Blindboy has won praise for opening up about his autism diagnosis on The Late Late Show.
The Limerick native, who shot to fame as part of comedy hip-hop duo The Rubberbandits, revealed he was autistic last April.
The popular podcast host received his diagnosis after listeners advised him to go for an assessment.
Speaking to host Patrick Kielty, he said: “I was diagnosed with autism because… listeners to my podcast were listening every week, and autistic people were saying, ‘You sound pretty autistic man, you might want to get checked out.’”
“So I went to get it checked out and according to the person that diagnosed me, they were like, ‘Yes, you’re autistic’.
“It’s a strange thing to talk about because… it’s a new word for how I’ve been my whole life. And to be honest, I f*****g love it. It’s wonderful craic inside in my head you know – I really have a tremendous time inside of my own head.”
“What I find, and I can’t speak for other autistic people, but for me personally it’s about the environment you’re in. So I had a very bad time in school, I failed my Leaving Cert you know, and now my job is to write books, like I’m a thriving person.”
The one and only @Rubberbandits#LateLate pic.twitter.com/I460QL1yWm
— The Late Late Show (@RTELateLateShow) November 10, 2023
“If I was to describe what it’s like to be autistic, it’s like the curiosity that I was born with never left me, I still have childhood curiosity, I love it, its great craic.
“However, like I once had a job at a call centre a few years ago, and I got fired after two weeks because I printed out 93 pages about CIA crack cocaine smuggling because I was like I need to learn everything and anything about this.
“I’m thriving because of the environment that I’m in… I pursue creativity all the time and I adore it and love it and I wouldn’t change it for a second, but if you throw me into a job whereby I have to be social quite frequently…”
Blindboy went on to explain that “one of the most frightening things in the world to me would be be thrown into a room full of strangers, and to have loads and loads of small talk”.
“It’s not that I can’t do it – it’s that it’s kind of exhausting for me,” he added.
