MANY people would struggle to see the funny side of surviving a car crash and having to live with brain damage as a result.

But comedian Michael Porter says he’s managed it and his debut show, ‘Love & Brain Damage’ at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, derives material from the accident that changed his life.

The 33-year-old Irishman, who lives in Inverkeithing, wants to change the way others see his disability through humour.

He told the Press: “I was hit by a car when I was five and I suffered severe frontal lobe damage. I woke six weeks later from a coma and basically had to learn how to walk and talk all over again.

“I have been living with brain damage ever since and for me it was I either do comedy or go mad!

“I’ve been at the Fringe for the last seven years but I just started my solo shows last year. Critics are always wanting something personal so I thought it was the right time to talk about my disability and how it’s affected my love life.

“Then I realised it’s not only me that’s struggling to connect with someone, the world seems to have gone mad!”

Michael describes daily life as like losing your keys somewhere in the house – you look everywhere for them and then realise they’re in your pocket.

“Brain damage has made me have to focus on the things I like and just keeping things simple. I’ve been told by one girl it is a gift!” he explained.

“I’m quite old fashioned and I like to get to know people but I was flicking through photos on Plenty of Fish. I started talking to this girl and after a few weeks she asked to meet up – I’ve dated a Fifer before and she was nuts, so maybe that was my warning!

“I’m a gentleman so you know I bought a bottle of wine and a few beers for myself. She arrived in the taxi and I thought great, she’s a lovely looking woman who looks like her picture – that’s an achievement in itself these days.

“But then she spoke... she started shouting, ‘wow, do you live here!’ and I was basically pushing her in my flat because I was so embarrassed one of my friends would see.

“The next thing you know she’s bent over my coffee table...doing a line of coke! She then started busting out shapes in my living room and I just went and sat in the corner, jaw to the floor. She came over and went in for a kiss and I pulled away in fear!

“She then goes, ‘I am sorry Michael... I am so rude...I didn’t ask if you wanted any coke’. I mean what’s happened to the world and people just meeting normally and maybe getting lucky after the third date? I might have brain damage but it can’t just be me!”

You can catch his show for free to August 28 at The First Fleet Bar, 13-14 Melville Place, Edinburgh. Show starts at 9.45pm.