ADHD new lens on life

British-Canadian comedian Gerard Harris is performing his comedy A Tension to Detail at the...
British-Canadian comedian Gerard Harris is performing his comedy A Tension to Detail at the Dunedin Fringe Festival. Photo by Linda Robertson.
An easily distracted comedian is confident he can hold your attention for more than an hour.

Gerard Harris has no fixed address, his possessions spread among storage facilities in England and Canada.

He has been travelling since May and surviving on ticket sales from performing his comedy A Tension to Detail.

"If I leave New Zealand with no money, I've done all right.''

He came to the Dunedin Fringe Festival to fulfil a desire to perform in the most southern fringe festival in the world.

The inspiration for the show came from a visit to a psychiatrist at the age of 40, when he was diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

"When you receive a diagnosis like that you look over your whole life and you frame it differently and all your stories change their meaning, like that [snaps fingers].''

The show detailed some of his "foundation experiences'' such as the first day of school, first love and first big accident.

The show was comedy but the audience shouldn't expect a series of gags.

"It's a long throughline story, big picture stuff ... the audience will get the experience of being taken away on a story - and who doesn't love a great book or a great movie that's immersive or even just a great conversation where you forget yourself for a while.''

● The comedy A Tension to Detail is on at Festival Club tonight and tomorrow and St Paul's Cathedral Crypt on March 11 and 12.

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