‘Handicap This!’ show featuring Mike Berkson, Tim Wambach dispels myths of cerebral palsy with humor

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Tim Wambach and Mike Berkson

Updated: February 23, 2012 8:14AM

In the hushed darkness of Skokie’s North Shore Center for the Performing Arts, the spotlight finds a young man in a wheelchair at center stage. His hands are clenched, his head tilted, his motionless body leaning to one side.

His first words are a declaration, uttered with a sense of urgency.

“I have,” he says, “cerebral palsy.”

A second man bounds out stage left, introduces himself and adds: “... And I don’t.”

So begins a one-of-a-kind reality show starring Mike Berkson, a sharp-witted, movie-obsessed 22-year-old college student, and Tim Wambach, his aide, champion and sidekick.

They’re on stage this night to celebrate their friendship, reminisce about shared experiences (the good, bad and unforgettable) and offer theatergoers what they call life lessons about perseverance.

It’s familiar territory for Berkson, who has learned (with Wambach’s help) to find laughs from the awkward stares of strangers, cope with a body where he can control just a single finger and fend off those darkest of days when he wants to end it all.

It’s a story heavy on unvarnished truths and light on political correctness (“gimp” is in, “challenged” is out). And it’s a story designed to motivate, educate and inspire.

The two bonded about 10 years ago in a food court mall when Tim Wambach, recently hired to help a young Berkson as his aide in elementary school, took him on their first solo adventure.

Berkson wanted to eat at Taco Bell. Fine, thought Wambach, not realizing that feeding a crumbling-gooey concoction to a 12-year-old who can’t use his arms or hands wouldn’t be easy. Soon, there were tortilla bits on Berkson’s torso, lettuce in his lap, cheese in places where there shouldn’t be cheese. Wambach was horrified.

Berkson broke the ice. “There’s no need to cry over spilled Taco Bell,” he assured his exasperated helper. “It was quick-witted, boom, out of the box,” Wambach recalls. “I was hooked.”

Berkson and Wambach came up with the idea for their show — “Handicap This!” — to dispel myths about cerebral palsy and disabilities and encourage others to overcome obstacles. But there are personal reasons, too: The show satisfies Wambach’s yearning to be a motivational speaker. And it gives a voice to someone who often is ignored.

“My body is in a wheelchair, my mind is not,” Berkson says.

As part of the 80-minute show, Berkson offers a Top 9 tongue-in-cheek list of advantages of living with cerebral palsy. Among them: Never wear out a pair of shoes. Always have a place to sit. And one that seems funny, but is uncomfortably true — lower expectations.

Still, Berkson says Wambach can only do so much to make life easier.

“I’ve come to terms with the big stuff that I’ll never be able to do but I have yet to come to terms with the daily everyday things I can’t do,” he says. “When I wake up in the morning, I know it’s going to be somewhat difficult. I know I’m going to get from point A to point B, but what unforeseen obstacles are going to arise?”

Near the show’s end, Berkson introduces what he calls a movie he dreams about at night.

The lights fade, and a young man in a wheelchair appears, his hands splayed, his body stiff. It seems to be Berkson, until something unexpected happens: He rises, walks to the center of the stage, and embraces his girlfriend.

It’s David Berkson, Mike Berkson’s identical twin.

So is this Mike Berkson’s dream?

Yes. And no.

“In the spirit of my wanting to be like everybody else,” he says, “it is. The details aren’t the same, but the message is.”

AP