- ...with disabilities throughout Texas. For their willingness to tackle difficult subjects with insight and biting humor, we are pleased to award the "Gene and Dave Show" and co-producers Gene Rodgers and David Dauber the inaugural 2019 Art Spark Texas Lynn Marie Johnson Media Arts Award. - Hey Adam, do you know what the "Gene and Dave Show" is? - I'm not really sure what it's about. It's on Public Access, I believe. Maybe it's about dating advice. Wheelchair sports maybe. Favorite bar? - What's the "Gene and Dave Show"? I've never seen it. Gene said he'd pay me to watch it, but he never did. - The "Gene and Dave show"? - Gene and Dave, aren't those two fellows on "Hannity" every night? - The "Gene and Dave Show"? Are you sure it's not the "Dave and Gene Show"? - Isn't that that really bad gay cooking show? - The "Gene and Dave Show" is a one hour show that airs on Public Access. Its first airing was March of 2009. It's a show about life. Living life, experiencing life, and negotiating the world while having a disability. Hey Eric, do you know? Are there any laws that make it easier for those of us with disabilities to navigate life? - Are there laws protecting the rights of people with disabilities? Well, how much time do you have? There's the Rehabilitation Act, Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, Air Carrier Access Act, Architectural Barriers Act, but probably the one that's most important is the Americans with Disabilities Act, or the ADA, and it's been around for 30 years, so if you haven't heard of it, it's time to look it up. Or, you can talk to Gene and Dave, I'm sure they know about it. - Hey, what about work? April, have you ever worked with someone with a disability? - Oh yes, I work with people with disabilities all day long here at Art Spark Texas. That's what we do here! But nobody makes me work as hard as Gene and Dave! - I'd like to call our good friend Chris Strickling. She's gonna have a few words for us. - It's the only time I'll ever have only a few words. Gene Rodgers and David Dauber met as writer-performers in "Actual Lives Austin", which was a page-to-stage project that brought adults with disabilities together to write and perform personal stories. The first incarnation of that ensemble was in August of 2000. And it was spearheaded by Deaf Queer performance artist Terry Galloway, me, and Celia Hughes, who was at that point the Executive Director of VSA, which is now Art Spark. It was designed as a one-way project and it went on for 11 years. Gene joined in 2001, and Dave in 2003, I think. In our fourth year of "Actual Lives", Gene and David teamed up to make a video called "Who Works Monday?". You know, think about Bud Abbott and Lou Costello, and "Who's on First?". Remember that? Well, Gene and Dave hijacked that original wordplay, about names of baseball players, and substituted the names of personal care attendants. And in our 2004 show, at the Dougherty Arts Center, their "Who Works Monday?" video ran on a continuous loop in the lobby during the intermission, and it was a huge hit. And, of course it was. And, I think it was the beginning of their plots to have a television show of their own. These two jokers have been creating videos about life with disability for more than a decade. Gene and Dave's work just kills any idea that disability means tragedy or overwhelming limitations. Their videos focus on what's possible, what's interesting, and what binds us all together. Whether it's a cooking show, or exploring indoor and outdoor recreation opportunities, or accessibility issues that go from transportation to audio description, and yes, advocating for parenting options for adults with disabilities, Dave and Gene have been there and done that. But this year was their big win. It's fair to say that they influenced the South By Southwest event planners to include a wheelchair accessible show this year, so that more people with disabilities could participate in more of the events. They had a hand in assuring that several movies based on the lives of adults with disabilities were included in the media lineup. And they were instrumental in establishing an accessibility track for the annual conference that introduces tech participants to arrange with accessibility technologies. Just by showing up as they are, and teaching what they know, they make a difference in the Austin community. Whatever they do, they do it with pride, and conviction, and humor always. And that's the way Lynn was too. And for all those reasons, I know Lynn would be proud to present this well-deserved personal award, in her name, to "The Gene and Dave Show". Congratulations. You can take it, Dave. - We just wanna show you all how well we can dance. - Hi, I'm Gene. - And I'm Dave. - And we are "The Gene and Dave Show". - Thank you all so much for being here today. This award is quite the honor. And Chris's words were amazing. So thank you all very much. I know that we all are missing Lynn. Everybody that knew Lynn definitely misses her. Especially Celia. Because she did a lot for VSA. And she's gonna continue to do a lot from heaven for Art Spark Texas. I looked at Lynn's Facebook page the other day because I was just trying to soak in, you know, the essence of Lynn. And that's when we found out we won this award. And there was a lot of people that said that they missed her. But then after that it got to the point where Lynn's posts were there. And her posts were never about what she had for breakfast or what she was going through that day, like many posts, and I'm guilty of it too on Facebook. But her posts were about 'go to this event and do this thing' and 'I'm doing this for I'm volunteering here'. 'Come out and help and support this group'. And you can look at her Facebook page and see that's all it was. Post after post of how great it was to help the city of Austin in all forms and different types that we get. She leveraged everything that she had off of other people around her. And I think that's why "The Gene and Dave Show" has survived as long as it has. Because we were like "Let's do a TV show together" and "How do we do it?" - Yes. "How do we do it?" Well, we weren't exactly sure, except, we did know we were gonna need money. But in good fundraising, that's a lot of work, and Dave and I weren't really into it. So we thought, "Who can we get to do this for us?". Oh yeah. Celia. We could get her to write for us because she loves doing that kind of stuff. So we started it there, and then we thought, "All right. We're gonna do a TV show, but we don't really know about producing a TV show.". It looks like a lot of work involved and we weren't really into it. So we thought, "How could we get this done?". Oh yeah we'll call Linda Letowski. She can teach us everything about producing a great show. So that's what we did. Now, okay we got it. We can now do a show, but how are we going to start off? Well, our format, let's see. Let's interview someone that kind of reflects our personalities and such. Get someone real professional. Real knowledgeable about producibility rights. Somebody real polished. Well, who better than Dennis Borel from CTD. So we got Dennis. But then we thought, "Wait a minute, people might have high expectations of this.". We better get someone that's a little rough around the edges. Someone not quite so PC. Someone who doesn't have to work at interviewing. You know, the kind of person you could stick a microphone in front of them and they talk and talk. So we got Bob Kafka. So the element here is the show. But now we thought, "Wait, how are we gonna promote it?". We need a web page. Not just any web page, but a great web page. Well Dave and I have both made web pages in the past. But to make a great one requires a lot of work and we didn't really wanna do that. So we thought, "Oh I know. We'll call Sharron Rush over at Knowbility. She always stuck with something". And indeed she did. She took us up, in fact, and I insist who did a fantastic job. But then we also gotta make sure it is accessible. And that's a lot of work, too, and Dave and I weren't really into that. So, we called Glenda Sims over in UT. She's a webmaster. At the time she was a webmaster and she made sure it was all accessible. So, through this community of right-minded people, our show evolved into this digital media. This art form we call "The Gene and Dave Show". And we wanna thank the community for joining with us to make this happen. - So I guess we give it to Dave right? Because he does all the work? - Who better than me for that? - Hey, aren't you that guy? You're Gene, right? - No, I'm Dave. - You can find us at www.thegeneanddaveshow.com. Thanks for sacrificing yourself.