Interviews Conducted by Robert J. Beck

You are also involved in the Band from TV, for people who might not know what is the Band from TV?

Band from TV is a charity band that I put together. It’s me on drums, Hugh Laurie on the keyboards, Jesse Spencer from house on fiddle and guitar, Adrian Pasdar from Heroes is on guitar, Bob Guiney from The Bachelor sings, Teri Hatcher from Desperate Housewives sings .It’s a great thing, we each have a charity that we represent and we have an album right now on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk that is called “Hogging all the Covers” and all the proceeds go to the various charities that we support so if you want to see Hugh Laurie rocking out to your favourite cover tunes live it’s a DVD/CD it’s $15 and I think £11.50 or something and it’s just fantastic and again the money goes to charity.

Have you been playing the drums for a long time?

I’ve been playing the drums since I was 12, and I was just lucky
that my parents didn’t stop me from doing that and they
encouraged it. I never thought that I was going to be doing
anything professionally but this has been a way for me to kinda
live out that fantasy and also raise money for charity.

You’re also involved in an epilepsy Charity as your son is a
sufferer?

Yeah my son has epilepsy, our oldest son Jake has seizures,
and he’s doing a lot better thanks to the folks at Rush Medical
Centre in Chicago. But it’s seen a rollercoaster ride and we
realised very quickly there’s a stigma attached to epilepsy and
stigmas and people don’t understand it. So I started
Talkaboutit.org and it’s just simply that, getting people to talk
about epilepsy and not afraid of it. And every one of your favourite
celebrities are on it, and they post questions on there, there’s some funny stuff on there too, but it’s an educational place where we can all come together and learn a bit here and there about epilepsy so when you see someone have a seizure you know what to do and it’s just a place to open up a conversation about epilepsy.

What should people do if they see someone having a seizure?

Well the biggest misconception if that people think they should stick something in their mouth to stop their tongue from going down their throat but that’s impossible you can’t choke on your own tongue. Never ever ever stick anything in anyone’s mouth if they are having a seizure. Put them on their side so that if any fluids come up they go right out and they don’t choke on them. And just make sure they’re comfortable; put a jacket or a pillow or a towel under their head so that they aren’t smacking their head against the ground and just know that they’re going to be alright. If the seizure lasts longer than two minutes call for medical help but don’t freak out or run away. Do not hold them down just make them comfortable, I guarantee you when they come out of it they will be confused but they’re going to be fine and it’s something people do on a daily basis, they live perfectly normal lives, my son is a example of that. And all his teachers and all of his friends and family know about it so when they see him having a seizure it’s not a big deal. It is scary, I’m not going to pretend it’s not scary, but the more you know the less scared you are.