Professors Byron Bridges and Nathie Marbury raise awareness and funds for the deaf community.

Comedy has been a part of Nathie Marbury’s life for as long as she can remember. “Since I was born,” she jokes.

Some 50 years later, Marbury and fellow Austin Community College Professor Byron Bridges have taken their act to the stage.

But this is no ordinary comedy. Marbury and Bridges are deaf.

The pair signs on stage, though an interpreter sits in front of the audience with a microphone so the hearing public may enjoy it as well. Marbury and Bridges recently participated in a benefit for the National Association of the Deaf. (Marbury is a board member). Held at the Texas School for the Deaf, the event raised about $4,000.

Though they’d performed together previously, Bridges came up with an idea they put into place at the NAD fund-raiser.

“We asked the audience to use their cell phones, their pagers, something with a light – turn the light on and wave it for applause,” he says.

Bridges and Marbury don’t rehearse their routines, opting instead for improvisation.

“It’s more of an ad-lib type thing,” says Marbury. “Spontaneous, impromptu.”

Their material consists of personal experiences that stem back to college, where they met. They’ve been friends for 30 years and co-workers for nine. They teach American Sign Language (ASL) to students aspiring to become interpreters, or those who just wish to communicate with the deaf and hard of hearing.

Interpreter students must participate in two deaf activities per semester, perhaps visiting deaf residents of a retirement home or attending their professors’ comedy show. (Link to students’ reactions?) The next scheduled event isn’t until September in Houston, but they’re always open to more projects.

“We hope to continue to do fund-raisers whenever we can,” says Bridges.