This is performance like you've never seen before. Brian Guendling is a junior defensive end for Texas State's football team.
He and his football teammates dressed up as firefighters and police offers to perform "Uptown Funk" together.
However, the entire concert is in American Sign Language. The performance is choreographed with sign language integrated so that the hearing and hearing impaired can both enjoy it.
Brian has always been a part of the special needs community. Two of his uncles are blind, mentally disabled, and have been in wheelchairs their entire lives.
Like his father, Mike Guendling, who was drafted to the NFL San Diego Chargers in 1984, Brian is athletically gifted. However, like his uncles, he had some difficulties to overcome.
Brian did not speak until he was 4 years old. Doctors told his mother he would be mentally challenged.
“I would get pulled out of class about three days a week to work on my memory and my grammar and my speech just like all the other special needs kids,” Brian said.
To fulfill a foreign language requirement in high school, he took American Sign Language and fell in love with it.
“I want my deaf friends to have the same opportunity as the hearing,” Brian said “This will allow the deaf to meet new friends, potential boyfriends/girlfriends, to be able to talk to new people for the first time ever. My goal is to reach out to the millions and millions and give them a concert to go to and have a good time.”
While the deaf and hearing impaired can lead full lives, they often feel excluded by others in the hearing world. Just take a look at how touched this deaf man is when he enters a neighborhood where everyone speaks sign language.
The video just went up and it is already touching thousands.
"As a mother with a special needs daughter, you made my day. The world needs so many more people like you!!! Thank you so much, keep up the amazing work, and God bless!" one mother commented.
See the wonderful concert below and SHARE if you think this guy is an inspiration!
