Today's DHR - Tina Friml Does a Set on "The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon"
Comedian with cerebral palsy has spectular debut on American late night scene
For years, Tina Friml worked the comedy circuit in her native Vermont, unsure whether her passion for comedy would ever become a career. But on November 18, 2023, the young comedian definitely arrived, when she did a set on “The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon”.
Joking Around About Disability
Tina Friml has cerebral palsy and often jokes in her sets about being disabled and how people relate to her as a visibly disabled person. But, on Mikaela Lefrak’s “Vermot Edition” podcast, she talks about how she got “The Tonight Show” appearance because Jimmy Fallon loved her jokes about Vermont that he saw in one of her sets at The Comedy Cellar in New York. She made sure to include those in her “Tonight Show” set. But she also included jokes about disability that have set her apart from other comics, such as:
“A lot of people, they see me and think that I suffer from cerebral palsy. Which I don’t. Well, I have cerebral palsy. I suffer from people.”
She talks to Lefrak about how her disability may have set her on the path to being a comedian:
“I always used comedy as a way to diffuse peoples’ uncomfortability around me. And it was just my language. I don’t know how to not be funny.”
She also says that as she growing up, she sensed discomfort about disability her more from adults than she did from other children, and that she found it difficult to get what she needed to deal with the fact that she was different.
“No one really knows how to talk to a child about being different, and how it will be okay. I always got pushed with, “Well, um…hey, look! A puppy!” You just kind of change the subject. And from that, unfortunately, I learned that, oh! I should be ashamed of this! We should not talk about it because it’s so shameful, it’s so dark, and tragic, who I am.”
Comedy has let Friml heal, and in the process made her a presence on a landscape where disabled people in general are rarely represented. She loves hearing from individuals and families who talk about what a positive role model she is and what a difference it makes in peoples’ lives to have cerebral palsy represented in the comedy world.
And she wants to do more.
Tina Friml, Advocate
In January 2024, Friml made an announcement: moving forward, she’d only play venues that were ADA-compliant. The room in which she plays can’t just be accessible; there must by access to bathrooms, concessions, etc. This has become extremely important to Friml.
“I realize that hold a responsibility to really advocate for my community. Some of the fricking coolest people that I’ve met on my tour this past month are also people with disabilities.”
Support Tina Friml!
What else is there to say? Tina Friml is increasing representation for disabled people in comedy, she’s challenging social perceptions of people with cerebral palsy and disabled people in general, and she’s advocating for accessibility and for the right of all people to enjoy to live comedy.
And she’s hilarious! Check out the set she did on “The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon”” at the top of the post, and another of her videos below.
And check out her website at tinafriml.com for more videos and details about her upcoming appearances.
I consulted these sources as I wrote this article: