How does stuttering happen?
Stuttering tends to happen when there is an interruption in your airflow. Since airflow is the foundation of your speech, an impedance to airflow will affect an impedance in sound. There are two general types of stutters-- a block and a repetition. Blocks occur when the airflow stops at the level of your neck, particularly your vocal folds. When you experience a block, it will feel like you have stopped breathing. This expression is an accurate description of what is happening, as literally, your vocal folds have closed shut, no longer allowing air to come in or come out. Blocks can be obvious to listeners, but can also go unnoticed. Nonetheless, the speaker experiencing the block will feel a buildup of tension and have difficulty restarting their voice. The other kind of stutter is a repetition. This can be repetition of sounds (i.e. b), syllables (i.e. ba), words (i.e. back) and even phrases (i.e. I mean). In the case of repetitions, the blockage of air is more so inside the mouth, beyond the neck. Due to buildup of tension, the lips or tongue loses control and the outcome is reproductions of the same sound, syllable and word.
Samuel L. Jackson is a Black actor who stutters. He reports that he was able to overcome it through acting.
As airflow is the foundation of speech, when the airflow is obstructed due to tension and uncontrolled closing of oral muscles, the sound produced is compromised.
Craig Skistimas, also known as Stuttering Craig, the co-founder of ScrewAttack which is a production company for video games.
The adored pig from Looney Tunes, Porky Pig, has a stutter. It has been found that he stutters 23% of his spoken words and uses a wide variety of stuttering types.
Stuttering affects around 70 million people worldwide, so yes of course there is going to be a comedian who stutters.
The National Stuttering Association (https://westutter.org/) is a good website to find news about stuttering. The ‘Stuttering Foundation’ is another website that provides the most up to date news (https://www.stutteringhelp.org)
News reporter John Stossel is a news reporter who stuttered. News reporter and journalist Byron Pitts also stutter.
There are two general philosophies of stuttering treatment: Fluency shaping, and Stuttering acceptance
When an individual stutters, the voice may change as there is additional tension on the vocal folds and on the musculature surrounding it.