A Dyslexic Comedian Walks Into a Recording Booth …
Posted on: Mar 19, 2025 19:30 IST | Posted by: Nytimes
Writing a memoir was no laughing matter for Phil Hanley. Narrating the audiobook took 16 sessions, 64 hours and a supportive audience.
Writing a memoir was no laughing matter for Phil Hanley. Narrating the audiobook took 16 sessions, 64 hours and a supportive audience.
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Phil Hanley stood in a womb-like studio, psyching himself up to record the final section of his memoir. Peppermint tea, check. Hands in meditation position, check. Sheaf of highlighted, color coded pages printed in extra large type, check.
But when Hanley leaned into the microphone to read from “Spellbound,” his candid account of growing up dyslexic, he sounded more like an anxious student than the seasoned comedian he is.
He eked out 13 words, then stumbled, exhaling sharply in triplicate, Lamaze style. He tried again, the same sentence with slightly different intonation. Puff, puff, puff. And again, making it through three more words. Puff, puff, puff. On his fourth attempt, Hanley choked up.
It was his 60th hour in the booth at his publisher’s office, not counting practice sessions at home. Most authors are at the studio for a fraction of this time; the average recording length for a 7.5 hour audiobook is 15 hours. But because Hanley has severe dyslexia, the process was protracted. And complicated. And emotional.
“The most traumatic moments of my life have been having to read out loud,” Hanley said. “I can’t even express how tiring it is to do the audiobook. It feels like chiseling a marble statue with a screwdriver and a broken hammer.”
Nevertheless, he was hellbent on reading his own story. What would it say to the dyslexic community if he handed off the mic?
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