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The other weekend (on Mother’s Day, actually) I had the privilege of seeing Bill Cosby live in concert. It was a great show, and the audience was literally roaring for most of it. But one thing stood out for me — Cosby’s interaction with the lady translating the act into American Sign Language on the fly. At various points in the act, Cosby would apologize to the translator, then head into what seemed like an untranslatable bit (for example, the “dentist” bit below — when he gets into the “numb mouth” part). But the translator was absolutely up to the task — from what I would tell (knowing zero sign language myself) she switched into using the American Manual Alphabet at various points, spelling out words with furious speed, and mixing the spelled-out bits with full-word signs. At the end of the dentist bit, the audience cheered — for the translator!
Here’s the bit in question (though from a performance 24 years ago):
Further reading: Wikipedia on American Sign Language.
Comments (6)
Comment
I grew up watching this video and listening to this on tape, so it was a treat to see it again. Also, I’m going to the dentist in just a few minutes.
posted by Phoebe on 5-24-2007 at 10:27 am
Once upon a time, I was in a gospel music & comedy troupe, and was always fascinated by the guy who signed our comedy bits. He looked a bit like a rotund Jerry Calona, and was extremely expressive and animated. It always looked like he was having a lot more fun than we were, and he must have been doing a great job. The deaf were often laughing more than the hearing were.
He also played the piano for the musical half of the team, and even sewed his own suits. Fascinating guy.
posted by Mark R. Brown on 5-24-2007 at 11:14 am
Yep. Watching Bill Cosby “Himself” was one of the few times something on video actually made me laugh so hard that I couldn’t breathe. It’s some truly funny stuff.
posted by Sandy on 5-24-2007 at 1:07 pm
There’s not a sign for every single english word. ASL is more a concept language. One inflects visually with one’s face and body language.
Take the sign “oh, I see” what you mean. You can sign it to mean many different things.
One is always going to have to fingerspell nouns.
posted by Peter on 5-24-2007 at 5:43 pm
Wish I’d been at the performance on Mother’s Day: I like Bill Cosby at lot, and always enjoy seeing a talented interpreter.
I write as an interpreter (who has switched professions) and writer (whose book is the primary text on which the US national examination of interpreting is based). I have a slightly different way of explaining ASL: I consider ASL a “concept language” to the same extent that English is a concept language; they’re just different languages. As with any two languages some words translate and others need paraphrases. (ASL does have recourse to borrowing English words through fingerspelling. Choosing to borrow puts the burden on the receiver to understand the original term.) There are ASL grammatical inflections that can be made with rhythm, repetition, size and placement of signs. There is also an elaborate array of grammatical non-manual movements (of body and face) that can be employed. Plus the face and body can contribute to intonational information in the message.
Of course, an interpreter is constrained to delivering the message that the original speaker has uttered, and a performance interpreter has the added constraint of doing it as soon as possible after the original message, so that the signing audience can laugh (or cry, or chortle, or be horrified, or whatever) along with the hearing & speaking audience, not 10 minutes later. A skilled interpreter will find ways of using meaningful combinations of those grammatical movements to make a single sign do the work of a long phrase in English as one of the ways to keep pace
The challenge in this piece (in part) is that Cosby distorts his mouth and speaks with “numb face” pronunciation. Plus everyone knows that it’s his intention to be funny. So the interpreter’s job is to a) understand him (and hurrah for her if she practiced ahead!); b) find signing equivalents to the silly “bottom lip on my lap” speech, that are not just barely intelligible distortions, but c) also amusing. That’s where the talented are separated from the just-barely-qualified.
posted by NancyF on 5-25-2007 at 4:10 pm
Hah, our english teacher showed us this nearing the end of school. Just because it was so hot and we needed something fun. She said, “Write down as many adjectives he used that you can”. My favorite assignment ever. I fell out of my chair laughing so hard.
posted by Kelli on 6-24-2007 at 9:39 pm