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 A native of Wickliffe,
Ohio- Kathy’s hearing problem was not detected until she was in the second
grade. Up until then, family members thought that either Kathy was "slow, lazy
or would outgrow" the inability to converse. Once determined to be a
hearing impairment, she was given hearing aids that proved to be too loud and
painful. Nobody could understand why Kathy cried when she would wear the hearing
aids, and she was shown little patience. She was sent to a school for the
handicapped, where Kathy learned to talk.
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 As everyone needs acceptance,
Kathy learned to mimic those around her and even at a young age learned how laughter opens
people up. She became very active in all aspects of social life, or as she put it
“I didn’t belong to one clique, I belonged to all of them.”
"I was in a school for the
retarded for two years before they found out I was hearing impaired," she confides
caustically.
"And they call me slow..."
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 As a child, Buckley said she attempted to
play with children whose hearing was normal, but sometimes had difficulty - especially
when playing 'hide and seek' or 'musical chairs.'
"By the time I’d hear someone say,
‘Hey, Kathy, come and get us,’ the game would be over," she said.
"And ‘musical chairs’? There’s a game for a deaf
kid."
"I spend 13 years with the best speech
therapists in the country, and now they all think I’m from New York."
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Asked about her comic influences, she immediately
names Red Skelton, and then tells a story about watching TV as a little girl.
"I couldn’t hear it, so whenever my
family would laugh I’d laugh. And when they would cry, I would cry. I was
just goin’ off on their emotions. But when Red Skelton came on as Freddie the
Freeloader, he didn't speak. It was all body language. And he was funny.
And I was laughin’ all by myself, and I turned around and looked at my grandmother
and she starts crying. It was the first time she saw me relate to the TV. But
what I learned from Red Skelton is that it's not the value of words so much as it was
listening to the heart."
So that’s what I try to do with my comedy:
"I’ll make you laugh but I’m really goin’ for the heart."
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Kathy's Scrapbook Timeline - Click any Number to Go: |
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