I first met Jonah Bascle when I joined an improv troop at UNO. I thought it was awesome that we had a guy in a wheelchair. Everyone there was funny, but Jonah had a knack for being really silly and yet earnest at the same time.
I didn't want to be nosey and ask about his condition. If you've ever known someone with a visibly noticeable impairment, you know that strangers will ask them all kinds of questions - some of them normal, some of them totally inappropriate - all the time. I got to know him the way I got to know everyone else there, over time, and I didn't think about it.
Then one day at rehearsal, we were playing a game in which you are paired up with a scene partner and a suggestion is pulled out of a hat that will determine your relationship to one another. You and your scene partner are then supposed to take on those roles and build a scene based on that relationship. For example: teacher and student, sister and brother, bank teller and customer. Jonah and I were next, and our scene suggestion was pulled from the hat:
"Lady Godiva and Her Horse!" Ryan, our team leader, announced.
There were three reactions.
The first one, the external one, where we all started cracking up laughing. (Seriously, who put that one in there?)
Then came my internal reactions, a fast-moving train of thought "OMG. How hilarious would it be if I got on the back of his wheelchair and waved like we were in a parade?"
And then my train hit a wall. I remembered I had no idea what his actual condition was. That kind of comedy can get very physical, but how physical was too physical? Was I being inappropriate? I panicked.
I tried to quickly come up with other ideas, but overthinking it is the death of an improv scene, freezing things up. I don't remember who initiated the scene from that point, but we forged ahead and it was awkward and mostly unfunny (except for Jonah) and at some point I remember going around the stage, galloping behind him. He saved the day.
Not long after that, I learned he had muscular dystrophy. You can know something like that about someone, and know that their time here will be shorter than yours, but it still feels too soon when it happens.
Jonah passed away this week, and NOLA surely won't be the same without him.
In 2009, a little over two years after Lady Godiva and Her Horse, we recorded this podcast where he talked about what he loved most-making comedy. It's nice to listen to this conversation and laugh at it again. He also talks about pushing the boundaries of awkwardness and people's expectations of what he could do.
Thank you for being a good friend, advocate, and inspiration to so many, Jonah. You will be greatly missed.
