Karinda Dobbins

Motor City native Karinda Dobbins was born into a politically active family of skilled storytellers and sharp wits. Her worldview was shaped by their accounts of protest, civil rights and empowerment, weighty subjects that were always leavened with humor. Whenever she heard the grownups laughing long past her bedtime, she took that as her cue to sneak out of her room and eavesdrop while they entertained themselves with Richard Pryor records. She not only listened, she learned, and grew up to hold her own as a keen comedic commentator.

Dobbins moved from Michigan to California’s Bay Area and responding to repeated dares from a girlfriend who challenged her to try making the crowd laugh at an open mic, Karinda finally took the stage at Woody’s Café, and killed. Sure, she tried to fill the seats with supportive family and friends, and true, she had no competition since nobody else had signed up for stage time, but everybody, from the show’s host to strangers in the audience, was amazed that she was able to do 10 funny minutes of stand-up material her first time onstage. (She’d shrewdly spent a month writing her act in preparation, never anticipating she’d be put under pressure to perform all of it at once.)

Spurred on by the enthusiastic feedback, Karinda decided to see where comedy would take her and began honing her craft at more venues. To date, she has appeared at the Bridgetown Comedy Festival; featured at Bay Area comedy clubs the Punch Line and Cobb’s; opened for Hari Kondabolu, Trevor Noah and toured with W. Kamau Bell. Karinda made her primetime national television debut on Coast-to-Coast Episode 1 on NickMom Night Out.