Mat Fraser
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Mat Fraser (born 1962) is a rock musician, actor and performance artist. Between 1980 and 1995 he was a drummer with several rock bands including "Fear of Sex," "The Reasonable Strollers," "Joyride," "The Grateful Dub," and "Living in Texas," who had a number one single in Italy.
Fraser was born with phocomelia of both arms, due to his mother being prescribed thalidomide during her pregnancy. As a live artist he was a member of the performance art group The DHSS in the early 1990s. He was included in Manuel Vason's book "Exposures" and has performed at numerous internationally renowned venues. He received considerable critical acclaim for his one-man show "Seal Boy". In 1999 he worked with the Hydra Collective on an event known as "Wrong Bodies" at the Institute of Contemporary Arts. As an actor he has performed with the "Graeae Theatre Company," Europe's leading disabled theatre company. He is the creator and main performer in a new play called Thalidomide!! A Musical. He also co-hosts the BBC's Ouch! Podcast [1] with Liz Carr.
Fraser has appeared on television both as a presenter and as an actor, in a number of productions including Metrosexuality and Every Time You Look at Me. He is also a martial artist having studied hapkido, tae kwon do, choi kwang-do. He currently practices the discipline Dynamic Self-Defence in which he has a second degree black belt.
Fraser coined the term 'blacking up' to be used to describe when an able-bodied actor plays the part of a disabled person rather than the part going to a disabled actor. The term was originally used to describe the controversial practice where non-black actors take on the characters of black people. Fraser illustrates his point in his song 'Blacking Up,' which can be heard at his website.
