Nina G | SpeakerHub

Personal Details

Bio

Nina G is a comedian, professional speaker, comedy historical consultant and author of Stutterer Interrupted 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 years straight at San Francisco's Comedy Day.

Nina shares her wit and wisdom with corporations, colleges, libraries, conferences, and community events. Her no nonsense approach to disability awareness and acceptance helps to bring institutions, communities and individuals to deepen their understanding of the disability and bring practical approaches to making a more inclusive society.

Current position (1)

Comedian and professional speaker

WWW.ninagcomedian.com

Degrees (1)

Psychology

UC Berkeley

1993 to 1995

Presentations

Presentations (8)

Specializing in EAGs

Employee Affinity Groups (EAGs) have made advances in their organizations. The goal of these groups is often, but not limited, to:
-Educate nondisabled employees about disability issues including etiquette and basic questions
-Reflect the experiences of Disabled employees and family members of Disabled individuals
-Introduce and facilitate Disability centered recruitment, mentoring and retainment of employees
Nina G has been working with corporations, K-12 schools and colleges to make their institutions more accessible and welcoming to people with disabilities since 2000. Armed with a doctorate in psychology and 13 years as a professional comedian, she is able to blend these worlds making her message of inclusion for people with disabilities accessible to all audiences through humor, storytelling and vital information. Nina has worked with Coca Cola, Oracle, Geico, PG&E and countless other colleges and organizations.

Every Day Ally

Content Themes: Customer Service; challenging internal bias; etiquette; building community.
Target Audience: Corporate, non-profit.
Description: Through humor, storytelling and direct instruction, Nina G shares insights on what having a disability is really like and what non-disabled people can do to be authentic allies. Participants will deepen their understanding of what disability means, how to best serve individuals with disabilities in the role that participants play and how to generally be an ally. Topics include humility, empathy building and how to join with the Disabled community. This presentation can be tailored to the audience to achieve outcomes such as elevating customer service for everyone, collaboration between communities and clinical skills.

Going Beyond Inspirational

Content Themes: Disability affirmation; Disability experience; motivational for teachers, parents and helping professionals; stigma; advocacy.
Target Audience: Can be modified as a one-person show or a keynote. Perfect for non-profit organization fundraisers, conferences and college shows.
Description: "How many people with Disabilities does it take to screw in a lightbulb?" Answer: "One to screw it in and 5 abled bodied people to say, 'you are such an inspiration!'"
This joke is a favorite in Nina G's stand-up comedy routine. It brings to light (no pun intended) the struggle that people with Disabilities have living in an able-bodied society that reduces them to images of "inspirations" and "overcomers.” Nina challenges perceptions about Disability in her appropriately titled show, Going Beyond Inspirational. Going Beyond Inspirational deals with the pain, joys, and revelations growing up with Speech and Learning Disabilities.

Stutterer Interrupted: The Comedian Who Almost Didn't Happen

Content Themes: Acceptance; developing voice; overcoming internalized stigma.
Target Audience: Can be modified as a one-person show or a keynote. Perfect for non-profit organization fundraisers, conferences and college shows. In Summer 2019, the book Stutterer Interrupted: The Making of a Stuttering Stand Up Comedian will be released.
Description: Stutterer Interrupted explores what it’s like to be a stuttering woman in a non-stuttering world. How does it feel when people constantly try to finish your sentences? When they ask if you forgot your own name? How do you go from twenty years of hiding your voice to performing on stage every night? These are some of the questions that Nina addresses in her show.

8 Not Very Secret, Secrets to Success

Content Themes: Self-acceptance; building on success; community, pride, advocacy.
Target Audience: Youth with Disabilities
Description: Keys to success for youth with disabilities include: know your history, accept yourself, build on achievement, develop your talents, use your voice (advocacy or activism), use accommodations, self-worth, build community. All these are discussed in this dynamic presentation that engages youth.

Learning Ramps: Teaching with the Brain in Mind

Content Themes: Teaching; learning; multiple intelligence; universal design; dyslexia; disability
Target Audience: Educators (Kindergarten to Doctoral programs), job couches, independent living instructors.
Description: Addressing the needs of people with disabilities isn't an accommodation, it is just good teaching and communicating! By making your classrooms, clinics and programs accessible to people with disabilities, you are able to address the needs of diverse individuals. Through understanding Universal Design for learning and communication, participants in this dynamic workshop will learn pragmatic strategies to immediately use with the individuals they work with. Workshop includes using multimodes of teaching and communicating so that participants not only learn about the topic, but are able to embody universal design. This workshop can be tailored to all populations with disability as the focus or as an adjunct to understanding diversity issues.

Disability: Understanding, Respect, Friendship

Content Themes: Disability awareness and celebration; kid friendly ways to be an ally,
Target Audience: K-12. Program is customized to the developmental level of the audience.
Description: This powerful and fun presentation is where Nina (or as the kids call her, Dr. G) offers participants a frame to understand disability that includes:
understanding what a disability is
building empathy and respect
developing tools to be a good friend
Dr. G uses this framework (as well as herself) as a tool to transform the negative attitudes within children without disabilities and to encourage students with disabilities to have pride in their experiences. Dr. G includes a meet and greet with students who would like to interact with her after the presentation. If possible, a lunch with students receiving accommodations can also be set up to encourage students to discuss their disabilities openly.

Night Club Act

Content Themes: Discrimination; Disability pride; gender; ethnicity.
Target Audience: Over 18/Adult-oriented material (i.e. naughty words)
Description: Nina G’s comedy is consistently in demand in the San Francisco Bay Area, across the United States and even three times in Ireland. The spirit and themes of her keynotes is interpreted through her comedy club act that has been vetted through open mics, showcases, feature and headlining spots. Nina has performed in every venue imaginable from dive bars, sporting good stores and laundromats to comedy clubs like the San Francisco & Sacramento Punch Line and LA’s Laugh Factory. She has performed alongside headliners that include Dave Chappelle and Geri Jewel.

Workshops (1)

Learning Ramps: Universal Design for Learning for the Classroom

Full day

Universal Design (UD) is the design of the environment to be accessible to as many people as possible without the need for further adaptation. By making the environment accessible for people with disabilities, you are making it accessible to everyone else through good design. The ramp that helps the person using a wheelchair also helps people with rolling suitcases, baby strollers, and aging adults who have a difficult time walking up and down stairways.