The Comedians with Disabilities Act makes its debut at SF Sketchfest at the Alameda Comedy Club!

The Comedians with Disabilities Act (CWDA) debuted in 2010 and has been going strong since. February 1, 2024 at the Alameda Comedy Club CWDA will make its SF Sketchfest debut.  CWDA is a collection of comedians with disabilities, both seen and unseen. It was the brainchild of comedian Michael O’Connell.  Michael passed away in 2016, but his comedy troupe lives on.  Michael’s legacy allows comedians with disabilities to develop their voices to receptive audiences across the country.   

Steve Danner and Nina G are part of the original CWDA but have been joined by a cast of other talented Disabled comedians over the years.  In addition to Nina and Steve, the SF Sketchfest show features CWDA regulars: Mean Dave, Michael Beers, Loren Kraut, Jade Theriault along with Hayden Kristal who will be joining the troupe for her first CWDA show! Ticket information at: https://sfsketchfest2024.sched.com/event/1VUpj?iframe=no.

SF Sketchfest is a comedy festival taking place January 18 through February 4 in venues across San Francisco and the surrounding area. The multi-day festival will host more than 200 shows featuring major comedy stars and the best up-and-coming acts for sketch, stand-up, alternative comedy, music, improv, films, tributes, all-star reunions, live podcasts, and workshops. Now in its 21st year, SF Sketchfest is an internationally recognized, eclectic, and critically acclaimed festival that offers audiences a wide variety of special programming and the rare opportunity to see their favorite performers in intimate live settings.  The CWDA show will take place at the Alameda Comedy Club (in Alameda) on February 1.   

SF Sketchfest featuring CWDA follows a trend in the larger entertainment industry: increase representation of the Disabled experience.  Images of people with disabilities have traditionally been underrepresented and when they are it is often what many in the Disability community call “inspiration porn.”  The images are rarely complex, with Disabled individuals often being represented as “courageous,” “overcoming obstacles” and “inspiring others.”  CWDA flips the script on all these images.  The CWDA comedians speak about the awkward interactions they have with non-disabled people, reflections about their own disability experience as well as not talking about their disability at all.  Their disabilities don’t solely define these comedians but they also acknowledge the impact that it has had in their lives.  

“CWDA being part of SF Sketchfest is a big deal because it shows that the disability experience is on the radar of comedy festival producers.  The entertainment industry is finally seeing that there is a lot of talent in our community and that people want to hear about our experiences from us and not filtered through a Hollywood lens that doesn’t challenge the status quo” adds comedian and lead producer of CWDA, Nina G.  “That is why Disabled comedians are so important.  They challenge how society thinks about disability and can help to change people’s attitudes while also being hilarious and entertaining!” 

These comedians are hilarious!  This diverse group is formed each with a different disability experience and perspective.  The following line up will be featured at SF Sketchfest. 

Michael Beers won the Norman G. Brooks Comedy Competition at the Hollywood Improv in 2005. He was also the previous winner of Funny Fest (Calgary Comedy Festival) and has opened for comedians like Gilbert Gottfried. He is a sought-after keynote speaker on topics like humor, disability advocacy, education and community building. 

Jade Theriault is a Forbes-recognized comedian who combines provocative thought with moving furniture. Jade is a regular at Alameda Comedy Club, Punch Line SF, Cobbs Comedy Club, Tommy T’s, and the San Jose Improv where she opened for Jesus Trejo. Festival credits include SF Sketchfest, The Art of Female Comedy Festival (Wichita, KS), Palm Springs International Comedy Festival and the Westside Comedy Festival in Santa Monica, where she was honored for Best Joke of the Night. Jade starred in Malic Almaya’s “RUN! ” (2018), featured in Jeff Giordano’s “Romantic Chorus” (2021), and was on an episode of MTV “Decoded” (2018). 

Nina G is a comedian, author of Stutterer Interrupted and co-author of Bay Area Stand-Up Comedy: A Humorous History.  In May 2023 her album debuted at #1 in Comedy on iTunes and Amazon.  Her first comedy special, Nina G: Stutterer Interrupted, debuted in October 2023.  She has shared the stage with comedy legends like Don Novello (aka Father Guido Sarducci), Mort Sahl and Disability activists like Judi Heumann and Jim Lebrect.   

Mean Dave, a favorite in the San Francisco Bay Area, hosts several CWDA shows. Dave is in his tenth year of addiction recovery, which he ingeniously weaves into his humor. He’s a regular at Punch Line SF & Sacramento, Cobbs Comedy Club, Laughs Unlimited, SJ Improv and has opened for many notable comedians like Josh Blue, Big Jay Oakerson, and Eddie Pepitone as well as performed at clubs and colleges across the U.S. 

Steve Danner’s comedy career began as an audience member at a comedy club. The comedian on stage started riffing with him. After Danner showcased his own riffing skills, the comic approached Danner after the show and suggested he give comedy a try. That soon launched a career as a comedian and producer. He’s opened for many headliners such as “Last Comic Standing” winner, Felipe Esparza. 

Hayden Kristal’s quick wit and cheerful self-deprecation has earned her a spot as an “America’s Got Talent” semifinalist, roles on Adult Swim/HBO Max’s “Tuca and Bertie”, and over a million followers on social media, but her true talent lies in naming horses things you might name a shelter cat.  Hayden lives in rural Colorado with her four-legged friends Squidward, Chicken Elizabeth Nugget, Donkey Devito, and Debbi from Accounting. 

In February, CWDA will have multiple shows in Northern California.  Each show will have a different line up with Michael Beers headlining in Sacramento and Santa Rosa.  Information on all shows is below: 

February 1, 2024:  SF Sketchfest at the Alameda Comedy Club: 2431 Central Avenue, Alameda. 

February 2, 2024 at the Veterans of Foreign Wars: 2784 Stockton Boulevard, Sacramento. 

February 3, 2024 at Barrel Proof Comedy: 501 Mendocino Avenue, Santa Rosa. 

February 15, 2024 at Woodhouse Blending and Brewing: 119 Madrone St, Santa Cruz.

Ticket information and updates at www.ComediansWithDisabilitiesAct.com.

ABOUT SF SKETCHFEST 

SF Sketchfest, co-founded and directed by David Owen, Cole Stratton, and Janet Varney, produces the eclectic San Francisco Comedy Festival, the longest-running comedy festival in the U.S. SF Sketchfest is an internationally recognized and critically acclaimed event that mixes major comedy stars and the best up-and-coming comedians from around the world for over two weeks of sketch, stand-up, alternative comedy, music, improv, films, tributes, live podcasts, workshops, and panel discussions. SF Sketchfest offers its audiences the rare opportunity to see their favorite performers in intimate live performances and discussions.

In past years, SF Sketchfest has featured renowned comedy artists such as Aziz Ansari, Fred Armisen, Dan Aykroyd, Maria Bamford, Dave Barry, Mike Birbiglia, Jack Black, Rachel Bloom, Carol Burnett, Dana Carvey, Cheech & Chong, Margaret Cho, Billy Crystal, Noel Fielding, Zach Galifianakis, Ricky Gervais, Christopher Guest, Eddie Izzard, Monty Python’s Terry Jones, Key & Peele, Eugene Levy, Michael McKean, Kate McKinnon, Tig Notaro, Conan O’Brien, Catherine O’Hara, Patton Oswalt, Penn & Teller, Amy Poehler, Paul Reubens, Mort Sahl, Amy Schumer, Amy Sedaris, Garry Shandling, Harry Shearer, Robert Townsend, Aisha Tyler, George Wallace, Reggie Watts, Keenen Ivory Wayans, Robin Williams, and “Weird Al” Yankovic. The festival has also hosted film and television stars including Alan Arkin, Will Arnett, Candice Bergen, Bruce Campbell, Lizzy Caplan, Dick Cavett, Bud Cort, Ted Danson, Laura Dern, Danny DeVito, Sally Field, Nathan Fillion, Jeff Goldblum, Elliott Gould, Jon Hamm, Neil Patrick Harris, Bill Irwin, Ricky Jay, Rashida Jones, Cloris Leachman, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Jane Lynch, Parker Posey, Paul Rudd, Jason Schwartzman, Adam Scott, Jason Segel, Tony Shalhoub, and Gene Wilder; ensemble comedy groups The Kids in the Hall, Mr. Show, “Mystery Science Theater 3000,” The State, “Drunk History” and the Upright Citizens Brigade; reunions of the casts of “Best in Show”, “Airplane!” “Wet Hot American Summer”, “Animal House”, “Twin Peaks” and “Party Down”; musical guests David Byrne, Bill Frisell, Ben Gibbard, Tenacious D, Aimee Mann, The Monkees, Bob Mould, Rhett Miller, Nellie McKay, Robert Glasper, and many more.  

Video sample of the Comedians with Disabilities Act

Some Thoughts on Impostor Syndrome and Comedy

Photo credit: Bob Johnston. This was the very set I am talking about!

One night I was bombing on stage, if you could call a parking lot a stage.  It was an awkward venue.  After COVID, the brewery I was performing at had the show outside.  The comics performed on the opposite side of the parking lot from where the audience was.  Imagine an entire parking lot between a performer and the audience.  The staging did not foster the intimacy that stand up often requires.  It was a Halloween show in late October so on top of it all, the cold autumn air penetrated myself and the audience.  I was a special guest on the show which meant I wasn’t getting paid a lot, if anything.  That also meant I was early in the line up of comedians so the audience was physically and performative cold!  As I looked at the crowd staring back at me, I thought to myself, “I am so lucky I get to be here.” 

In this moment I was reminded how much I missed performing stand up comedy to a live audience.  Something occurred in the midst of this.  There was a shift in how I thought about my presence as a stand up comedian both at a show and in the comedy scene in general.  “I am so luck I get to be here” was my own self-talk, the inner dialogue that dictated how I thought and felt about my work as a comedian.  At this point I had been doing comedy for nine years, a year and a half of that was during COVID, doing Zoom shows and performing at drive-ins.  

Before this set in the parking lot my inner dialogue, nearly every time I got up onto a stage was “I don’t deserve to be here.”  I had put stand up comedy on a pedestal my entire life and felt that I could never measure up to the people I admired and the art form I loved so dearly.  I felt that I did not belong.  What I was experiencing was impostor syndrome. It is the feeling that you are a fraud in the arena that you are working in. Many people who experience this, have the feeling that they some how slipped through the cracks and just waiting for someone to expose them that they don’t belong.  Before this moment I usually was able to put my negative self-talk in check by telling myself to try my best, I am good enough for the show I am on and your material is just as good as everyone else who is performing.  

For nine years the thought would race through my head that I didn’t belong.  Nearly a decade!  This one performance helped to shift all of this.  “I am so luck I get to be here” replaced “I don’t deserve to be here.”  Yes!  There is still an element of impostor syndrome in this thought because of luck I am a comedian.  Luck implies that it isn’t skill and hard work that gets me onto the stage, it is luck.  Of corse I know, for the most part, that this is not true.  Nonetheless, the small tweak in my thinking moves me further away from full blown impostor syndrome.  Plus, every creative does need a little bit of luck.  

San Francisco Bay Area Stuttering Stand Up Comedian Releases Special

Comedy documentary special – Nina G: Stutterer Interrupted 

Launches on streaming platforms in October 2023

(Coinciding with International Stuttering Awareness Day – October 22)

Sneak preview of select clips and discussion – Sat, October 14 @ 1pm 

New Parkway Theater, 474 24^th St., Oakland, CA

Oakland, CA… San Francisco Bay Area stuttering comedian, Nina G. announces the release of her comedy documentary special Nina G: Stutterer Interrupted in October to coincide with International Stuttering Awareness Day. www.stuttererinterrupted.com/the-special 

In the film, directed by award-winning filmmaker and fellow stutterer, Gina Chin-Davis, the Bay Area’s favorite female stuttering stand up comedian, Nina G, takes on the hilarious world of stuttering, family, body issues, and much more. Chin-Davis captures a behind-the-scenes glimpse into Nina G’s filmed for broadcast comedy show at the Alameda Comedy Club and the recording of her comedy album by the same name for Punchline Records (who contracted Nina for their first comedy album which was recorded in her hometown, Alameda, California). 

Trailer: youtu.be/qW0VkDGjxRw?si=IlNy5aXDAFyxvZPu

On Saturday, October 14 at 1pm, there will be a sneak preview of select clips from the film and a discussion. Nina G: Stutterer Interrupted: A Conversation with Nina G and Gina Chin-Davis will take place at The New Parkway Theater, 474 24^th St, Oakland, CA 94612. This screening and discussion is part of the 5^th Annual Oakland Comedy Festival and will be co-sponsored by Proud Stutter. The event is FREE, but registration is suggested: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/nina-g-stutterer-interrupted-special-debut-tickets-718898644197

Nina G: Stutterer Interrupted intersperses Nina’s comedy with documentary-style interviews and archival footage where Nina talks about the genetic origins of stuttering, her love for comedy starting at a very young age, how her dream of becoming a stand up comedian died when she thought stuttering would interfere, and how, with the support of a wonderful high school teacher and the stuttering community, she ultimately grew to accept her stuttering and pursue a successful career in stand up comedy. 

Nina G. (Comedian), the San Francisco Bay Area’s favorite female stuttering stand up comedian, is also a professional speaker, comedy history consultant, and the author of three books: Bay Area Stand-Up Comedy: A Humorous History, Stutterer Interrupted: The Comedian Who Almost Didn’t Happen and the children’s book, Once Upon An Accommodation: A Book About Learning Disabilities that helps children and adults advocate for their rights as a person with a disability. The 20+ year Oakland resident has been featured on NPR’s 51%, BBC’s Ouch, Psychology Today, Tedx, KQED Radio, and multiple daytime talk shows and podcasts and has shared the stage with legendary comedians including Don Novello (aka: Father Guido Sarducci), Mort Sahl, Eddie Pepitone, and Cathy Ladman. When Nina isn’t performing at comedy clubs like the San Francisco Punch Line or the Laugh Factory, she is playing colleges and presenting as a keynote speaker. She is part of the comedy troupe The Comedians with Disabilities Act which brings laughter and awareness to audiences of all ages across the country. This fifth generation Italian American from a working class family in Alameda, California became obsessed with comedy at a young age. While other little girls were watching Rainbow Brite, Nina was watching comedians like Gilda Radner and Steve Martin. When Nina was 8 years old, she was diagnosed with a learning disability and also started to stutter. 

Being a stuttering girl with a learning disability in Catholic school in the ‘80s was a depressing experience for Nina. To cheer her up, her parents would occasionally let her skip school and take her to the movies where they watched comedy films like Richard Pryor at the Sunset Strip. These experiences cemented Nina’s love for stand up, and at age 11 she decided she would study comedy with the ambition to pursue it as a career. Due to never having stuttering comedic role models growing up, she decided that her stuttering precluded her from the stand up career she dreamed of, and she pursued other vocations. 

In 2009, however, everything changed when Nina attended a conference for people who stutter that challenged how she thought about her stuttering: she came to the realization that she was the only one holding herself back. Six months later, Nina took the stage for the first time and since then has performed almost nightly in the San Francisco Bay Area as well as at conferences and college campuses around the world. 

Gina Chin-Davis (Filmmaker) is an award-winning filmmaker and writer who grew up in Richmond, California. She attended Barnard College in New York City where she received the Howard M. Teichmann Writing Prize for work distinguished in originality of concept and excellence of execution.Her first feature film, I Can’t Sleep (2020), was produced on a self-raised budget of $10K and went on to win Best Script at the Boston Sci-Fi Film Festival and Best Sci-Fi Film at the MidWest WeirdFest. Chin-Davis is also a clinical psychologist. 

Quotes & Testimonials about the film:

Better to laugh with us than at us. —Jim Lebrecht, Co-director of (the Oscar nominated documentary), Crip Camp

Lifting up the voices of women who stutter is extremely important, especially because it is rare to see us represented in popular culture. — Maya Chupkov, founder of Proud Stutter, an advocacy nonprofit and podcast

This film shows Nina G. as a powerful change-maker. As a talented storyteller and stand up comedian, Nina G is transforming society’s view of disabled people one stage at a time.

—Beth A. Haller, Ph.D., author of Disabled People Transforming Media Culture for a More Inclusive World 

Nina never backs down, often mocking the mockers. She’s funny, smart and strong. I’m a fan. And I am impressed by her knowledge of stand up history.— Ritch Shydner, Comedian and Author

Famous people who stutter include: Marilyn Monroe, President Joe Biden, Emily Blunt, Samuel L. Jackson, and James Earl Jones

Some facts on stuttering: Stuttering impacts 1% of the adult population. 80 million people around the world stutter. 1 in 4 people who stutter are female. Many people who stutter experience discrimination in their jobs and personal lives.

For Calendar Editors:

WHAT: Sneak preview of select clips from the film and a discussion

Nina G: Stutterer Interrupted: 

A Conversation with Nina G and Gina Chin-Davis 

WHEN: Saturday, October 14, 2023 at 1pm

WHERE: The New Parkway Theater, 474 24^th St., Oakland, CA 94612

TICKETS:  FREE. Registration is suggested: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/nina-g-stutterer-interrupted-special-debut-tickets-718898644197

INFO: www.stuttererinterrupted.com/the-special

For interviews, go to: https://www.stuttererinterrupted.com/copy-of-contact

Images below:

1. Movie poster of Nina G: Stutterer Interrupted

2. Gina Chin-Davis (director) headshot

Stuttering San Francisco Bay Area (Oakland) comedian Nina G. Releases her first solo comedy album – Stutterer Interrupted – on May 11, 2023

Stutterer Interrupted comedy album: www.stuttererinterrupted.comFor Immediate Release

Media Contact: Nina G – https://www.stuttererinterrupted.com/copy-of-contact

April 13, 2023

Stuttering San Francisco Bay Area (Oakland) comedian Nina G.

Releases her first solo comedy album – Stutterer Interrupted – on May 11, 2023 

Coinciding with National Stuttering Awareness Week: May 3-18

San Francisco, CA… Stuttering San Francisco Bay Area comedian, Nina G. announces the release of her first solo comedy album, Stutterer Interrupted (Punchline Records), with her first comedy special, to follow. Sample audio clip from comedy album. The comedy album launches May 11 and coincides with National Stuttering Awareness Week on May 8-13. Through Nina’s comedy, besides making the audience laugh, she strives to increase visibility of disabled comedians and normalize stuttering. The author of the memoir Stutterer Interrupted: The Comedian Who Almost Didn’t Happen (2019) and co-author of Bay Area Comedy: A Humorous History (2022), has made a name for herself in the San Francisco Bay Area comedy scene. SF Chronicle article, Bay Area Legacy of Laughs Enshrined in New Book Celebrating History of Local Comedy Scene. Nina, who was born in Alameda, has resided in Oakland for the past 20 years.

As I was saying… If I could get a word in edgewise… I wasn’t done yet… 

If you’ve ever been cut off mid-sentence, these phrases of frustration are familiar. Now imagine as a person who stutters a lifetime of interruptions? To suffer the impatience of others, whether well-intended advice or just blatant rudeness when all you want to do is finish your thought; indeed, to finish saying even one word. 

Welcome to the world of Nina G.: Professional Speaker, Stand up Comedian, Author, and person who stutters. Sounds like a joke? She’d be the first one to say it – and she has – to audiences all over the world. Her humor is one that informs and entertains. Nina’s comedy brings an authentic and unfiltered voice of the disabled experience in an industry that lacks representation for disabled comedians, especially as a woman who stutters. It’s Time for the Disabled Community to Take Center Stage. Fortune Magazine, August 2022. Nina’s new album, Stutterer Interrupted (title also shared with her memoir released in 2019), released and produced by Punchline Records, debuts May 11, 2023, just in time for National Stuttering Awareness Week.

Famous people who stutter: 

•Marilyn Monroe

•President Joseph Biden

•Samuel L. Jackson

•Emily Blunt

•James Earl Jones

Some facts on stuttering:

•Stuttering impacts 1% of the adult population.

•80 million around the world stutter.

•1 in 4 people who stutter are female.

•There’s no known cure for stuttering.

•Many people who stutter experience discrimination in their jobs, personal lives, etc. 

About the comedy album, Stutterer Interrupted:

Nina recorded Stutterer Interrupted in her hometown at the Alameda Comedy Club. (Nina grew up in Alameda but now lives in Oakland.) If you stutter or know someone who does, you know the reactions many people have. Nina G. has experienced EVERYTHING… from hearing back-handed compliments like, “You are such an inspiration – if I talked like you I wouldn’t talk at all!” to funny looks and inquiries about whether she has considered intrusive brain surgery. People often interrupt, thinking it’s helpful to guess what she is going to say. But it isn’t just the interruptions from others that created a barrier for this comedian. Through stand up comedy, stuttering comedian Nina G. challenges the status quo of how people who stutter are perceived onstage and off. Of course, her material isn’t all about stuttering! She takes on body image issues, family dynamics and even her last gynecological visit. 

About Punchline Records:

Founded in 2022 by Matthew Layne after working as A&R for other comedy record labels, Punchline Records was built with the intent of finding undiscovered comedians, raising the industry standard record deal to be more equitable for talent, and lobbying a legislative amendment to fix the royalty system for comedy. Layne adds “One of the reasons I started Punchline Records was to help amplify comedic voices that may have otherwise been marginalized. Funny is funny. Nina G is one of the funniest: stuttering or not.”

About Nina’s comedy special to be released later this summer:

The Bay Area’s favorite female stuttering stand up comedian, Nina G, takes on the hilarious world of stuttering, family, body issues, and much more. Award-winning filmmaker (and fellow stutterer) Gina Chin-Davis captures a behind-the-scenes glimpse into Nina G’s show at the Alameda Comedy Club and the recording of her comedy album Stutterer Interrupted for Punchline Records. 

About Nina G… the Comedian:

Nina G. was the only woman who stuttered in the stand up comedy world in 2010 when she started performing. (Since then there are now 3 others.) She co-produces the Comedians with Disabilities Act, a national touring comedy show featuring exclusively comedians with disabilities. She also went on to produce the first compilation album to feature, as the album title suggests, Disabled Comedy Only. 

Nina G. is a the author of three books including Stutterer Interrupted: The Comedian Who Almost Didn’t Happen and Bay Area Stand-Up Comedy: A Humorous History. She has been featured in/on everything from NPR’s 51%, BBC’s Ouch, Psychology Today, Tedx, KQED Radio and multiple day time talk shows and podcasts. She has shared the stage with legendary comedians like Don Novello (aka Father Guido Sarducci), Mort Sahl, Eddie Pepitone, Cathy Ladman, and participated for 3 continuous years at San Francisco’s Comedy Day. Her first solo album debuts May 11 with a comedy special to follow later this summer. The special is directed by Gina Chin-Davis, a woman who also stutters. It not only includes concert footage but also intertwines Nina’s personal, family and educational experiences that first brought her to love stand up comedy as a child and to eventually get up on stage.  

About Nina G… the Author:

Nina G’s first book, Once Upon An Accommodation: A Book About Learning Disabilities, helps both children and adults understand how to advocate for needed school-related accommodations. The book is inspired from her own childhood experience of having learning disabilities, stuttering, and being denied accommodations in her own education. Nina’s follow up was her memoir titled Stutterer Interrupted: The Comedian Who Almost Didn’t Happen which chronicles what audiences don’t get to see on stage. It is the background of what drove her to the stage and to stutter openly. Her third book, Bay Area Comedy: A Humorous History, co-written with OJ Patterson, honors the develop of influential stand up comedians who emerged from the Bay Area comedy scene including Mort Sahl, Robin Williams, Don Novello, Paula Poundstone, Ali Wong, and W. Kamau Bell.  

About Nina G, the Professional Speaker:

Nina G. tours the country as a conference keynote speaker. In addition to her TedX talk at San Jose State University, she has presented for colleges, corporations and conferences all around the world including the Oregon Association on Higher Education and Disability, The International Stuttering Association, and numerous corporate/employee affinity group events.

Nina G is celebrating National Stuttering Awareness Week (May 8-13) through her comedy at the following shows:

Wed May 3 @ 7:30pm: Proud Stutter Presents Stuttering Spoken Word Night. Manny’s, 3092 16th St., San Francisco 94110. Nina will be joined by poets Adam Giannelli and Zainab Hussain, comedian Will Travis, and podcaster Maya Chupkov). www.proudstutter.com/events/stuttering-spoken-word

Sat May 6 @ 6pm: Comedians with Disabilities Act Show. Greater Purpose Brewing, 21517 E Cliff Dr., Santa Cruz, CA (Nina will be joined by fellow stuttering comedian Will Travis along with comedians Mean Dave, Dan Smith, and Steven Danner). www.eventbrite.com/e/greater-purpose-comedy-comedians-with-disabilities-act-tickets-614341591237

Thursday, May 11 @ 7pm: Comedians with Disabilities Act Show. Alameda Comedy Club, 2431 Central Ave., Alameda, CA (Nina will be joined by fellow stuttering comedian Will Travis, along with comedians Mean Dave, Loren Kraut, and Steven Danner) www.alamedacomedy.com/shows/213711

Saturday, May 13 @ 7pm: Cougars on the Loose. Tabard Theater Company, 29 N San Pedro St., San Jose, CA. (Nina headlines two shows.) Cougarcomedycollective.com/upcoming-shows

Thursday, May 18 @ 7pm: Lockdown Comedy (on Zoom). Along with Dhaya Lakshminarayan, Nick Leonard, and Arline and Lisa Geduldig. CityBoxOffice.com/LockdownComedy

Thursday, May 18 @ 7:30pm: Marga Gomez and Brava Present Who’s Your Mami Comedy. Brava Theater Center, 2773 24th St, San Francisco, CA. www.margagomez.com/events/2023/3/16/giioxoyyksypaw05sax52ag9ao8mol

To book Nina G., visit: www.ninagcomedian.com

Bay Area Stand-Up Comedy: A Humorous History

Cover of upcoming book

Back cover of book

Thrilled to share the cover and my introduction of our upcoming book Bay Area Stand-Up Comedy: A Humorous History! The book comes out February 14, 2022 and available on pre-order at (as well can be ordered from your local independent book store): https://rb.gy/lw5u2i.

Introduction by Nina G…

My family introduced me to stand-up comedy when I was about four years old. It was the height of Steve Martin’s fame as a stand-up comedian. I’m almost positive there is a picture of me as a small child with an arrow through my head out there somewhere. My parents did not censor what I watched or enforce much of a bedtime. As a result, I would stay up watching classic Saturday Night Live episodes that led to me naming a favorite stuffed animal “Gilda” as well as a sock puppet in second grade that I named “Edith Ann” after Lily Tomlin’s character. Even though I learned that Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny were a farce when I was seven years old, I didn’t learn that Father Guido Sarducci was not an ordained priest until I was at least ten.

   Cable TV helped feed my early love of comedy. There I was, exposed to stand-up as well as multiple runs of movies like The Jerk and Caddyshack. After school, I would take an afternoon nap just so I could stay up to watch The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson and, more importantly, Late Night with David Letterman. In third grade, I was identified as having a learning disability. This was about the same time I started to stutter, and I despised almost every aspect of school (Catholic school in the 1980s!). Knowing this, my mom let me play hooky at least once a month for us to go to the movies. This is where I saw films like Richard Pryor Live at the Sunset Strip when I was nine.  

   Throughout my childhood, I found solace in stand-up. Part of that was finding a feeling of superiority over my peers for not knowing the comedians who appeared on Letterman the night before. As I approached middle school, they started to identify with musicians, hanging pictures of their favorite bands in their lockers or in their bedrooms. Comedians were my rock stars. While other thirteen-year-old girls were writing fan letters to music groups like New Edition, I wrote fan letters to comedians like Emo Philips, who responded back with an autographed picture that still hangs in my kitchen. 

   I am lucky to be a fifth-generation San Francisco Bay Area native. I was raised in Alameda and San Leandro and was exposed to the San Francisco comedy scene early on. As I approached adolescence, the stand-up comedy boom was exploding, and I was on the sidelines watching it. After church on Sundays, my family would sit for hours at Ole’s Waffle Shop in Alameda with my aunt and uncle. I was so bored! To occupy myself, I would study the San Francisco Datebook section of the San Francisco Chronicle, examining the comedians and clubs that I hoped to attend one day. As we lived half a mile away from Tommy T’s Comedy Club in San Leandro, my comedy fantasies had a focal point. I so wanted to attend shows and then go hang out with the comics afterward at the Lyon’s in the same strip mall. I couldn’t wait until I turned eighteen years old so I’d be able to go to Tommy T’s, followed by turning twenty-one and attending shows at the legendary Holy City Zoo. Sadly, the Zoo literally closed on my twentieth birthday. I saw names of comedians performing at the Zoo who I saw on Comedy Tonight and later heard on the radio on The Alex Bennett Show. Larry “Bubbles” Brown, Will Durst, Warren Thomas, Paula Poundstone, Steven Pearl, Dan St. Paul, Ellen DeGeneres, Tom Ammiano, Marga Gomez, Whoopi Goldberg, Bobby Slayton and Al Clethen were all names and faces in the milieu of San Francisco comedy in the 1980s and I dreamed of the time that I could see them in person. However, as I got older, my comedy nerd tendencies morphed and mutated into career ambitions. 

   There were two distinct windows of entry I had into the Bay Area comedy scene. The first was a joke contest I won when I was eleven years old on a KGO radio show hosted by a woman who also played Ms. Nancy on Romper Room. I told a joke that I stole from a recent appearance of Pee Wee Herman on Late Night with David Letterman. The special guest judging the jokes was Will Durst. The prize was free tickets to the Other Cafe to see him. Durst awarded me first place, and I was so excited to go to my first comedy club experience! That night, my parents, as they often did, ran late. When we got to the club, parking was scarce. We could see the opening act performing in the window on the corner of Carl and Cole. My parents said we were not going to go in because they didn’t want to be made fun of for coming in late. As we drove down Haight Street, I was in tears because I would not be able to see the show. I would not get to the Other Cafe until I was fifteen—after I confessed my crush to Barry Sobel during his appearance on the Alex Bennett Show that same week. Previously, I had seen Sobel on Rodney Dangerfield’s Young Comedians Special. Finally, I had someone I could focus my emerging hormones on. I happened to be sick that day from school and spent the day at my grandparents. Using their rotary phone, I eventually got through to the Alex Bennett Show. I admitted on air that I would write Sobel’s name on my notebooks and binders. I still have his autograph from that night—it reads, “Keep writing my name on your notebooks.”  

   My second entry came when I was around sixteen. As I entered my teen years, I started to write jokes and had a handwritten database of open mics that accepted minors. I would call venues and see if they allowed minors, which was immediately tracked in my notes. One night, I called Dorsey’s Locker in Oakland, which would eventually and famously become comedian Luenell’s Blue Candle Tuesdays. I asked if minors were allowed at their open mic, which I had seen listed in the San Francisco Guardian. The bartender yelled to the rest of the bar, cackling, “This bitch wants to be Eddie Murphy!” I hung up, scared! I was exposed. This bitch really did want to be Eddie Murphy!

   Eventually, my dream to become a comedian died when I was seventeen years old. Being a person who stutters, I thought being a stand-up comedian was not in the cards for me. I went on to college, writing papers about comedy every chance I got but besides going to an occasional show, my passions were only academic. In 2010, after a number of life-altering experiences, I returned to my dream and stepped on the stage for the first time. I had the choice of countless open mics across the Bay I could go to. I ventured to places like the Brainwash Cafe, where I was baptized into San Francisco comedy by Tony Sparks. I would find myself performing at the clubs I read about in the Datebook back at Ole’s. I also had the honor of performing alongside many of the comedians I grew up watching. Stepping onto the same comedic scene that produced Mort Sahl, Phyllis Diller and Robin Williams felt like sacred ground. 

   After eleven years in comedy, the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent quarantine of 2020 hit. Comedians were forced to retreat to Zoom shows if they wanted to perform. We also had a lot of free time on our hands. Where once we would be grinding it out at open mics and showcases, we had to find things to do with our time and creative energy. That is when I started a short-lived YouTube video program titled the Comedy Time Capsule, where I interviewed comedians about their experiences and predictions of comedy during the pandemic. It was after hearing Marga Gomez’s experiences about the queer comedy scene at the Valencia Rose that an idea sparked. 

   Comedians don’t always know their history, nor are they great about honoring it. I called my old comedy friend and fellow comedy nerd OJ Patterson, and the spark of an idea took flame. We would write a book that broadly explores Bay Area comedy in words and pictures. Luckily, those late nights talking and doing comedy at McGrath’s open mic in Alameda, followed by tea sessions at my Oakland apartment on nights that OJ couldn’t BART back to the city, paid off. 

   I personally hope that this book reminds comedians of the Bay Area where they come from and the backs of the people they stand on while also celebrating our comedy history. I can already hear the critiques of comedians and comedy fans alike! “You didn’t talk about (this person) or (that place).” Yep! You are right. There is a lot left out, which is probably why there has not been a comprehensive book written about Bay Area comedy. Each of these chapters could and should be a four-hundred-page book. I hope that subsequent books will come, but in the meantime, I hope you enjoy this edition about the history of San Francisco Bay Area comedy. 

Something to Consider on International Stuttering Awareness Day…

It’s that time of year again! That’s right, October 22nd is International Stuttering Awareness Day! As a person who stutters, 10/22 represents something very near and dear to my heart. In my career as an author, comedian, and educator, spreading awareness is the common theme that drives all my work. But what does “awareness” really mean? Most people are “aware” of stuttering: they know what it is; they know that it exists. But beyond that? How stuttering affects our lives, how it affects the way we interact with other people—the really important stuff—those things rarely enter into the mainstream discussion. So, in honor of International Stuttering Awareness Day, I thought I’d make a quick list of things I think we should all be aware of. I encourage other people who stutter to add to this list in the comments, sharing some of your experiences. I certainly don’t speak for all of us!

1. Beware Completing People’s Sentences

The name of my new book (shameless plug) is Stutterer Interrupted. Why did I pick that title? Yeah, it’s a reference to the Wynona Ryder thing, but, more importantly, it’s a reference to the fact that we are always being interrupted! It typically goes something like this:

ME:
“I would like p-p-p–”

OTHER PERSON:
“Pumpernickel? Pizza? Pasta?”

Like the picture says, “I stutter! You’re gonna have to wait for all my brilliant ideas.” Having someone guess my next word makes things uncomfortable, which makes it harder for me to communicate. Plus, their guesses are almost always wrong! Things will go smoother if the listener just waits for the person stuttering to complete their thought. We love attentive listeners!

2. Beware Unwanted Advice (on Stuttering)

Unless I’m asking for it—or better yet, paying for it—I don’t want any tips on how to “improve” my speech. I’ve gotten unsolicited recommendations for “miracle cures” that range from homeopathic remedies to sexual acts to divine interventions. And let’s not forget that timeless classic, “just slow down and breathe.” Usually, the advice-giver’s credentials consist of “my third cousin once-removed stutters… or wait, was it Tourette’s?” Occasionally, they turn out to be an actual medical practitioner or speech therapist, but that doesn’t make it any less inappropriate. There is a time and place. And that time and place is probably not at a wedding where the person who stutters is supposed to be having fun!

3. We Don’t Need to Be Fixed

That’s right! It is up to every individual to decide how they want to speak. Some people may choose to engage in therapy to manage their stuttering. Others may not. It’s a personal choice. I personally don’t feel the need to be fluent (i.e., able to speak without stuttering). My speech patterns are a part of who I am, resulting from a difference in my brain (or neurodiversity, as many of us call it). There are many types of people, which means many types of communicating.  A person who stutters can communicate with the same clarity and effectiveness as anyone else. We just happen to have a less common way of doing it. Which brings me to my next point…

4. We Are Part of the One Percent (Not That One, the Other One)!

People who stutter make up only 1% of the adult population. Incredibly, only one fourth of that one percent are women! That’s why I refer to myself and my stuttering sisters as unicorns… because we are rare and elusive things of beauty! There are downsides to being a mythical creature though. Since we account for such a small part of the population, we don’t get a lot of representation in mainstream culture. You have to scour the ends of the Earth just to find a good stuttering role model on TV. If a person who stutters does appear in popular media, they are usually depicted in a gimmicky way that isn’t really empowering. That lady on Oprah who “cured” her stutter by wearing headphones for five minutes? Sorry, that doesn’t really do it for me. Growing up in the 1980s, the closest thing I had to a role model was a cartoon pig who didn’t wear pants. Yeah, I wish that was a joke. One of the best ways to spread awareness is through honest representation in the media… so let’s have more of that, eh?

5. There Is a Stamily Out There

Because people who stutter are few and far between, it’s an extra-special kind of awesome when we run into each other out there in the world. Sometimes it’s almost like finding long lost family, or “Stamily” as many of us call it. Growing up, I always felt like I was alone. I never knew there was such thing as a stuttering community. When I finally discovered that community, it changed the trajectory of my entire life. I was no longer alone. I suddenly had role models. I realized I could do anything, even be a stand-up comedian. I just wish someone had made me aware of it sooner… so you better believe I’m going to talk about it for Stuttering Awareness Day! There are so many amazing organizations around the world that support and bring together people who stutter: The National Stuttering Association (US), The British Stammering Association, The Indian Stammering Association, just to name a few. The International Stuttering Association even hosts an online conference in October, in honor of International Stuttering Awareness Day (check it out HERE). Many organizations also hold conferences and conventions that you can attend in person. I am not exaggerating when I say that I wouldn’t be the person I am today without these conferences. To be surrounded by nothing but Stamily for five days is simply mind-blowing—there’s no other way to describe it.

For a partial list of stuttering/stammering organizations all over the world, please find it HERE.

For T-shirts that say “I stutter! You are going to have to wait for all my brilliant ideas!” at: https://arkansas-tees.com/products/nina-g-stutterer-interrupted-brilliant-ideas-t-shirt

Thank you for reading this! And for celebrating International Stuttering Awareness Day! ❤

Photo and ballonery by Michael James Schneider

5 Ways Libraries Can Support the Stuttering Community

As a person who stutters, I have heard it all!  Upon introducing myself, I inevitably might hear “did you forget your name?”  or “wh-wh-wh-what?” People who stutter find particular difficulties when interacting with people in a customer service capacity.  Last year there was a news article about a Starbucks customer who found himself mocked by a barista who used the stuttering version of his name to identify his beverage.  This may sound extreme, but so many of the 1 percent of the adult population who stutters has at least one experience where they were being mocked by a person who was in a role to help or serve them.

Librarians and library staff are among the most helpful people I have ever encountered!  They are excited to help patrons find the perfect book or resource. In the past few decades there has been a push to make libraries more welcoming places for everyone, including people with disabilities.  This has gone beyond ramps to include trainings on customer service with a focus on serving people with disabilities, displaying visual icons to help people with dyslexia navigate the Dewey Decimal System, and software to make their computers accessible to people with an array of disabilities.

In my experience, stuttering is often ignored because the library barriers don’t seem so obvious. Nonetheless, libraries will want to minimize awkward interactions like the one that occurred at Starbucks. The following are a few tips to consider. They include basic etiquette and also ways to reach out to the stuttering community, making libraries a place for resources and support.

1.  Stuttering, like many other speech-based disabilities, is not apparent.  

You won’t know someone stutters by looking at them, which means anyone approaching you might be a person who stutters. Knowing there is diversity in how people verbally express themselves helps make your interactions more inclusive. Assuming that anyone might stutter or speak in a variety of ways prepares you to address these differences when you encounter them. Some tips for facilitating these interactions include:

• Not interrupting the person and letting them finish what they are saying.
• Maintaining eye contact.
• If the person says something you don’t completely understand, repeat the part you did understand so that they only have to fill in the part you missed instead of saying the whole thing over again.

2.  Don’t try to “fix” them.

People who stutter are often approached with cures for how to resolve their speech difficulties. These have included everything from old wives tales to hallucinogenics and miracle cures seen on talk shows. These are rarely helpful. Many people who stutter have likely been doing so for a long time and have tried multiple ways to manage their speech.  There are no known cures for stuttering, so offering your distant relative’s rumored remedy to resolve their speech issues isn’t likely wanted or helpful information.  In fact, many people who stutter have accepted their stuttering as divergent speech — just another way of talking — and we should follow suit!

3. Learn about stuttering resources.

There are important resources that should be shared when asked. These encourage and focus on information, peer support, acceptance of stuttering and advocacy.  Resources that encourage self-acceptance and include people who stutter on their boards and in their leadership should be given special attention!

4.  Promote positive images of people who stutter.

Positive images of people who stutter are rare.  In books, film and TV we are often portrayed as anti-social, bitter, comical or with bumbling incompetency. It is important that people who stutter are reflected in complex ways that represent the full human experience. These aren’t necessarily stories of overcoming stuttering, but living with it and helping the reader deepen their understanding of what that experience is like.  Recommended books and films include:

Books:

• “Stutterer Interrupted: The Comedian Who Almost Didn’t Happen” by Nina G.
• “Shining a Light on Stuttering: How One Man Used Comedy to Turn His Impairment into Applause” by Dale Williams and Jaik Campbell
• “Out With It: How Stuttering Helped Me to Find My Voice” by Katherine Preston
• “Stuttering Is Cool: Mischief, Mayhem and Mirth” by Daniele Rossi

Children’s books:

• “Gabriela Speaks Out” by Teresa E. Harris
• “Adventures of a Stuttering Superhero: Adventure #1 Interrupt-itis” by Kim Block
• When Oliver Speaks by Kimberly Garvin and Wicks

Movies:

• “When I Stutter”
• “The King’s Speech”
• “Rocket Science”

5.  Making your library a community space for people who stutter would be the neon sign that says “we get it!”  

Hosting events or support groups that the National Stuttering Association (NSA) and other organizations sponsor is a great start. October 22 is International Stuttering Awareness Day. The second week of May is National Stuttering Awareness Week in the United States. All of these awareness days can help educate your communities about stuttering. It is also an excellent opportunity to partner with local stuttering organizations like the NSA support groups to hear what they would like to see and how the library could be helpful.

People who stutter or have other speech-based disabilities are as diverse patrons as other library patrons.  They are likely looking up books that are of personal interest to them. They should have these opportunities in places where they can freely ask questions.  These are just a few recommendations, but there is likely more that can be done! The best way to know what the stuttering community at your library wants is to simply ask them. Keeping the lines of communication open is key to serving any community. These are just a few steps to making the library a more welcoming place for everyone.

 

Transforming How We Think About Stuttering

I am happy to share one of the chapters from my book Stutterer Interrupted: The Comedian Who Almost Didn’t Happen (debuts August 6, 2019 but available for pre-order now).  One note before you read this offering.  I encourage everyone reading to think about how they think about stuttering (whether or not you are a person who stutters) and what you would like to think and feel about stuttering.  To assist, I have included a blank iceberg that can be used by people to create their own version of the stuttering iceberg.  You have permission to use this for your presentations, clinical work and wherever else it might be helpful!

 

Transforming The Iceberg

I have very little control over my stutter. I wouldn’t even call it control; it’s more like I have to bargain with it. “Hey Nina’s Stutter, if I put on my ‘business voice’ and totally not sound like myself, will you let me get through this one phone call with a stranger?” “If I allow this word or that word, will you at least stay out of my next sentence?” I get exhausted just thinking about it. If I planned my day around Nina’s Stutter, there wouldn’t be time for anything else. Life is short, and I’m not going to waste it trying to control what I can’t control.

Stuttering is one of the few constants in my life. My hair has changed, my clothes have changed, my address has changed—but Nina’s Stutter is here to stay. It has never changed, and it probably never will. But the way I think and feel about it has changed.

 

I used to hate Nina’s Stutter. I was ashamed of it. I devoted the best parts of my youth to fighting it, instead of doing things that made me feel happy or productive. The more I missed out on life, the more I blamed Nina’s Stutter, doubling down my efforts to kill it. If only I were fluent, everything else would fall into place! I could speak freely. I could have boys ask me to prom. I could even follow my dreams and be a stand-up comic. All I had to do was stop stuttering!

When I write it down, it seems so ridiculous. How can some pauses and a few extra syllables take control of a person’s life?

That question became a point of focus for Joseph Sheehan, a clinical researcher and psychologist where?. Throughout his career, he observed that stuttering was typically more disruptive to a person’s emotional wellbeing than it was to their actual speech. In Stuttering: Research and Therapy (1970), Sheehan writes that “stuttering is like an iceberg, with only a small part above the waterline and a much bigger part below.” According to Sheehan, what most people think of as “stuttering” is only the tip of iceberg—the outwardly observable symptoms on the surface. But the emotional baggage that it carries—the invisible pain underneath—that’s the bulk of the ice. Sheehan organized these murky, underwater emotions into seven categories: fear, denial, shame, anxiety, isolation, guilt, and hopelessness. According to Sheehan, as the stutterer resolves these issues, the negative emotions begin to “evaporate.” This in turn causes the “waterline” to lower, until, finally, all that remains is the physical stutter. 

Sheehan’s book became highly influential in its field. The iceberg theory advanced a more holistic view of stuttering, inspiring professionals to consider more than just the sounds coming out of a person’s mouth. It also helped me think about my own experience. I have all those emotions below the water. I have felt guilty, for making people wait through a stalled sentence. I have felt isolated, especially before discovering the stuttering community. But most of all, I have felt shame, simply for speaking the way that I speak.

 Although it provides a useful framework, I don’t think Sheehan’s Iceberg presents the full picture. Sure, it explains the negative things we feel, but what about the other emotions? Just like everyone else, the life of a stutterer is filled with ups and downs, victories and defeats, good times and bad times. Even if your overall situation doesn’t change, things might look better or worse on a given day depending what side of the bed you wake up on. It’s all a matter of perspective.

If you’ve ever laid on the grass and looked up at the clouds, you know how easily perspective can change. One minute this cloud looks like a dragon; the next minute it looks like a bunny rabbit. Unless El Niño is brewing up an apocalyptic tornado, that cloud probably hasn’t changed much in the last sixty seconds. Instead, you let your eyes wander, reoriented your perspective, and unknowingly formed a different mental picture of the same thing.

If it can be done with literal clouds, then it can be done with metaphorical icebergs. Stuttering doesn’t have to be a bad experience if we change our perspective. Before I found the stuttering community, my perspective was all negative. I was isolated, ashamed, and everything else Sheehan packs into that sad popsicle. But when I found the National Stuttering Project during that summer in high school, something changed. I was no longer isolated–I had found a community. I was no longer ashamed. Maybe even… proud?

Sheehan writes about negative emotions evaporating until only a stutter remains. I disagree. When bad feelings subside, other feelings have to take their place. We don’t refer to happiness as “not sadness,” or confidence as “not embarrassment.” The negative emotions in Sheehan’s Iceberg all have positive equivalents. I propose that we can do more than simply make the bad feelings go away; we have the power to transform fear, shame, anxiety, isolation, denial, guilt, and hopelessness into feelings of courage, pride, comfort, community, acceptance, kindness, and hope.

So how do we do that? Although the negative emotions in Sheehan’s Iceberg are common to the stuttering experience, they are common because we live in a society that treats people with disabilities as substandard. But we don’t have to buy into it. All the weird looks we get in public, all the shitty images we see in the media, all the lowered expectations that people project onto us—they can all be thrown out and replaced with something better. Instead of struggling to conform to the ideals of a culture that makes us feel deficient, we can cultivate our own perspective and learn to love ourselves as we are. Every person who stutters has the responsibility to create their own iceberg—one that reflects their best possible self.

How we are perceived is largely influenced by how we perceive ourselves. When I began to accept my stutter, so did the people around me. Friends and family stopped offering advice on how to improve my fluency. People stopped thinking of me as a weirdo (at least after high school). Obviously there is a limit to how much self-perception can determine the views of others: I can’t force an asshole to stop being an asshole, as we’ve seen countless times in this book. But I can determine my own worth and decide which assholes are beneath me. I can share my values with the world, doing what I can to sway us from that asshole culture toward something more loving and equitable.

Promoting stuttering acceptance has been one of my greatest missions in life. Everyone who interacts with us, thinks about us, studies us, works with us, produces movies and TV shows about us, reports on us—they all have stuttering icebergs too! The strange and shitty ways they treat us stem from murky emotions below the tip of the iceberg. If we are ever going to overcome discrimination, we have to address the emotional baggage of these people as well. It’s not going to be easy. It’s hard enough to understand my own feelings toward stuttering, much less model them for others! All I can do is put myself in front of the public and try my best—in bars and comedy clubs, on college campuses, in online videos and social media, and now on in this book. Changing minds isn’t easy, but I’ll take that over trying to change how I speak.

 

Stutterer Interrupted: The Comedian Who Almost Didn’t Happen is available for pre-order now through Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Ingram, Baker Taylor and your local bookstore.  Debuts August 6, 2019!

Image is a JPG, but a high quality version in PDF is linked below.

high quality base iceberg

Stuttering Comedian and Author to Headline Punch Line Sacramento

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

(SACRAMENTO, CA) – Stuttering stand up comic Nina G will have the top spot at the Invisible Disabilities Comedy Show at the Sacramento Punch Line on Sunday, January 27 2019! Author of the forthcoming book Stutterer Interrupted: The Comedian Who Almost Didn’t Happen, Nina’s comedy is funny, revealing, unapologetic, and always a window to her experience as a person who stutters. Through humor, Nina G is challenging now people think of stuttering.

Nina’s brand of comedy highlights that the problem with disabilities is not the people with them, but a society that isn’t inclusive. Nina thinks the recent trend of online stories featuring “clever” ways people “cured” their stuttering may be sending the wrong message to those who are non-stuttering speakers, offers.  Nina adds, “focusing on changing us instead of living our lives gives the wrong message to the public.” Always one to model in herself what she expects from others, her humor is accessible to all who are ready for a good laugh!

Bio

When Nina G started comedy nearly eight years ago, she was the only woman who stuttered in the world doing stand-up. Undaunted after battling a lifetime of stigma, Nina pursued her dream.

Nina G is a comedian, professional speaker, writer and educator. She brings her humor to help people confront and understand Disability culture, access, and empowerment.

Book

Nina G’s latest book, Stutterer Interrupted: The Comedian Who Almost Didn’t Happen

is a memoir, published by She Writes Press, will be released August 6, 2019.

Nina tells the story of her journey of how she became, at the time she started, America’s only female stuttering stand-up comedian. On stage, Nina encounters the occasional heckler, but off stage she is often confronted with people’s comments toward her stuttering. Listeners completing her sentences, inquiring “did you forget your name?” and giving unwanted advice like “slow down and breathe” are common.  As if she never thought about slowing down and breathing in her over thirty years of stuttering!  In Stutterer Interrupted… Nina confronts these interruptions and so much more!

What the show is about and the awareness that it brings

Producers, Ali Ada and and Drew Kimzey each live with multiple disabilities that substantially limit their lives, yet you might never know it. They’re both passionate about comedy but have significant obstacles that can prevent them from achieving their goals. The desire to turn their obstacles into strengths inspired the idea for this show.

Line up includes: Chey Bell, Jeanette Marin, Sureini Weerasekera, Anihca Cihla, Nicole Tran, Emily Pedersen and Kelley Nicole. Hosted by Amber Whitford.

In the 18 months since Coral got her start in comedy she has gathered a significant following with her shockingly real and relatable story telling. After going through a major medical crisis she took to stage with her natural, conversational humor and absurd comedy style and never looked back. Many of her jokes surround her new life post surgery as a young, broke, female adjusting to having an ostomy bag. She performs all over the Bay Area sharing her unabashed tales in major clubs such as the SF Punch Line and the San Jose Improv, bringing light to her not-dinner-table-appropriate disability (aka her poop bag.)

Quote from here:  “Talking about my ostomy bag on stage not only helped me to accept my new body and situation but educated others on a struggle they knew nothing, to little, about. It’s not just about making people laugh, it’s about drawing them in to your life enough that they begin to invest in attempting to understand your experience, with your disability. It gives my comedy more purpose to know I’m doing my part to reach out to the audience and share that we are all going through some type of invisible struggle, and here I am being open and honest about mine in an attempt to bring us all closer together.”

Invisible Disabilities Comedy Show

Show: Sunday, January 27, 2019

http://www.punchlinesac.com.  (18+ 2 drink min)

916-925-8500

The Punch Line Sacramento

2100 Arden Way

Sacramento, CA 95825

Produced by Ali Ada and Drew Kimzey

Media Contact:

Nina G

NinaGbooking@gmail.com

510-922-0179

###

 

A Guide for Disability Awareness Events On Your Campus

Planning events at a college can be daunting, but also very rewarding!  Speakers can demonstrate the power of the Disability experience and inspire students in ways that are long lasting and life changing.  Speakers can help to change attitudes of the larger college community and help people question what they think they know about disability.

Somethings to consider when booking a Disability awareness Speaker include:

1. Contact the potential speaker or artist. Find out their fees, availability and what they have to offer.
2. Follow the money! Investigate how to fund the speaker. Can different committees or departments collaborate to sponsor the event?
3. Check to see if other events are scheduled. Remember, home coming and finals week may not be the best weeks to hold your event!
4. Book your speaker!
5. Collaborate with other department and committees for co-sponsorship. Even if they aren’t funding the speaker, you can use the help to get the word out.

Bonus Tip: Collaborate with a professor and hold the event during their class. That way you can guarantee your event will be well attended. The professor can work the event into the class. Works great for everyone!

 

Planning an event but not sure where to start or what to do?  Take a look at this guide intended for colleges wanting to educate their communities on disability issues.  Even if you are not at a college or you are producing non-Disability related events, this information can still be useful.

PULLING OFF A SUCCESSFUL EVENT ON YOUR COLLEGE CAMPUS:  https://ninagcomedian.wordpress.com/2015/07/30/pulling-off-a-successful-event-at-your-college-campus/

10 TIPS FOR MARKETING YOUR NEXT COLLEGE OR COMMUNITY EVENT:  https://ninagcomedian.wordpress.com/2015/08/10/10-tips-for-marketing-you-next-college-or-community-event/

FUNDING DISABILITY AWARENESS EVENTS ON YOUR COLLEGE CAMPUS:  https://ninagcomedian.wordpress.com/2014/02/06/funding-disability-awareness-events-on-your-college-campus/