“I like to tell people I started doing stand-up comedy when I finally couldn’t,” jokes Wes Johnson.
As a member of the Army National Guard, Wes’s plans to deploy to Afghanistan were altered when he suffered a C5-6 spinal cord injury in a car accident, leaving him paralyzed. Since then, he has taken to stand-up comedy, injecting humor in people’s lives and in his own, as a way to help him move forward after his injury. “He infects everyone with happiness around him,” says Taylor Linster, his trainer at Brooks Rehabilitation Center.
Wes has also been actively pursuing physical exercise since his accident, working out three times a week at the rehabilitation center and taking up adaptive sports.
But comedy is what propels him. Starting out at a talent show in Brooks, he ventured to bigger platforms, taking home the title of champion at Jackie Knight’s Comedy Club, and showcased his comedic talent at Jacksonville Comedy Club.
“If you can take a situation and laugh at it, then it can’t stop you.”
That is the motto Wes lives by. That outlook has helped him move forward and accomplish things like driving, participating in sports, getting married, and buying a house – all after his injury. And of course, he continues spreading laughter into people’s lives through his pursuit of stand-up comedy.
Share this post with someone who needs some humor to lift his or her spirits up!