleans on 6 May 1837. As the fight progressed, O’Rourke took heavy punishment. In the third round, fearing O’Rourke’s defeat, elements of the crowd rioted and caused the fight to be abandoned. Burke was forced to flee on horseback. At age 35 and in extreme poverty, Burke died of tuberculosis at home on 8 January 1845 in Frances Street, Waterloo, London. He is buried in St John’s Church-yard, Waterloo.
Dame Evelyn Glennie is a Scottish virtuoso multi-percussionist from Aberdeenshire. Profoundly deaf since 12, she has taught herself to hear in different ways.For example , she regularly plays barefoot during performances to feel the music better. She also plays the Great Highland Bagpipes and has her own registered tartan known as “The Rhythms of Evelyn Glennie”. In the video ”How To Truly Listen” below, Glennie discusses how she feels music in different parts of her body.
Scott Garthwaite, also known as Punk Chef, is a celebrity deaf chef, tevlevision presenter and social media entertainer from Hartlepool.
In addition to his TV and culinary work, Scott is also the manager of Sunderland Deaf Association Football Club, a community football club under Sunderland AFC’s charity the Foundation of Light. He became the first deaf manager in the history of North East to win the England Deaf Football League and Cup double also the first manager to bring home the England Deaf Football Challenge Cup to the North East for the first time in its history.
Sophie Stone is an English stage and television actress. She was the first deaf student to win a place at the drama school RADA.
Deaf since birth, she has nethertheless made in career in theatre and television, appearing in shows such as Dr Who, Two Doors Down, The Crown, Holby City and Shetland. For Scottish comedy Two Doors Down, she even had to learn to sign in Glaswegian!
Matthew Robert Burns was the first deaf man to become a head teacher of a school for the deaf. Burns was born in Dundee on 10th of November 1798. His father was a major in the 84th Regiment while his mother was the daughter of a Lombard Street banker. “Little Matthew” as he was known, was educated with hearing boys, and the article says he claimed that because of that he ‘learned the ordinary idioms of society’. He moved to London when he was a little older and he went to the Old Kent Road School for a while (I am not sure what year). Little is know what he did next until 1830, when he was back in Scotland at Edinburgh, where he helped set up a deaf church. Assisted by Charles Buchan and Alexander Campbell he opened the Carubbbber’s Close Chapel day school in 1832. After that Mr Drysdale took over both mission and school. He was in Aberdeen until 1841, then he went to Bristol but was there for only for two years before he came into conflict with the management committee.
Alexandra of Denmark (Alexandra Caroline Marie Charlotte Louise Julia) was Queen of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions and Empress of India as the wife of King Edward VII. Born in Copenhagen in 1844, she married the Prince of Wales in 1863 and became Queen of the United Kingdom in 1901.
She was deaf from hereditary otosclerosis and used fingerspelling. She went to the deaf church in London and communicated with deaf people. This was supported by Queen Victoria as she had a friend who was deaf. Queen Victoria supported deaf causes and allowed a number of schools to become Royal schools for the deaf.
Original article published by the EFC
Flyering can be your best and worst experience of the Fringe. At its best it allows you to interact with your future audience and get bums on seats. At its worst it can mean hours stood on the Royal Mile, in the rain, engaging with disinterested tourists who question your environmental and performance credentials. But it can be a positive experience and strategy is key – here are our top tips for flyering at the Edinburgh Fringe!
Flyering in the rain, tired from an after-show party in Brewhemia, getting harassed by a vocal lady visiting from Tunbridge Wells on how your show is a copy of one she thinks she saw in Ipswich in 1972 is never fun. Shared with a friend it can be!
More of your team out flyering means more engagement with potential audience members. You have heard the adage about buses come along in threes? That happens when you are flyering on the Royal Mile too, and after being ignored for 10 minutes you can guarantee that the three large family groups all wanting to know about your show will all converge simultaneously. Easier to handle as a group.
Visually too , a friend or group will give you so much more presence when flyering. Of course, it’s not always possible to have more than one person there. If not, offer to support another act if they will support you back in return. You will make a new friend, and learn their flyering techniques!
2. Branding is key
Does your flyer branding match your poster branding? And your poster branding match our website branding? And your website branding match your social media branding? And your social media branding match your Fringe listing branding? Consistency is key! If you saw an airline company handing out orange flyers on the Royal Mile, I would wager you would instantly know which one! And you could guess the exact shade of orange their poster would be too, without even seeing it right? Big companies know the importance of using consistent fonts, colours, images and messages in their branding and you should too!
If you need help on this, engage with a professional (graphic) designer. Because an amateurish flyer will equate in people’s minds to an amateurish performer that they do not want to invest their time and money in coming to see.
3. Don’t ignore the men in suits!
This tip came from our founder who walks the Royal Mile during Fringe on a lunchtime. It astounded him that a suit was a flyer repellent to such an extent that he walked past one University group 16 times (he counted!), before they engaged with him and gave out a flyer.
What had not occurred to the Uni group was that people in business wear are actually the best people to engage with! For one, they are much more likely to live in Edinburgh and therefore come and see your show at some point over the course of its run. Secondly, they are likely to work in an office; and in Edinburgh offices over August one of the main topics of conversation is the Fringe! Telling office boy ‘Calum’ about your show and giving him 10 flyers to put in his office kitchen is likely to result in far more ticket sales and awareness of your show than talking to tourist ‘Dave’!
4. Location, Location, Location!
Targeting can be key! Whilst flyering on the Royal Mile is a must for any first-time Fringe performer and great for building brand awareness, you will quickly learn there are other (better) locations!
Does your show cover a niche or will it appeal to a specific demographic? Then head to where that demographic will be located! Does you show have a religious theme? Perhaps flyer outside a busy church when the congregation is leaving? Does you show have an LGBT theme? Maybe head down to Edinburgh’s Pink Triangle and flyer to punters leaving CC Blooms or The Street? Late night comedy show? Head to the Grassmarket mid-evening and flyer people leaving the pubs.
Perhaps head places too where you know you will have a captive audience! I am amazed I have never seen anyone flyer commuters waiting at tram or bus stops yet. Perfect if you want to give them a mini gig whilst they wait!
5. #TakeAPhoto and #SustainableFringe
There are environmental concerns around flyering and the inevitable waste it produces. Our environmental writer, Matt Turner, offered some great tips for the Fringe last year for performers to reduce their environmental impact. You can read his article here.
This year, groups such as Staging Change are asking performers to think differently about flyering. Firstly they are asking potential audience members to snap a photo of flyers instead of taking them. On social media they are campaigning on this issue using the #TakeAPhoto hashtag.
Secondly, they are asking performers to make sure that their flyers can be recycled and to include the below graphic on their flyers.
Two small changes but potentially one big impact!
6. Stand out from the crowd!
If you have props and a costume, use them to help you stand out from the crowds in busy places such as the Royal Mile. They also help you with the unified branding of your show.
Gimmicks can help too – free food, people ‘dead’ on the ground advertising a crime thriller, free hugs, giant robots and fake arguments were all spotted on the Royal Mile by our team last year. Only use gimmicks though if they help you promote your show. If people walk away without a flyer and a perception your £10 a head show at the Pleasance is a free Street Show, you have given out the wrong message.
7. Use a #Hashtag
If you have gone to the trouble of bringing your costume and props along, people will invariably want a ‘Kodak moment’ with you. Use that opportunity to spread awareness of your show! Choose a short and memorable hashtag that relates to your show, print it on your flyer, then ask every punter who takes their photo with you to use the hashtag when they share the photo on their social media. A great way to track interest in your show!
8. Flyer outside the Half Price Hut
Need to bolster your ticket sales? A good place to stand would be close to the half-price ticket sale huts, such as the ones next to the National Gallery. That is because you will be pitching to punters who have yet to buy tickets and as such will be more willing to take a chance on an unknown show.
9. Engage!
It sounds obvious but a smiley welcoming face will encourage people to talk to you about your show! Standing around checking your phone or chatting with your co-stars will not! The personal interaction you get from chatting to punters may well spark a personal connection for them to your show (‘oh – I didn’t realise you were from my hometown!’), that may further encourage them to actually come along!
10. Make every flyer count
Flyers cost you in both time and money and you want to make your investment make a return in ticket sales. In can be tempting to hand one out to every stranger walking past, whether they want a flyer or not. Despite all your frantic efforts, 99% will end up discarded. So how do you change that and increase the conversion rate of flyers handed out vs resultant ticket sales?
Most importantly, be selective in who you hand your flyer to. Only give them to people you have engaged with and seem interested in your show. Your success rate has just doubled!
But how do you further that success rate? I talked last year with a stand-up comedian who had a great take on flyering and a method that actually worked.
Finally, the EFC included in their article a story from a stand-up comedian who transformed his conversion rate from flyering to ticket sales by 50% using a very simple free technique. To find out more about it, see the original article from our friends at the EFC