Sign language interpreter Lydia Callis upstages New York mayor

yahoo ^ | Oct. 30, 2012 | Matthew Coutts

[george76]

She is either taking a subversive jab at the mayor of New York or is extremely passionate about the recovery efforts following Hurricane Sandy.

Either way, Lydia Callis is now the world's most talked-about sign language interpreter.

Callis has captured countless hearts and minds with her animated translations of press conferences on hurricane Sandy and its fallout, rolling her eyes and puffing out her cheeks as she stands next to the stone-faced Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

She sends the message with her hands. But she tells the story with her face.

...

Bloomberg has realized he is at least being upstaged

[jagusafr]

Baaahahaha!! Me too, if Mrs. Colonel was dead.

[jagusafr]

Jeff Dunham and Peanut have a bit on having had an ASL interpreter at a performance. One of the funniest bits I have ever seen - gasping on the floor funny.

[NELSON111]

>>>Are you kidding? The true comedy starts when Bloomberg commits felonious assault on the Spanish language.

THAT's true. BeuNOS DIas POR FAver. We had to flip at that point. I was too embarrassed for him....painful to watch...I mean es doloroso ver...

[Liberty Valance]

Ha! Priceless.

[Iron Munro]

She’s got good moves.

Hollywood will be calling soon.

[The Great RJ]

The number of hearing impaired people is small in any population and I can’t imagine anyone with a hearing problem not making use of the closed captioning systems that are available on just about any TV set sold in the last 10 years. The need for sign language interpreters in these situations is over blown. Here in the Midwest tornado and severe weather warnings are always broadcast with captioning and not sign language interpreters.

[exit82]

She’s got them moves like Jagger.

I was LOL watching her last night.

She looked like a third base coach on steroids giving out signs to steal all four bases.

Secretly, I was hoping she was telling the deaf folks what a complete putz Bloomberg was.

[onona]

Only if it was done by Lydia, though.....

[TYVets]

Love for her to talk dirty to me in sign language.

[allmendream]

http://lydiacalasface.tumblr.com/

[COBOL2Java]

Oh give me a break. I’m a Sign Language Interpreter and I just watched her. I think she did a great job.

[Mercat]

I loved her. But she doesn’t sign Spanish. LOL I can’t wait for the spoofs on this. Sort of could be like the Hitler learns series.

[21twelve]

I was pretty pissed when Bloomberg didn’t give the 911 announcement in Russian, Chinese and Austrian.

[red devil 40]

“She’s got them moves like Jagger.

I was LOL watching her last night.

She looked like a third base coach on steroids giving out signs to steal all four bases....”

Like a coon dog Sh!ttin’ Tacks......

[MCH]

Interesting. During the local Hurricane Sandy coverage here in Maryland, we were "treated" to news conferences every couple of hours by Governor O'Malley the tax king. He had a fairly animated sign language interpreter at his televised events as well, although I don't know her name. See picture below.

It became obvious when we watched her that every so often during her animated signing sessions her eyes would suddenly get HUGE, at which time everyone in my family would jump back and exclaim "WHOAA!" It was sort of frightening - great stuff for Halloween. Kind of like a monster jumping out at you or the subliminal screen flash at the end of the intro to Grimm, in terms of shock value. Needless to say we were much more entertained by the signer lady than by O'Malley. I found a still shot on a news page where they caught her in one of her startling "big eyes" moments.

[GeronL]

Can’t deaf people just read subtitles/ closed captioning? I suppose it wouldn’t be as entertaining

[MCH]

Can’t deaf people just read subtitles/ closed captioning? I suppose it wouldn’t be as entertaining.

Yeah, I guess it adds the personal touch, and it's certainly more entertaining.

[GeronL]

Maybe it can be a fallback job for Big Bird?

[miserare]

I hope to see her on Dancing With the Stars next season.

She could do a mean samba!