This ain't heavy...he's my brother

Comedian Maggie Crane tells Rick Fulton how she hopes to keep her disabled sibling’s memory alive in Fringe show

- Rick Fulton

WHEN Maggie Crane was growing up she had a meltdown because she had to wear a blindfold to pin the tail on the donkey – and her disabled brother didn’t.

There was still sibling rivalry despite her older brother Aidan being blind, a wheelchair user and nonverbal.

New Yorker Maggie is making her Edinburgh Fringe debut with Side by Side – a comedy about that time. She revealed: “This never stopped the wild jealousy, one-sided sibling rivalry, and unique bond between us.

“We went to school together at a programme called Side by Side, a daycare for disabled and non-disabled kids.

“We went on vacations to Children’s Hospital in Boston and to Canada to smuggle medication so as to not go bankrupt in the medical hellscape of America.

“I learned how to sense when a seizure was coming and how to clean out a tracheostomy tube.

“He learned how to deal with my never-ending b******; be that throwing a fit because I had to wear a blindfold while playing pin the tail on the donkey and he did not (because he was blind) or demanding to be the one to push his wheelchair only to inevitably steer him into a wall.”