Most of us would rather have a root canal than tell jokes to a crowd. But Courtney Gilmour has never been like most of us. A rising star on the stand-up comedy circuit, Gilmour makes people laugh while rewriting narratives about the amputee experience in an able-bodied world.
“Describing my daily encounters with strangers, with children, with cab drivers, with people who just come into contact with me, that’s a really great way to show people ‘Hey, this is how not to talk to me!’” says Gilmour, a 38-year-old Canadian whose career is starting to take off. Her debut record, Let Me Hold Your Baby, got a Best Comedy Album nomination at this year’s Juno Awards (Canada’s equivalent to the Grammys). Gilmour also recently made the finals of Canada’s Got Talent. Now she’s on a trajectory to light up North American comedy clubs, spinning amusing tales of life as a single woman who just happens to be a congenital bilateral arm amputee.
