Name: The Man Who Overcame Tourette's - Marc Elliot | This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von #160
Uploaded: 2018-12-27T14:00:08.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'The Man Who Overcame Tourette's - Marc Elliot | This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von #160' from Theo Von on Comedy Buff. Published 2018-12-27. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'The Man Who Overcame Tourette's - Marc Elliot | This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von #160' from Theo Von on Comedy Buff. Published 2018-12-27. Transcript available.

The Man Who Overcame Tourette's - Marc Elliot | This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von #160

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Today's episode is a young man who, I'll be honest with you, I don't know if he
had Tourette's or not. If I'm being totally frank.
We were looking for a Tourette's guy, someone who had Tourette's or has had Tourette's.
A lot of our listeners know I beat down syndrome when I was young.
You know, the doctor said 95% chance that he has it and then eventually said 40%
chance.
By the time I was like 11 years old, they're like 0% chance, maybe 5% chance.
So I understand people overcoming afflictions and rare diseases, but this guy,
we wanted to have somebody in who had Tourette's.
And Tourette's is a French disease that made its way to America and afflicts
millions of people, maybe even hundreds of millions.
And we had a fascinating conversation.
He was very kind to come in.
He's given TED Talks on the subject.
And this is a man who found a way to master, you know, those, you know, one of
the Lord's most dangerous and wild gifts, which is Tourette's.
Ladies and gentlemen, our guest today is TED Talker, author, and Tourette's
defeater, Mr. Mark Elliott.
I'm sitting here, Mark Elliott.
Thanks for joining us today, brother.
Thanks for having me, Theo.
Yeah, I appreciate it, man.
And I was like, because you, you know, I was looking at some of your videos,
looking at your TED Talk, and I was like, wow, this guy, you know, at first I
was like, because it's about Tourette's, mostly about Tourette's syndrome, you
know?
It's about a lot of things.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Well, okay, so then, well, tell me what Tourette's is, man.
So if somebody doesn't know Tourette's, you know, like, what is it?
Okay, so when I grew up, let me start there, because I think it's a little bit
easier.
Okay.
The way that I understood Tourette's syndrome is that it's a neurological
genetic disorder that's involuntary and has no cure.
Yeah.
It's like just somebody working freelance, really, on their own.
You know, it's somebody just, the Lord, I feel like, is just remixing somebody,
and they're just kind of shook.
Well, you know, some people, I mean, it's sort of, I mean, it's bizarre when
you see somebody, you know, ticking, because it's, obviously, if you know it,
it's not as bizarre.
Yeah.
But, you know, just from, you know, if you're just walking, or you're at
McDonald's, or you're walking somewhere, and you just start seeing someone bark
like a dog.
Yeah.
Doing things uncontrollably, that, it's.
Oh, we had a dude named Jim Wager, and he would bust out the N-word every now
and then, you know?
And I don't use the N-word, unless you do, you know what I'm saying?
But he was this white guy, and he would just, and so a lot of times, people
would just take him over and, like, set him in, like, the black area of, like,
the schoolyard, you know?
And just run off and, like, just wait for him to go off, you know?
And then, and that was kind of wild.
I mean, you know, like, so you have, I mean, I guess kids can be more cruel
about it.
But, yeah, I guess for most people, if they think about it, like, if I think
about it, I don't know about most people, but it's like, yeah.
Yeah, it's a, it's a, it's a disease, or it's a syndrome, or it's a thing where
you are, like, involuntary.
It's almost like somebody is, like, you're a puppet of, of, you know, some dark
lord or something.
Of a dark lord, yes.
I mean, some people did, I think some people believe that you actually are
possessed by the devil kind of thing.
Oh, yeah.
Because it just, it looks, it looks, it's just intense when you're watching it.
Yeah.
But, let me just explain a little bit of how I actually experienced it, because
it sort of evolved over the years.
Okay.
But you had it.
You still have it, or you have it?
You had it.
I don't have it anymore.
You beat it.
I beat it.
Hell yeah, dude.
Hell yeah.
Wow, you beat it, man.
So, and I don't say that I cured it.
I mean, it was, it was a journey.
Okay.
And we can talk, and I'm sure we'll talk about it more.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
But basically, you know, I even posted some videos about this, but basically,
the way that I experience Tourette's is that there's a very uncomfortable
feeling on the inside.
Yes.
Okay.
So, I always tell people, you know, think of an itch.
Right.
You know, stuff like you think of an itch right now, you'll probably just get
one.
Right.
Which is how it works.
I don't know how that works with the mind.
Yeah.
Itchcraft.
That's called itchcraft.
Itchcraft.
Yes.
So, there's, see, exactly.
Yeah.
But yeah, you can start it, you think it, you get it.
You start thinking about it.
Okay.
So, there's this uncomfortable feeling in my body.
Okay.
And when I was a kid, the only way I knew how to get rid of that feeling was to,
or to say a word.
Okay.
Or to, you know, hump my, thrust my hips, whatever it was.
And as soon as I ticked, that itch went away.
Okay.
And it felt amazing.
Right.
You just feel so much better because that discomfort, whatever that itch is, it
was gone.
Okay.
Now, of course, when I was a kid, I didn't have that type of understanding
about it though.
Mm-hmm.
I just was, there was, so basically there's the itch.
Right, you don't have an understanding of it, so you're just living it.
I'm just living it.
And I wasn't like, oh, I have this itch.
This, and then I'm doing this.
And then I'm doing this.
It all was one big mesh kind of ball of Tourette's, you know?
Yeah.
And the thing is, when you use that analogy though, you have to be careful
because people
could then, you know, say, well, why'd you just not scratch it?
Right.
Just don't, don't scratch it.
And that's a great question, but it's tough.
You know, imagine having 10, like instead of just that one itch that you might
be feeling
on your leg, imagine now having 10, 15, 20 itches all in one spot.
Yeah.
Oh, well then, if somebody looks at you and says, I have an itch right now and
I'm not
scratching it, that person is, we usually, you know, that person's with Satan
or that
person is like a, that's a sociopath.
You know what I'm saying?
Imagine somebody leaning over to you and be like, hey man, I have the biggest
itch.
I'm like, you know, my leg, my arm is itching so bad, but guess what?
I'm not going to scratch it.
You're like, what a psychopath, you know?
So yeah, wanting to scratch an itch, that's totally normal.
You can't not, it's like you would do it no matter what.
Yes.
And growing up, I didn't, I didn't know of any other way it could be.
Right.
That was just the way it was.
Right.
And so my definition of Tourette's now has sort of evolved over time, but this
is kind
of interesting for me.
And this is just my opinion.
Yeah.
That itch that I described, to me, that's Tourette's syndrome.
Okay.
That feeling, whatever that is.
And then when you see somebody tick or somebody would see me tick, that was
actually me, in
a sense, coping with my Tourette's.
Okay.
Does that make sense?
Yes, it makes sense.
So the itch is the Tourette's, the uncomfortability, the, you know, the, you
know, the baffling uncomfortability,
the need to do something, the incontrollable desire to act.
Yes.
That is the itch.
Yes.
That's the Tourette's.
And then your reaction, your tick is a...
It's the release.
It's the way that I can get rid of that, that uncomfortable feeling.
Right.
Because as soon as that feeling goes away, you feel...
Normal.
You're normal.
Yeah.
But with Tourette's syndrome, it's difficult because that feeling comes right
back.
Okay.
You know.
It starts to build up again.
Feel, you know.
Now, is there special ways, like I remember this one kid, like the same kid,
this boy Jim
Wager at school, they would put like, you know, if they laid him on the, no
joke, they'd
lay him on the ground and put like cement on his back, cement pieces, and he
would not
get it for a while.
And it would like...
What do you mean cement pieces?
... calm him down.
Just like, you know, blocks, not cinder blocks, but thick kind of chunks of
cement,
you know?
So, and it would like, I don't know if that was the weight of it or something,
it would
kind of like, you know, it would exacerbate the desire or the buildup, I guess,
of the
Tourette's in him, you know?
I mean, it was also kind of old school, you know, not doctor, you know...
You do whatever you can.
I mean...
Yeah.
But I remember, yeah, at one point they were stacking and then it got a little
bit weird
because people were just stacking pieces of cement on them, you know?
Like, and at one point he was basically in like a...
I mean, it looked like he was in his own little 9-11 there, you know?
He was just like in a big pile of rubble.
But he wasn't...
Like a karate chopper or something?
Yeah, it almost seemed like...
Dude, did you ever have that teacher that would come to school?
It was always like this weird teacher and he would come to school and do like
the karate
presentation for the student body.
Did you ever have that?
Oh, you're bringing back some memory.
I mean, yes, a vague memory of like, you know, sort of like a 50-year-old man,
like the
huge, you know, in the white karate jersey, whatever you call it, the...
Yeah.
The gi.
The gi, thank you.
Yeah, that was a big thing in the South where every like other year or
something, one teacher
would put on like a skill they had and this one dude had a nunchucks, I guess,
you know?
And he had an assistant and he literally, they started it and he hit this girl
right in the
neck so hard and then they just shut it down.
That was...
No one with nunchucks knows how to use them.
Yeah, thank you.
Thank you, dude.
Was she okay?
And that should be a crime.
Oh, who knows?
I mean, this was a different time when they didn't care if everybody was okay,
you know?
But anyway, so yeah, not trying to, you know, but I would see, I saw this, the
only experience
I had with being around somebody with Tourette's when I was young, and this isn't
about me,
but it was just, you know, this boy that had it and how people would react to
him.
And then, you know, people would do things like, I remember a lot of people
would like
kind of hug him or push on him sometimes and it would, it would make him kind
of feel okay
or comfortable for a little bit.
Did you find ways that made the Tourette's feel more comfortable to you or to
kind of like
quell it so that it didn't build up so fast?
Because like you said, you relieved it with a tick.
Yes.
You would release it or relieve it and then it would start to build up again.
I tried so many different things.
Okay.
I mean, I did medications.
Okay.
Well, the cool thing is with that analogy that I was describing with the itch
and the scratch,
now sort of looking back, I see that, and again, not a doctor, thi