Romina Puma
Comedian
Romina is a stand-up comedian with muscular dystrophy (MD). She uses comedy as a tool to speak about disability in an upfront, unvarnished way while making people laugh. She also campaigns about accessible transport and attitudes towards disabled people – especially around sex, dating and love.
Romina has under her belt three solo shows which she performed at multiple Fringe Festivals across the country including the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
Romina participated in and won the Blackout competitions and she was listed as ‘One to Watch’ on the 2016 Funny Women comedy competition.
She also writes and blogs frankly about the accessibility issues of a lot of comedy venues – especially the smaller ones. As small venues are where most comedians first learn their craft, this is a real barrier to developing disabled talent on the comedy scene.
Perhaps the thing Romina is best-known for is her frank campaigning about sex and disability – including a comedy act about a ‘disabled Karma Sutra’. She also took part in Scope’s #EndtheAwkward campaign about dating while disabled, appearing on the front of a mocked up romance book with the title ‘On the Prowl’.
Romina has written for the Huffington Post, has appeared on television and radio numerous times and performed internationally. She is a campaigner for Muscular Dystrophy UK (MDUK) and the MDUK Trailblazers programme. She met Prince Philip at the 50th anniversary of the Prince being the patron of the MDUK charity.
Useful links
“I have always been adventurous and that helped me a lot when I became a wheelchair user. Sometimes it’s scary and stressful just to go around in your own town but I always loved travelling and when you do it as a wheelchair user the stress goes to another level, but it’s worth it and when something goes wrong you have something to talk about.”