- Hey Steve. I'm 25, and I'm single, and I have a stutter, and I'm
trying to find love and stuff, and I feel that guys and people don't really take me seriously. So, I was wondering,
because I know you talked about having a speech
impediment when you were a kid, and you inspired me, and
you came so far, obviously, and I look up to that so much, and I was wondering if you had any advice, because I don't want men to call it cute. I wanna be taken seriously. So, what is your advice for that please? - Okay. First of all, let me say this to you: Stuttering is curable. It's nothing physically wrong with you. See, that's what I had to
learn; I stuttered severely. I mean, what you're doing
right now is nothing to compare to what I was. I was in a war with it, man. Let me ask you, and I'm
not knocking therapists, but most people who work with kids who stutter
have never stuttered. They don't even know the pain, man. - [Woman] Yes. - They don't even know
how deep this thing is. So let me ask you a few questions: When you read, do you stutter? - [Woman] No. - When you talk to
yourself, do you stutter? - [Woman] Not at all. - When you think out loud do you stutter? - [Woman] No. - That's because there's
nothing wrong with you. Now, they've been giving
you all these drills and stuff over the years,
words to stay away from. I went to all of them class;
ain't none of that work, dog. 'Cause you know why? Once you give a person a
word to stay away from, don't that tighten your
butt up a little bit? (audience laughs) 'Cause hell, how you gonna
stay away from words? You can't stop nobody from talking. - Yes.
- You know what I mean? Stay away from S-T sounds;
stay away from P-R sound. S-T is the worse; once
you say ST, you crying. I don't want you to cry;
I really can help you. - I know, and it's taking
a lot, 'cause like, this is I think the first time I've really admitted it publicly,
and that's like my fear, but I thank you so much.
(audience claps) This is a lot; I feel empowered by it. - Okay, listen to this:
Stuttering is all here. You're okay; you ain't got to let nobody try to tell you no different. What makes you stutter is the anticipation that you're going to stutter. That's the whole lot right there. That's the one thing
therapists don't know. So when they give you all these drills to study these words and all like this, they don't even know
what they talking about, man, this dude is tripping. I'm finna stutter, so here come a girl. Come here, can you come here? - Yeah.
(audience claps) - Okay, now listen to me. Stuttering is curable. Imma show you just a little
drill I do with kids, 'cause I know how to stop it. What happens is, you should
not respond to anybody until you've said the answer
to yourself three times. That's for starter, see,
you ain't heard that at the therapist thing.
- No. (laughs) - 'Cause they don't know
that move right there. (audience laughs sparsely) I could not talk outside my house. I flunked out of school 'cause of this. I'm this vicious man, but look at me now. So here's the deal. Your anticipation of
stuttering what stops you, so I want you to take this mic. I'm gonna want you to walk over there; Imma walk towards you. Imma ask you a question;
before you answer the question, I want you to say it to
yourself three times, slowly, and when the fourth or fifth time, when you feel comfortable,
just say it out loud, okay? - Okay.
- Alright, go over there. (Steve mumbles) (audience claps) Okay, hold tight, 'cause you
gotta give it a shot first. (audience laughs sparsely) Okay, so, I want you to
walk slowly towards me. How you doing today? - I'm good. - Okay, that's one. See, you don't say anything until you, did you say it to yourself? - [Woman] Yes, three times. - Three times?
- Three times. - And then when you felt good, you just said it.
- Yeah. - That's the beginning right there. Don't talk to anybody until you said your response three times
internally, then say it. Okay, walk towards me. Okay, who's the president
of the United States? - Unfortunately, Trump. (audience laughs) - Oh, you doing jokes too? (laughs)
(audience claps) Do you understand? - Yes.
- We don't have a lot of time, but in one hour, I can
stop you from stuttering. In one hour, you will never stutter again. - [Woman] Please. - Okay, let me tell
you, this is the drill. This is the first thing I want you to do. If you could do that in front
of people, it's easy to do. Second thing I want you to do, is stand in front of the mirror and talk out loud all the time. Then, I want you to bring a
close friend or relative here, and have them stand
behind you in the mirror. Don't look at them; what makes
you stutter is eye contact. - [Woman] Yeah. - You know why? Because when you look at
people who know you stutter, this how y'all do people who stutter: "So how you doing today?" (laughing) That's what you do,
'cause you can't help it, 'cause you know you gonna
be there for a while, and you just trying to wait it out. How long? Come on. How long we've been, yes. But what happens to the stutterer is that they see your anxiety,
puts more anxiety in them, and then they lock on. If you just do those things right there, and then imma get somebody
to give you a schedule; imma talk you through a couple of things. You won't be stuttering
about Thanksgiving. (audience cheers) Okay? - Thank you. - [Steve] Really.
