We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Gini Sikes. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Gini below.
Alright, Gini thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear about the things you feel your parents did right and how those things have impacted your career and life.
My parents indulged their children’s every creative whim. At 6, I loved animals. I snuck dead squirrels and birds into our basement, where I’d to try to bring them back to life—because I was obsessed with Frankenstein.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
Like most writers—and comedians —I’m intrigued by outsiders. It’s led to exploring everything from victims of female circumcision in Africa to aging KKK members in South Carolina. My stories have appeared in publications such as The New York Times, Essence, Marie Claire, and The Washington Post. I’ve also produced documentaries for PBS, MTV, and Investigation Discovery. My experiences color my comedy.
Both journalism and comedy are ideal careers for anyone who suffers from ADHD. My attention span is chaotic, yet I’m a perpetual student. Curiosity has ruled my actions since I was a kid sneaking into abandoned houses, or following strangers who passed by our house because…where were they going?
As an adult, curiosity led me to study sign language to communicate with chimps who were fluent in it, or to plunge 300 feet down a coal mine for a story about OxyContin addiction.
When awarded a Knight Fellowship at Stanford University, a year-long intellectual sabbatical for journalists, which allowed me to take any course on campus, I chose cadaver dissection. I wanted to see inside the human body. (After one semester, I’d seen enough.)
OK, that helps explains the dead animals you brought home. Tell us more about your career path.
Exploring life’s dark side was to be my destiny.
I landed my first job in LA at the teen magazine Tiger Beat. With sexy centerfolds of teen idols David Cassidy, Leif Garret, and Donny Osmond, Tiger Beat peddled hope to awkward girls (and secretly gay boys) that they could find love. Like my co-worker did. This editor sent countless letters to serial killer Richard Ramirez, aka The Night Stalker, until she married him in prison! Yes, a woman who advised girls how to win a guy’s heart, wed a guy who ripped hearts out of girls.
Granted, Tiger Beat was a gold mine for crazy stories, but not a stepping stone to serious writing. I moved to NYC to get my master’s in journalism from Columbia University. Afterward, as entertainment editor of Mademoiselle, I interviewed iconic actors such as Nicolas Cage, Jeremy Irons or Harrison Ford.
I was feeling restless when my mom called with news of a murder in my hometown: the “Dairy Princess” strangled the Homecoming Queen over the love of a local farm boy (you can’t make this stuff up). I left my job to return to Wisconsin and cover the trial for Glamour magazine.
The article “Murder in the Heartland” brought attention and more assignments. Suddenly I was interviewing the FBI’s lead serial killer profiler. Or going into Rikers’ prison to report on the plight of impoverished drug mules. Or trying to keep a neutral expression as a lady described offing her boyfriend and keeping his penis in her glove compartment.
An agent spotted a piece I wrote on girl in gangs and said if I expanded the idea, she could sell it as a book. This required me finding, and befriending, gangbangers in Los Angeles, San Antonio, and Milwaukee. Never a dull moment. Once two rival gang members wound up in my rental car. When the boy got out, he barked at the girl, “We’re gonna blast this car!” I yelled, “You are not f*cking going to shoot up my rental! ”Not missing a beat, the kid said, “We won’t shoot the driver’s side.” Even gangbangers are funny. Nobody was shot.
The resulting book, 8BallChicks: A Year in the Violent World of Girl Gangstas, I began in fear but ended with hope. Seeing the human face of violence, you find that such behavior is something you can confront, maybe something you can help stop. Yes, there are sociopaths and lost causes, but most of the people I met were neither. The girls, despite gut-wrenching adversity, chose not to become “career criminals.” They left gangs, sometimes with no help from adults, only through the sheer force of their own will.
By 2019 I had enough of killing on the street. I decided to try killing on stage. Since then, I’ve been blessed to appear with such headliners as Pete Holmes (Crashing), Tom Arnold (Roseanne), Felicia Michaels (Full House), Rick Overton (Mrs. Doubtfire), and Darrell Hammond, ( SNL).
What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?
My friendship with other comics. Such a brilliant and resilient bunch. I’ll never again complain about my childhood. So many comedians are survivors of abuse, addiction, poverty, you name it. Their beautiful response is to comfort other survivors through laughter. I cherish my comedy community.
Simply put, comedy suits my psyche. I’m a pessimistic Pollyanna. I believe the worst will happen, yet hold a flicker of faith that it won’t.
Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?
Now I sling jokes.
My first professional exposure to comedy occurred in the ‘80s when I found myself on the periphery of New York’s stand-up scene. As a producer at MTV and at the now defunct HA! channel, I worked on a show with Denis Leary, as well writers who later who blew up, such as Josh Weinstein and Bill Oakley of The Simpsons and Mike Sweeney, head writer for Conan O’ Brien. I penned a few comedic scripts for a Nickelodeon but had no desire to perform. Public speaking terrified me.
Some 25 years later, I needed a challenge. I forced myself to take storytelling at Second City in Los Angeles. A friend saw my class performance and insisted I join a stand-up workshop he was in. You can guess the rest, “Once on stage, I was addicted blah, blah, blah.”
Contact Info:
- Website: www.http://ginisikescomedy.com
- Instagram: @ginisikes
- Facebook: gini sikes
- Linkedin: gini sikes
Image Credits
Blue-faced image makeup: Karma Karel Gotham Comedy Club: Helaine Witt