Gina Brillon uses comedy to heal and give hope
Those of us who have ever felt insecure about our size or our body, stayed in the wrong relationship for too long—or possibly are still in one—had others offer us unsolicited advice about our looks or been caught off guard by the comment of a child, will probably relate to comedian Gina Brillon. And those of us who are women, are in a relationship with one, or have one as a colleague, a mom, a sister or a friend, will probably find she makes us laugh. We might even find ourselves retelling Brillon’s stories after her show, as if we’re describing something that happened to a friend.
Brillon, an America’s Got Talent finalist from the 16th season in 2021, uses her life and her lens as a Puerto Rican woman from the Bronx who’s in a healthy interracial marriage with a white guy, as the mother of a toddler and as a woman who’s experienced some less-than-great relationships along the way, as content for her act.
“When I was a kid, I loved to make people smile and laugh,” Brillon says. “I think laughter is the greatest, most healing thing and I’ve always wanted to share that with people.”
While Gina Brillon and the character Midge Maisel from The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel—the Amazon Prime series that debuted in 2017 and concluded this summer—may not look alike, sound alike or represent the same time period, both of these comics make the audience think as they tell their jokes from their arsenal of experiences as women. The difference, of course, is that Gina Brillon is real and Midge Maisel is fictional.
Brillon might playfully make fun of comments that folks have made about her curvy figure, liken relationships to less-than-ideal parking spots that we settle for or poke fun at the insecurity-inspired nicknames that she, as a Latina child, was subjected to. She talks about her marriage and her husband in a way that leaves audience members not only laughing, but also feeling like they know her a little better. She doesn’t take cheap shots or aim for the lowest-hanging fruit. There’s an intentional thoughtfulness and an undeniable relatability and universality to her humor.
“I’ve been such a student of comedy. I’ve learned the dos and don’ts and how to stay true to myself and my style,” Brillon says. “It all fell into place for me, which is like the dream of a story because I know it doesn’t work like that for everybody.”
Brillon is a twin, one of five children and the daughter of a couple of hard-working parents who worked whatever jobs they had to in order to keep food on the table, but were always unwavering in their support of her. “My family [always said,] ‘This kid was clearly meant to go and make people laugh,’” Brillon says. “I never had a passion like I did for stand-up for anything else. It’s been in my blood forever.”
Brillon says, in one of her acts, that if she wasn’t a comic, she’d be a relationship therapist. It’s believable, too. She delivers red-flag scenarios and gently pokes fun at human tendencies and mistakes she—and many other people likely have, too—made on her own journey.
“I think that humor is healing. The way it’s healed me from my trauma is always being able to take something that was difficult to go through and putting a spin on it,” Brillon says. “There’s something about being able to say, ‘Yes, that was hard and we’re going to make fun of this, right?’ when we’re going through a situation we know the ins and outs of it.”
Brillon has endured her fair share of relationship woes on her journey and she doesn’t shy away from that on stage. “I knew I was in an unhealthy relationship,” she says. “Even though I knew it was bad, my trauma and my insecurities had me staying in that relationship way too long. As soon as I got out, I knew I had to talk about it—because, how ridiculous is it that even though I knew it was bad, I stayed?”
That spirit of gentle self-depreciation and curiosity about why we do what we do is what drives Gina Brillon’s content in her stand-up acts, because as she says, people tend to react better to curiosity than accusation. “When we approach things with a childlike curiosity and say, ‘Why though? Why are we so divided over things that are meant to divide us?’ we invite conversation,” she says. “Accusation does not invite conversation. It causes us to be defensive and shut down.”
For Brillon, approaching difficult topics with that curious spirit is what makes her act and the topics she covers more palatable for her audience. “I always try to look at what I’m talking about and consider what the opposite perspective might be. [I consider if I] can defend my perspective without attacking the person. If I can’t, I have to find a middle ground and [take to heart] the perspective of the other person.”
That, Brillon says, is the art of being a comic. “That’s what I want to offer as a comic. If there’s a different point of view, or even a more light-hearted perspective, the audience can walk away and think, ‘Hmmm. Maybe I can do my own homework and research that and see if I still feel the same.”
Juanita Abundiz, a multiracial adoptee who is also the divorced mother of a “tweenage” daughter and a kindergarten-age son, can’t wait to see Gina Brillon’s comedy act in person. “I love how she dives into the struggles of relationships and motherhood from her cross-cultural Latinx lens. I loved her farm-to-plate Midwestern white-boy reference,” Abudunditz, who is currently in an interracial relationship with a white boyfriend, says.
Abundiz says Brillon has made it possible for her to rethink her own relationship patterns while laughing through them. “Gina made me laugh about my own relationship shenanigans and feel like, OK, I’m not the only one to have experienced these things. When we can laugh about it, because it resonates deeply with our shared stories as women in difficult situations, we can start to see our own agency,” Abuditz says. “I think Gina’s comedy could actually be the catalyst we need when trying to make a change. I can’t wait to see her in person.”
Gina Brillon will perform at the Lesher Center for the Arts on Thursday, June 22 at 7:30 pm. For more information about Brillon and her forthcoming tour, visit ginabrillon.com.
