Stutterer Interrupted

Nina G bills herself as The San Francisco Bay Areas Only Female Stuttering Comedian. On stage, she encounters the occasional heckler, but off stage she is often confronted with peoples 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!) When Nina started comedy nearly ten years ago, she was the only woman in the world of stand-up who stutterednot a surprise, since men outnumber women four to one amongst those who stutter and comedy is a male-dominated profession. Ninas brand of comedy reflects the experience of many people with disabilities in that the problem with disability isnt in the person with it but in a society that isnt always accessible or inclusive.