Gina Brillon came to the Russell House Ballroom on Monday night , tossing back hair flips and telling jokes that were just as much social commentary as they were gags.
This Bronx native feels that she can't separate her hometown from her act, no matter how much traveling she does.
“I guess a lot of my comedy has a lot of New York in it,” Brillon said. “I like talking about New York City, I like giving people an idea of what it's like in New York City.”
Brillon is an unabashed food enthusiast, claiming that she “gets mad when she's full.” Mixing positivity with anxiety, she segued into banter about weight problems and violence against women.
After a man punched her during a fight on the subway, he then picked her up and threw her. Rather than wallowing in horror, she was elated at how much weight she must have lost for him to hurl her with such ease.
Like so many of today's comics, Brillon is influenced by the late George Carlin. She is 34 — which she was not afraid to share — and said her girlfriends wish she lied about her age more often. She has studied plenty of Carlin's career to notice the change in his overall approach to comedy.
“I loved early Carlin and even Carlin in his later years when he became more of a social commentator,” Brillon said. “You're talking to a comic nerd. I like Michael Che, Louis CK and Ted Alexander, but the biggest influences would have to be the Georges [Carlin and Lopez].”
Brillon thinks that social commentary and comedy are inseparable. She likened the comedian's job to the experience of a school child who wrestles with the suffering of the world around them.
“[A comedian's] job is to be the people who sit in the back of the classroom and make fun of the world,” Brillon said. “What we do is we make light of everything that everybody else takes so seriously — whether it's breakups, divorce, death ... our job is to make it easier for everybody else to deal with it.”
Brillon is a Puerto Rican-American and in turn considered an ethnic comedian. While she has no problem with the label, she maintains that it is only one of many parts of her identity and comedic persona.
“I love racial humor, it sounds terrible when I say it. For me — being an ethnic performer — I came up on the Latino circuit. That's part of who I am,” Brillon said. “I'm not ashamed of it but it's also something I don't feel like I need to exploit or use, because there's other parts of me too.”
One of those “other parts” extends beyond her comedic career altogether. Brillon is a published writer and a poet. She does not necessarily separate the two crafts — one of her favorite poems, “Modern Man,” was written and recited by her leading comedic influence, George Carlin.
“There are so many similarities between comedy and poetry ... It is you taking what's inside of you — your observations, a commentary in a way. Poetry is a way to say things without people realizing you were saying things,” Brillon said. “Comedy, it's the same thing. I'm telling you a joke about how I'm going through a divorce, but you don't understand that I'm also making you feel better about your divorce and I'm talking about other things that you can connect with.”