Motivational Irony

I was working a gig last week where I helped bring speakers at a conference out on stage in a timely manner. One of the speakers was a motivational speaker in a wheel chair. He was a dwarf, 3 feet tall. He been born with brittle bone disease as a child and endured tons of pain throughout his life. But instead of being bitter he was a very upbeat guy, very friendly. We treated him like any other speaker, with courtesy and respect.

We brought him up to the stage beforehand. He wanted to look at the stage to see the space. The stage was set up for people not in a wheel chair. He rolled out on the stage and asked us to pull the 2 big black leather armchairs and small table back so he had room to pace. He also commented that when he's on the big screen in front of big chairs like that with his wheel chair they dwarf him. In my head I had the thought, "But you are a dwarf."

I'd never say it out loud to him, but it was in my head. I don't know if he was being ironic, but that statement hit the irony button in my head. He was stating a fact. And when I saw the video feed of his talk, when he stopped in front of the chairs it looked like he was sitting in them.

I saw him around the conference for the next couple days. People came up to him saying they loved his speech.