Randy RutherfordA profile of performer Randy Rutherford appears in the The Star Phoenix in Saskatoon, who has been appearing several Fringe festivals in Canada.
San Francisco's Randy Rutherford is not deaf to the praise his Fringe show is getting.
Rutherford has 70 per cent hearing loss -- a devastating predicament for a musician. His show, Singing at the Edge of the World, addresses his disability.
"It's the first time I really opened up and talked about my hearing loss,'' he said this week. The condition, which is likely genetic, was diagnosed when Rutherford was in his 20s, though he went through a period of denial, which he says is typical.
A folksinger in Alaska, Rutherford's loss of hearing cost him his job in music and was the reason his girlfriend left him -- all matters addressed in the show.
"Most people don't understand how devastating hearing loss is,'' says Rutherford.
He has digital hearing aids and can converse with a person one-on-one in a quiet room. But background noise and several people talking make him an instant outsider.
The frustration is that he looks like anyone else, so people don't understand his "invisible disability.''
"My ears should be in wheelchairs. It isolates me from the world."
Rutherford, 58, notes that Helen Keller once said being deaf is worse than being blind. Blindness takes you away from things, but deafness takes you away from people.
Although he's been a Fringe performer for a decade, Rutherford made an effort this year to have more contact with the other performers.
