Kathy Buckley

Comedienne, actress, and motivational speaker Kathy Buckley is also a bestselling author. Her book, IF YOU COULD HEAR WHAT I SEE, will have you laughing and crying as you experience the amazing story of her life.

Known as “America’s First Hearing Impaired Comedienne,” she is a five-time AMERICAN COMEDY AWARD Nominee (1995-99) as Best Stand-Up Female Comedienne.

However, success was far from her mind the first time Kathy stood the world of comedy on its ear.  On a dare from a friend, she entered the comedy contest “Stand-up Comics Take a Stand,” in 1988.  She was nervous, not because it was her first time performing comedy on stage, or even the fact that she couldn’t hear the audience response except by vibrations through the stage floor.  Her nervousness stemmed from the fact that she was competing against comedians who had been in the business for years.

But Kathy forged ahead, she won fourth place, and soon began touring the U.S., playing major comedy venues like: Caroline’s (New York City); Catch a Rising Star (Las Vegas, Reno); The Improv (West Hollywood) and many others.  She quickly became one of the most popular comediennes in the country with material based on, among other things, her hearing loss.  That impairment, however, is only one of many hurdles Kathy has encountered in her life.  Her poor performance in second grade landed her in a school for retarded and physically impaired children.  It took almost a year for school administrators, psychologists and audiologists to discover it was her severe hearing loss and not a lack of mental acuity that was impeding her speech and language development.

During her late teens, Kathy’s life was interrupted when she was run over by a jeep while sunbathing on a beach.  As a result, she experienced intermittent paralysis in her legs.  Her recovery took almost five years.  Then, just six years later, she was diagnosed with cervical cancer.

Undaunted by adversity, she was selected from among hundreds of performers to showcase her talents at The National Association for Campus Activities Convention.  That appearance made her a favorite of the college campus circuit.

Kathy’s popular appeal, unique persona and refreshing sense of humor has attracted the attention of numerous television comedy shows, entertainment news programs, talk shows and magazines.  She has guested on The Tonight Show starring Jay Leno and The Howard Stern Show.  She has been featured in various national magazines including People as one of their most touching stories of 1997, and profiled on the Today Show, Good Morning America, CBS This Morning, Entertainment Tonight, Extra, Inside Edition, Turner Entertainment Report, Fox & Friends, CNN’s Show Biz Today, Real Life, Live! with Regis and Kathie Lee, and many more.

In one of her many special projects, Kathy was the focus of I Can Hear the Laughter, a 1991 Emmy award-winning documentary. Her transition from stand-up comic to acclaimed theatrical performer and actress was further enhanced by her recent guest-starring role on the CBS hit series Touched by an Angel.

Although she regularly receives national media attention, Kathy Buckley is more than just a popular comic. Her humor has a higher purpose.  “My comedy disarms people,” says Kathy.  “I love to make people laugh, but I love it even more if I can teach them something at the same time.”  And, that is exactly what she did in New York while starring in Now Hear This!

She backs up that philosophy by tirelessly performing on behalf of nonprofit and educational organizations such as: the MDA Jerry Lewis Muscular Dystrophy Telethon, Children’s hospitals and the Children’s Miracle Network Telethon, and many others.

Kathy is a highly sought after motivational speaker for such high profile organizations as Power of Women, and Anthony Robbins’ Life Mastery Classes.  Though she works to entertain and enlighten people of all ages, her heart belongs to children. “Every child deserves to have a real childhood,” Kathy asserts. “They should have healthy role models to show them that people do care about them deeply.”

Kathy and her partner Jay Bakerink founded Infinity Heart Productions, which brought her impeccable motivational skills to video in HEAR THIS!  The tape, written and produced by both Kathy and Jay, defines Kathy’s belief that “labels are placed on us by society and need to be removed to see what gifts really lay beneath.”

Whether performing in a comedy club, guesting on television, dazzling theatre audiences, speaking publicly, teaching at camps for the deaf, or appearing in any number of other venues, Kathy Buckley bears the message that anything can be achieved when the heart and mind work together.