Sometimes, it's hard to understand Louis "Twitchels" Centanni.
His sentences are often broken up by throaty grunts as he jerks his head back and forth.
His neck arches toward the ceiling and he recovers.
These are tics, and if he focuses hard enough, he can control them.
Centanni, 24, has Tourette syndrome, and in front of about 100 UF students Wednesday evening, he tried to explain why his disability really isn't so bad.
"It's not easy living like this," Centanni said. "But I don't like people who look for pity."
He wasn't always so optimistic.
One day, he found himself in his bedroom, sulking about his condition. He wrapped an extension cord around his neck, double-knotting the loop and attaching it to his bunk bed.
All of the twitching, the teasing, the tics-he was ready to end it.
He was also 250 pounds. His suicide attempt broke his bunk bed and snapped the cord.
"I'm like, 'I can't even fucking kill myself,'" Centanni joked.
It's jokes like these that summarize Centanni's outlook. He channels his struggles with his disability into his career, and he's not afraid to make fun of himself.
"I just love entertainment in general," Centanni said. "It's the best medicine for me."
And when he's entertaining, sometimes, it's like his disability disappears.
"I'm able to focus when I'm acting," Centanni said. "No tics."
Centanni began his acting career in a music video for the song "Shaniqua" by Little-T and One Track Mike. Since then, he's been featured on MTV's "True Life" and "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno."
Centanni was diagnosed with Tourette syndrome when was 7 years old. Centanni can easily sum up this neurological disorder, which is characterized by tics and involuntary, rapid movements.
"It's like an itch you just can't itch, but it's there," he said.
He asked members of the audience to think about scratching their noses, saying this thought self-consciously creates the idea of an itch.
"It's like that in my head," Centanni said.
There were times when the itch was so intense, he would run to his parent's bedroom in the middle of the night.
"It was time for Mom to rub my back," he said.
Centanni credits his parents' emotional support for his ability to transcend his disability.
"My parents when through hell," he said.
Centanni curses, but he does not suffer from coprolalia, which is characterized by involuntary swearing and shouting of obscenities.
But, once again, his sense of humor gets the best of him.
"Forgive my language," Centanni said. "It's OK, I have Tourette's. Right?"
Centanni's speech was followed by a Q-and-A, and he encouraged the audience to get personal. When asked how he fared with the ladies, his answer was simple.
"MTV's helped a little bit, just a tad," he joked.
The event was sponsored by Disability Affairs SG cabinet and Accent. Centanni was paid $2,750 to speak at UF.
Caroline Robichaux, the director of Disability Affairs, said Centanni was selected to speak to raise awareness about students coping with disabilities.
"We wanted to have someone raise awareness to show that you don't have to let your disability bring you down," Robichaux said.
Centanni agrees.
"Everybody here is going to die," Centanni said. "Everyone here was born. No matter what disease you have, no matter what problems you endure, you can do it."
