Phil Hanley

Spellbound

When Phil Hanley entered school, he realised something that would forever set him apart from his peers: he couldn’t read. His teachers were ill-equipped to assist him. His school system lacked the proper resources. Phil slipped through the school's cracks, year by year falling farther and farther behind his friends, only passing to each next year because of his mother’s interventions. Finally he was diagnosed with dyslexia, a learning disability that would shape the rest of his life. In Spellbound, Phil Hanley shares his experience living with extreme dyslexia. Unable to pursue college or a conventional job, Phil was thrust into a life to be defined by unconventional twists. He moved to Europe and became a successful runway model, a job that suitably kept him away from pens and paper. When that career flamed out, Phil retreated home to Vancouver where, eager to cure himself of his dyslexia, he turned to an all-consuming obsession with Transcendental Meditation. Finally, he found himself on a stage with a microphone, a spotlight, and five minutes of jokes. Though stand-up was never his dream, the comedy community provided a path that at the time seemed to be the only option left for him, and one that he compellingly argues, saved his life. Spellbound is a story of humour and also of struggle and heartbreak, of constantly living in a world that sees things differently than you, and of triumph over adversity.