 I was running late to meet my friends and get to a 1980 Van Halen concert; I should have slowed down, but I twisted the throttle and sped up. The wind screaming past my helmet made me feel free, happy, powerful! Wham! My motorcycle hit a truck and stopped dead. I flew over the handle bars like I’d been fired from a circus cannon. My face and helmet slammed into the truck. My helmet cracked. My face bones broke. My limp body dropped to the pavement. Somebody called 911.
A month later, Al Foxx came out of a coma to find himself brain damaged, speech impaired and with the left side of his body paralyzed. Doctors told him he'd never walk, talk understandably, or drive.
Today Al drives to his Christian speaking engagements, limps unto the stage, and gets paid to share what he has learned from decades of rehabilitation. Al Foxx is a professional humorist and an inspiring Christian speaker/author with insights into overcoming obstacles, living with a disability and dealing with disappointment. He shares these principles with Christian audiences nationwide. Since everyone has had their own version of Al’s motorcycle crash, everyone can relate to his challenges, successes and failures.
Al shares his personal story
Born in 1961, I lived in Detroit until my parents moved to Seattle when I was 13. I had nothing else going on, so I went with them, but leaving all my friends was painful. I needed new friends quick. How does a young person make quick friends? Hang around the kids who don’t follow the rules. To make a long story shorter, after getting kicked out of a Christian boarding academy, I got a job as a roofer so I could buy the things I loved. To me, snow skiing, backpacking, cars and motorcycles fascinated me more than chalk boards, textbooks and God.
On my way to a spring concert in 1980, after leaving the house of my fiancée and speeding down the road (way over the speed limit), my motorcycle crashed into a pickup truck that ran a stop sign right in front of me.
After spending a month in a coma, I woke up with a brain injury and the left side of my body paralyzed. My surgeon looked me in the eye as he told me I would never walk or drive again. Never walk?! Never drive?! I’m a 19 year old roofer. I have to walk. I have to drive! Frantically I pushed my paralyzed leg off the hospital bed and tried to stand up. I fell on my face. Two nurses helped the surgeon put me back in bed, but as soon as they turned around I climbed back out and fell on my face again. This time they put me back and strapped me in. As I lay there, staring at the ceiling, I could read the writing on the wall. Instead of hanging out with friends, snow skiing, water skiing, back packing, going to rock concerts and to the beach, I was going to be spending my time in physical, speech, occupational and psycho therapy and potentially have a life long disability. What a drag, what a bore, what a challenge!
Depression and fear hounded me as I considered my future. I blamed God, others, and myself for my situation. Rebuilding my life seemed impossible. I tried school, but brain damage and studies are as compatible as fire and ice. It took me 7 years to graduate from a community college with a meaningless two year degree. I tried voc rehab, but the dead end jobs they had me doing paid me too little to earn a decent living. Luckily I had roofed long enough to earn a monthly disability check, but living on disability is tough. It took years, but I finally realized that my only hope for living a happy, fulfilled life is Jesus. I renewed my relationship with Him and started going to church again. However, at that time, Jesus was more of a Savior and friend than the Lord of my life. My behavior didn’t reflect my relationship with Him.
I didn’t think standup comedy could lead to a potential career when I first got on stage at a Christian singles Amateur Night. Joke telling wasn’t among the suggested type of talents to display, but I didn’t sing, quote long passages of scripture, or play a musical instrument. A lot of other people didn’t do those things either. A lot of people wouldn’t be in the program. But I wanted to be in the program.
I’ll never forget that Amateur Night. Not only did the people laugh enthusiastically, a young lady who had been a professional comedian approached me after the show and convinced me to go with her to a local comedy club’s open mic. I did the open mic show and I loved it. At the time, I was working as a substitute Teaching Assistant, fun and interesting but with absolutely no future. A few years after beginning to do standup, one of the teachers I was working with asked me to share the details of my crash with the kids in her class. I did. They loved listening to my story and laughing at my jokes.
I loved it, too. I especially enjoyed knowing that my description of my crash could help them be more careful and therefore safer and the fact that I, a person with disabilities, was making them laugh and think about life may open their minds to their own possibilities as well as the possibilities of people with disabilities. By then, I realized that three myths stereotype people with disabilities.
- People with disabilities are not intelligent.
- People with disabilities are not competent.
- People with disabilities don’t have dreams.
The thought of dispelling these myths excited me. The idea of being part of increasing the comfort and efficiency of people with disabilities and those who hire them or work with them was huge. Helping everyone to see possibilities instead of stereotypes was the best part.
After ten years of comedy clubs and comedy shows, I realized that I wanted to do more than help club owners sell beer. More and more I started sharing my story in school classrooms and assemblies. From there, I started sharing my story in government agencies and in business settings. I now also share my story and insights with Christian audiences as I have made Jesus more than my Savior-He is now my Lord and Savior.
As I’ve grown as a speaker and in my relationship with God, I realized three things:
- Sharing biblical principles to help folks work through their own motorcycle crashes is a rush.
- Jesus has been with me during my entire rehabilitation process, even before I asked Him to be.
- He hasn’t brought me as far as he has to drop me now.
My first autobiography No Limits, was written for secular audiences and helps readers understand the challenges and struggles of living with brain damage. I am finalizing my Christian autobiography and hope to publish it by the end of 2007.
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