I was just watching this, a 16 year old kid named Chooka Parker who appeared on an Australian talent show:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4uE1xsuEywQ

He is apparently completely self taught.

The thing is that if you do a google search on "chooka parker autism" you'll get a whole bunch of hits. Seems like some people think he can't possibly be that talented without being autistic.

He lives on a farm. His family had to borrow a TV so they could watch him. He had never been on a stage before.

Who knows? I haven't seen anything that suggest autism any more than it suggests a kid who has been brought up on a farm without a lot of social contact.

So what do you think? Is it a good thing or a bad thing or somewhere in between that these sort of stereotypes are becoming more common about autism?

I'd say good. Autistics are going to be stereotyped either way, so it's better to have good stereotypes than bad ones.

Neither good, nor bad from my point of view - because of articles like this one, which in my opinion bring things back into perspective and sum them up quite well although I personally dislike the expression "party trick" and not really agree with the conclusion (142857, I took your keywords to find this article)

"(.../...)

So why did Chooka go? For mine those early couple of seconds that I described at the beginning pretty much sum it up. He knew what he was going to give them (even if he does make it all up on the spot), Australia knew what he was going to give them, but ultimately raw talent cannot cover up repetition. If you look at all three performances one after the other, given he has no professional musical training you cannot say that one piece is superior to the other. That comes down to personal preference.

I guess the question that proceeds is 'Did Australia get it wrong'? And the answer, sadly, is no. This has nothing to do with Chooka personally, for he comes across as a nice enough guy. But the elephant in the room is that the desire of any person with a talent is to expand and improve on it. What separates someone like Cosentino or Instant Bun from Chooka is the desire to raise the bar with each new performance. Flash only gets you so far, fire is what gets you the rest of the way. Chooka's act never really improved, it never scaled new heights, and while it's not his fault in the end he was cruising on his own phenomenal natural gift.

It's not the first time in the history of the show it's happened either. Susan Boyle wowed audiences and stole YouTube, but in her next two performances she sang 'Memory' by Elaine Page from Cats and then played it safe in the Grand Final by singing 'I dreamed a Dream' again. She never excelled people's expectations but merely coasted on them, and in the end that's partly why she lost to 'Diversity', a dance group who actually did outdo their previous performances.

Take nothing away from the kid, he has a freakish ability. However it is indeed true that the Australian public has set for itself the difference between a talent and a party trick."

From rcoll's musings (http://rcoll-rorscharch.blogspot.com/201...ctive.html)

This post was last modified: 08-14-2011 02:48 PM by ScottishWildcat.

It's just another urban myth that will probably need to be dealt with on a case-by-case basis.

Guy playing new WoW account can level up from 1 to 70 in three days without using a buffbot, loaned equipment,  macro'd exp, etc. HE MUST BE AUTISTIC!!!!111ONE

Well, he's obviously not "neurotypical".  He may or may not be autistic, but from that performance, I'd be inclined to think that he is.  

He actually reminded me a bit of the Aussie actor Chris Lilley - the same laconic style, quite shy when he's not being "in character", prefers to let others talk.  

Thanks for posting that, I don't watch that show since I find it puerile at best, but Chooka was quite refreshing.

Alison

Has to be savant. to come from his background, but yet have music like that roaming in his brain. I am fu#king jealous.

So much like Tim Roth`s character in The Legend of 1900 (wut? you havent seen that, shame) who would  observe someone and then modify his music to suit what he caught of that persons personality.

Good stereotypes are usually better, but I still find them annoying.

Chooka Parker, talent aside, does seem somewhat autistic to me, though. I'd say the posture, mannerisms, and style of speech said more to that effect than what he does with the piano (which is amazing, by the way).

He certainly comes across to me as eccentric:  Harmless, most probably; gifted, definitely; austistic, very likely.  But whether or not he's AS, or just a bit idiosyncratic, he certainly can't be classed with NTs in general.  
Alison

Given that he's seemingly not autistic and I don't see anything at all to suggest that he would be, then I don't see what can be good about people assuming he is.

It's like saying because someone drinks whisky they must be Scottish, because only Scots drink whisky, right?!

Eh, it's not the worst thing we're stereotyped as.

Whiskey. You heathen.

Scot, not heathen.  It's the Irish who drink whiskey!

Scot, not heathen.  It's the Irish who drink whiskey!

Precisely.

LOL!  (pika are you irish?)


Well ... not having social skills could be just the fact that there has been no chance to hone them - living such a quiet life.

Can you be a savant and not be autistic? Is that the question?

Have not watched - going to watch the clip now.

Watched both - apparently he did not make it past the semi finals.

He said he has a learning disorder in the beginniong of the first clip.

He is 17 in the next clip/ In the semi fianl clip he said he gets along better "with animals than people" - but I thought he has such a nice lifestyle (farmer)... I would love it.

It strikes me that this is some crazy world when he STILL says he is made to feel like others "tried to make me fit in a box" and he never could.

The judges in the semis said some interesting things about being able to focus as he doesn;t have the other distractions of life - TV, radio, facebook, cell phone  another judge called him a prodigy.

This post was last modified: 08-16-2011 03:22 PM by windy.