In June 2009 Steve reported for work at Round Lake Camp in Pennsylvania planning to make friends, escape his geeky image back home and exaggerate his British accent in the hope that it would make American girls see past his lazy eye and acne, (it didn’t). Steve was tasked with looking after a 13-year-old called CJ.
CJ was simply incredible. He had hypersensitive ASD (autism spectrum disorder), which did bring its challenges but also meant that certain skills were supercharged. For example, he would walk in giant circles on the grass reciting entire episodes of Spongebob Squarepants with all the characters, all done in the correct voices, while other campers would follow behind him laughing along like Netflix meets conga.
He loved nothing more than studying maps; in fact he had memorised every major road in the United States, making him an actual human Sat Nav. Crucially though, he didn’t mind that he was ‘different’, in fact he saw it as his strength. As someone who was desperately embarrassed by his social failings, being paired with someone who didn’t give a crap was completely liberating. After spending ten weeks surrounded by CJ’s fearlessness Steve plucked up the courage to do his first ever stand-up gig in the staff talent contest, something he has since turned into his career. So in many ways Steve owes CJ everything.
Follow Steve on @stevebugeja Steve Bugeja is one of comedy’s most exciting rising stars. Since winning the BBC New Comedy Award in 2013, Steve has gone on to host the BBC Radio 4 series Economics with Subtitles, and has made numerous appearances on TV shows such as Love Island: Aftersun (ITV2), Russell Howard’s Stand Up Central (Comedy Central), Zoe Ball on Saturday (ITV1) and Dog Ate My Homework (CBBC). He’s even starred in a viral comedy video for Lucozade alongside England footballer Harry Kane.
Steve’s been a featured act for the past 5 years at the Edinburgh Fringe. His 2018 Edinburgh Fringe show ‘Almost’ was a massive hit and went on to become the foundation of his largest national tour. The ‘Almost’ tour followed his previous critically-acclaimed shows Summer Camp (2017), Unpronounceable (2016) and Day Release (2015). This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at www.ted.com/tedx