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.  

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

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

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Stuttering On My Own Terms

(I haven’t proof read this–so deal with it!)

As a stand up comedian who stutters, people make a lot of assumptions about me.  Fluent people think I am brave for public speaking.  After doing a presentation at a library (before my days as a comedian), a woman came up to me and said, “you are such an inspiration.  If I talked like you, I wouldn’t talk at all.”  With experiences like this, how do you not turn to comedy?!

People who stutter assume something else about me.  They assume that I am totally free of stuttering fear, shame, frustration and whatever else we feel when we talk.  It is as if I am immune because I tell dick jokes in a dive bar at midnight (which is much of what you do as a stand up).  For those who think I stutter through life without the stutter bug (the feelings we attach to stuttering) catching me, I am writing this for you.

Let me start the story backwards (dyslexic style).  This was the night that I won the Killer Laughs Comedy  Competition against all odds.  It wasn’t against all odds because I stutter.  It was against all odds because I was the very first comedian of the line up and the first comedian the line up in a competition NEVER wins.  With this in mind, I decided to do something different.  My parents were suppose to be in the audience to support me and event more importantly, VOTE for me.  Of course, they were late as they often times are.

Since I figured I wasn’t going to win I decided to get back at my parents for something they did to me when I was eleven years old.  When I was a kid I won a joke telling contest on the radio that was judged by San Francisco comedy legend Will Durst.  The prize was seeing him at The Other Cafe, a legendary comedy club that closed in the early 1990s.  I was a really big comedy nerd so I was way excited about going to my first comedy club, especially based off of my own joke.  I won’t mention that the joke was one I stole from Pee Wee Herman from his appearance on Letterman (“I don’t know his name, but his face rings a bell”).  We lived in San Leandro about 45 minutes away from the Haight Ashbury where the club was located.  Of course, we were late.  We drove by the club and saw through the corner window that the show was already underway.  My parents decided not to go to the show because they were afraid the comedians would make fun of them for being late.  I started crying and we ended up going to see the movie Innerspace.  Martin Short would have to be my Will Durst substitute.

As shows I usually stick to my scripted jokes, but I decided not to that night at the competition.  Instead, knowing that my parents were in the parking lot and on their way in during my set, I explained to the audience how they robbed me of my first comedy club experience.  That was when I asked a room full of people to turn around when I said “hi mom and dad” and then turn around to stare and boo my parents.  I made sure to tell the audience that I knew I wasn’t going to win anyways because I was up first.

At the end of the competition I came in first place.  I then went for 4 or 5 more rounds, beating out 120 comedians and ended up winning the whole damn thing (and I didn’t even bring an audience).  To all the comedians reading this who are saying to themselves, “your not that funny and competitions don’t mean anything,” you can go F’ yourselves.  I still won.

So that explains the end of the night.  Now let me tell you about the beginning of the night.

I carpooled to the competition with a car full of my good comedy friends who I would be competing against.  Apparently my car was clean that night because five of us were able to fit into my jeep.  Feeling the need for caffeine to get myself through the show, I decided to stop by the McDonalds on the way to the competition.  Before ordering my “large diet coke” I asked everyone in the car if they wanted anything.  They all denied my offer to order for them and I followed up with, “are you sure?”  They assured me that I was the only one ordering.  After I ordered my “large diet coke” my friends started barking out orders, “order me a Fillet-o-fish.”  “Get me a Big Mac with cheese and a Sprit.”  I literally froze.  I couldn’t do it!  I signaled for my friend in the front row to order and rolled down the backseat windows to yell out their order.  Afterwards my friends were pretty astonished that I couldn’t place the order, making the observation that I could talk in front of hundreds of people but could not place an order to a fast food worker. And I was like, “I stutter, we don’t always do drive-thrus.”

What happened was I felt a lack of control when orders were being barked out at me.  When I am on stage, I have the mic and usually I am the one in control.  I say what I want.  My friends had no idea that requesting a Fillet-O-Fish would make me throw in the towel at a drive in.  So many times we, as people who stutter, blame ourselves for not living up to perceived expectations.  I think we internalize the expectations that we need to be fixed and talk like everyone else.  Even if we stutter openly, many of us put pressure on ourselves that we need to be self-accepting and courageous at all times no matter what.  People perceive my ability to talk in front of hundreds of people as a evidence that I stutter confidently and without stigma 24/7.  How would this be possible when we are socialized in the world we are socialized in?  We aren’t always going to be able live up to others or ourselves and we need to be kind to ourselves.  Sometimes asking our significant other to order the pepperoni pizza after a long day at work isn’t a stuttering sin and a sign of our lack of pride or self-acceptance.  If you stutter, awesome and if you want to sit one out, it doesn’t mean you’re lesser than anyone else.  Stutter with as much pride as you can but on your terms and no else’s.  And if you are ever in a car with me, know that I will throw my Diet Coke at you if make me order a F’n Fillet-O-Fish.

Can Comedy Educate?

Guess what?!  I fulfilled my comedy dream of being bleeped on NPR!  Please take a listen to see if comedy can educate!  I was featured with others from the Comedians with Disabilities Act (our album is on sale!!).  And, Howard Stern, I am still waiting for your call!

http://kalw.org/post/can-you-educate-comedy-jokes-comedians-disabilities-act#.VVwUdJQpBX5.twitter

Changing the image of Disability through comedy

Big news!  The Comedians with Disabilities Act and Friends album is out.  Disabled Comedy Only is the first ever compilation of Disabled comedians on a single album.  Monumental! The recording was done independently and without any Jumpstarts or GoFundMes.  As artists with disabilities we retained complete control over our material, our image and our brand.  No abled bodied people dictated what we should or shouldn’t say.  Please support independent comedy fighting for visibility, equity, and disability justice through comedy.

Please support the album by purchasing it at: http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/comedianswithdisabilitie

and sharing our videos!

Thank you for the support!

Comedian who stutters goes beyond the punchlines

Check it out!  Comedy Spot Nation featured my upcoming one person show!

http://www.comedyspotnation.com/nina-g-comedian-who-stutters-goes-beyond-the-punch-lines/

Michael O’Connell interviews me!

 

Nina G and Michael O’Connell talk and talk and talk in this episode of Zero Stand-Up.  Photo by Josh Denault.

Michael O’Connell interviews me!

Please check out Michael’s new podcast and my fascinating insights!

THE “COMEDIANS WITH DISABILITIES ACT” TOUR ROLLS INTO NAPA Thursday Feb. 27 at Bui Bistro’s Comedy Night @ Bui Bistro

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Tim Wolcott
Tel. 707-337-8582
Email: timwolcott79@gmail.com

THE “COMEDIANS WITH DISABILITIES ACT” TOUR ROLLS INTO NAPA Thursday Feb. 27 at Bui Bistro’s Comedy Night @ Bui Bistro.

A blind man. A stuttering woman. A wheelchair user. A little person. While this may sound like a description of a support group, it is, in fact, the lineup for the “Comedians with Disabilities Act”, a comedy tour that the San Francisco Examiner called “The most unconventional comics to pop up in 2011”. Made up entirely of performers with different disabilities, the troupe is bringing their “special” brand of humor to Comedy Night @ Bui Bistro, hosted by local comedian Tim Wolcott, on Thursday, Feb. 27 at 7pm.

The foursome, all of them working northern California comedians, met each other through the comedy club circuit and decided to band together to treat audiences to a unique and unforgettable experience.

“Lots of able-bodied comedians out there tell blind or wheelchair jokes and get the audience to laugh AT people with disabilities,” said Michael O’Connell, the group’s wheelchair representative and founder of the troupe. “But wouldn’t it be more fun for the crowd, we thought, to be invited to laugh WITH people with disabilities instead? That’s guilt-free fun right there.”

Since their first sold-out show in Sacramento, the group has been in growing demand, getting booked at such lauded venues as the Laugh Factory in Hollywood and San Francisco’s Punch Line comedy club. Their comedy comes from the lifetime of experiences each has had due to their individual challenges. They see the tour as not only a chance to entertain, but to educate people on disability issues.

“We’re all comedians first,” said Napa native Steve Danner who identifies as a Little Person, “and it’s a comedy show. But who says you can’t make people laugh and send them home with something to think about too?”

Danner’s comedy career began as an audience member at a club. The comedian on stage that night decided to have some fun at his expense, and Danner’s skills in heckling back at him led the comic to approach Danner after the show and suggest he give comedy a try. He did so, and soon began a career as a prolific comedian and producer, delighting crowds at clubs and comedy rooms all over the west coast with hysterical tales centered heavily on his dwarfism. His comic journey keeps him on the road much of the time, but as Danner is fond of saying, “Shrimpin’ ain’t easy!”.

Michael O’Connell was diagnosed with Muscular Dystrophy at two years old and began using a wheelchair in 1995. But it wasn’t until years later that a friend dared him to try doing comedy at an open mic night at a Sacramento club, and after ending up winning the competition that first night on stage, he never looked back. He’s played comedy clubs from Seattle to L.A. (including the Hollywood Improv and the Jon Lovitz Comedy Club), been featured in newspapers and on radio and television, and counts several Hollywood celebrities among his fans. His business card reads “100% Comedy, 0% Stand-Up”.  Michael is unable to attend this show but you can check out his comedy at http://www.michaeloconnell.com/michaelocomedy.

Sacramento’s Eric Mee was only eighteen years old when, while protecting a young child, he was stabbed in the chest. Complications resulting from his injury led to the loss of his eyesight. Choosing not to let this drastic life change get him down, he began joking about his condition and giving speeches to groups that were always filled with humor. After many suggestions, he turned his talents to stand-up comedy, and now brings his manic energy and outrageous tales to the stage, both at clubs and college campuses.

Touting herself as “the America’s only female comedian who stutters”, Nina G. hails from the Bay Area and has spent a lifetime dealing with both speech and learning disability issues. A key note speaker and disability advocate, Nina turned her talents to the stand-up stage to help raise disability awareness through comedy, and performs her award-winning work at some of the industry’s hottest clubs (the Hollywood Improv and the San Francisco Punchline) and has shared the stage with some of its biggest names (Dave Chappelle).

The Comedians with Disabilities Act will be joined by special guests Steve Lee and Queenie TT.   Steve Lee, a Hong Kong native, originally came to the US as an exchange student.  His comedy integrates his experiences as a first generation Asian American with a disability.  Queenie is a motivational speaker and a body esteem educator with lymphedema.  Combining comedy with motivational speech, Queenie empowers women to make healthier choices for their lives by embracing the power of self-love.

The show will be hosted and produced by local standup comic, Tim Wolcott. Tim started his standup career in 2003 while attending Pacific Union College, where he also helped form the improv/sketch comedy group, Desperate 4 Attention. After a few years of the journeyman comic life, living in Los Angeles and Tampa, Tim returned to St. Helena’s restaurant scene and the San Francisco/Bay Area comedy scene in 2009. He has since performed at venues all over the bay area, including at San Francisco’s historic Purple Onion.  Tim began producing his own shows in June of 2013, at La Condesa in St. Helena.  This will be the second show he’s produced at Bui Bistro, a French/Vietnamese restaurant in downtown Napa.  The show begins at 7pm and has no cover.

If you’d like more information on this event, or to schedule interviews with any of the comedians please contact Nina G at NinaGbooking@gmail.com or Tim Wolcott at timwolcott79@gmail.com.