Why I Hate The Word 'Comedienne'

It’s only a word, it’s only a little thing. But since you can only eat an elephant in small bites (as the saying goes), let’s take things one mouthful at a time.

And one of the little things that gets my goat is the use of the word ‘comedienne’ to describe a woman who makes people laugh. It implies that the originally male word ‘comedian’ is superior, and therefore anything else is a poor substitute. It implies a sense of otherness with a female comedian, a sense of second best, it gives a hint of frailty, and suggests that a woman telling jokes is somehow different to a man telling jokes. Which is balls.

I run an all-female comedy night called What The Frock! Comedy. Not because I want to be mean and exclude all the boy comedians from the fun, but because for so long most of the women comedians have been excluded from the comedy circuit (on average, only 4% of all acts booked on comedy nights in the UK will be female. It’s 2013!).

Because I make this deliberate gender distinction in my booking policy, I inevitably spend a lot of time reading cuttings about my acts that refers to them as ‘comediennes’. Now don’t get me wrong – I am DELIGHTED when anybody writes anything about my events, I am over the frickin’ moon. But, given the opportunity, I do find myself saying to journalists who contact me: “I don’t want to be annoying, and I’m not going to ask to approve the copy… but please call the acts ‘comedians’ and not ‘comediennes’. It’s about what comes out of their gob, not what their gob looks like.” On the whole, they listen.

But last week the word seemed to come up a lot. Maybe that was because What The Frock! put on a big show that generated a lot of press – in print, on radio and on the telly box. Wooh! But in every instance, at some point the acts were called ‘comediennes’. Even by female journalists (journalistas?).

But why? You don’t get the same gender distinction in a lot of other professions. You don’t get male dentists and female dentistas; you don’t get male lawyers and female lawyerettes; you don’t get male accountants and female sumsticians. For one thing, they’re all really ugly words. For another thing, they’re all really stupid words. And for a third thing, they’re all made-up words. Just like ‘comedienne’.

Every single one of the 100+ acts I’ve worked with to date refers to herself as a ‘comedian’. Some make a point of saying they actively distance themselves from the word ‘comedienne’, while others say they don’t like the word but they’d rather somebody wrote something about them than nothing at all.

Which leads me to say that the language used to describe female acts also baffles me sometimes. For instance, we had Lucy Porter on last week, who was variously described in the local press as “sweet voiced”, “a familiar funny maker” and “sweetly demeanored”, while previously Tiffany Stevenson was said to provide “amiable and chatty banter”. All phrases to imply maternal hugs or bland giggles. There’s an interview with Bridget Christie in the current issue of Vogue with the headline “Pretty Funny” (not only would that headline never go with a piece about a male comedian, but it also implies that Bridget’s appearance is somehow relevant, and that it is surprising that she should be amusing. Being a laydee and that).

I know there are bigger things to worry about, but when we are still giving the same job different words depending on the gender of the person doing it, we still need to think about how much further we have to go in the equality battle.

Women typically get short shrift in the comedy industry – thanks to venues that will only book a maximum of one woman a night, panel shows that ignore them altogether, and stadium tours populated almost exclusively by the boys. And don’t get me started on how few female comedians are able to put out comedy DVDs.

And if people keep on calling them ‘comediennes’ rather than ’comedians’, things aren’t going to change any time soon. I’m not for a second implying this is the only problem women face in the comedy industry, far from it. But the nuances implied by a distinctively lesser word, one that is feminine and dainty in its sound and appearance, suggest that a gurl comedian is going to be a disappointment. When, frankly, that’s just poppycock.

Here’s a top ten of my favourite comedians right this minute. What do they all have in common? (Clue – none of them are shit, none of them are dainty):

• Aisling Bea
• Amy Poehler
• Bridget Christie
• Jayde Adams
• Jennifer Saunders
• Katherine Ryan
• Luisa Omielan
• Sara Pascoe
• Tina Fey
• Vikki Stone

Jennifer Saunders, 'Bonkers'

While Bonkers is certainly not a warts’n’all book, Jennifer Saunders’ autobiography is a gripping and compulsive read, with Jennifer’s distinctive voice almost reading it aloud in your head – such is the strength of her character on the pages.

While we read about her relationship with lifelong comedy partner Dawn French, working with the legendary Comic Strip team, and her love for Joanna Lumley, we learn little about her experiences as a wife, mother or friend. But that’s hardly surprising as Jennifer has always been a woman who appears to have struggled with the concept of finding herself a celebrity.

At the Cheltenham Literature Festival this year, Jennifer talked so engagingly with Kirsty Young about some of the stories in Bonkers, and it was a joy to hear her chatting on stage. But the sense of keeping everything close to her chest remained. And while you love every second you spend reading Bonkers and hearing her talk about her life, you also come away feeling like you haven’t really learned very much about her. Which is surely what she wants!

But what shines through is a hilarious woman, who is living a life she loves. She’s a woman who loves her family, her animals and her friends. And the fact she comes across as a genuinely good egg is reinforced by the fact she has one of the longest marriages in showbiz, and her friendships have all endured through the decades.

"I Laughed, I Cried" - Viv Groskop

There is nothing worse than regret. The ‘if only’ feeling that haunts you when you realise it’s too late to put in the years of grit and determination needed to make your lifelong dream come true… or even find out if you’re any good at it. Regret sucks.

The old cliché goes: ‘You can only regret the things you haven’t done’. So jumping on the back of this, wife, mum and journalist Viv Groskop decided that with her fortieth birthday knocking on the door, it was time she put her money where her mouth was to find out if she really was any good at this stand-up comedy business. Or if she was just wasting her time.

And so begins Viv’s mammoth quest to perform 100 comedy shows in 100 days. Despite having three young kids at home (including a baby who was barely one), a long-suffering but patient husband, and a very busy career as a freelance journalist for most of the UK’s bigger newspapers and magazines.

I Laughed, I Cried documents – sometimes hilariously, sometimes painfully (this book delivers what it promises) – Viv’s progress gig by gig, gag by gag, glug (of Diet Coke) by glug.

Part diary, part memoir, part self-help book for aspiring comedians, I Laughed, I Cried is a no-holds-barred expose of Viv’s 100 days. We meet the best and the worst of the amateur comedy circuit with her – from the award-winning clown-comic Dr Brown who likes to take his clothes off, to the misery of the shared car journey to an out-of-London unpaid gig. Through all of this we root for Viv, and we want her to succeed. It’s to her advantage that she doesn’t try to disguise the fact that her quest involves performing night and after night in smelly hot clubs meaning she sweats into her only sequined cardie, and eats a lot of bad fast food, or runs up an exorbitantly high bar tab on watered down soft drinks.

The ‘quest book’ format is a well-tested market. The Danny Wallaces, Dave Gormans and Tony Hawks of the comedy world have all trodden the ground in recent years and sold a zillion books and built careers off it. It’s nice to finally see a woman dipping her sequined toe into the market – and it feels right that Viv should be the one to do it.

Her honest and funny writing, and shameless style, meant that I sped through I Laughed, I Cried in only two sittings – absorbed in the ups and down of Viv’s mission, and drawn in by the journalistic inclusion of various quotes and facts from established comedians on the circuit. This book makes you want to be Viv’s friend – even if that means being dragged along as her ‘bring a mate’ to a dingy club that smells of sewage (I refer you to gig four).

Viv Groksop will return to Bristol on July 3 with a preview of her Edinburgh solo show about I Laughed, I Cried atWatershed at 6.15pm. Tickets are £7/£6. This special event is co-hosted by What The Frock! and Bristol Festival of Ideas. After the show, Viv will be signing copies of the book – published by Orion on June 27.

Please don't take advantage of small businesses

The chances are that you wouldn’t even think about taking advantage of a big business like Ticketmaster or Odeon (however much you may want to)… so why do some people insist on trying it on with what is obviously a very small, independent, non-profit-making business? One that’s run as a labour of love?

I run What The Frock! Comedy, which is a tiny, one-person enterprise that promotes women comedians. My business currently relies on a great deal of generosity and people volunteering their time and skills in order to exist. And one of the most amazing things in the 18 months or so since I started What The Frock! has been seeing how willing people are to donate their time and talent. They tell me they do it because they firmly believe that What The Frock! is a strong proposition, and one day it will be a big success. And I love them for it!

But I’ve noticed a baffling trend, especially in recent months, of ill-natured people wanting to take advantage of a tiny business. In ways that you wouldn’t even bother to try with an established business. For instance…

THE HAGGLERS

One woman arrived to buy a ticket on the door. The door price was £12, which was widely advertised. She expressed horror and said she couldn’t possibly afford it as she was on all kind of benefits… Although she’d already let slip that she’d driven over from her home in posh Clifton, and that she was going to the Tobacco Factory Theatre later. She wheedled and wheedled, and in the end I offered her a ticket for £6… only to be told that she had nothing smaller than a £10 note, meaning I let her in for £5 (as I was short of change). 

Seriously – would you try that in The Hippodrome? No. You would just accept that theatre is a luxury and if you can’t afford it, you can’t go.

THE KILLJOYS

Two women once demanded a refund after an open mic act because they didn’t find her funny. (Comedy, of course, is a matter of personal taste.) I politely explained that, along with every other events business in existence, we don’t offer refunds or exchanges, and suggested they stay a bit longer to see the main acts, who have more experience. They declined. I explained that What The Frock! exists to help nurture up and coming female comedians, who are denied a platform by most other clubs. And I also explained that our ticket prices are among the lowest in the city. They became rude. So I paid them off to be shot of them, which is of course why they became rude. 

But would you ask for your money back from the cinema if you didn’t like the first 20 minutes of a film? No. You’d just shrug your shoulders and accept you tried something and didn’t like it.

THE CHANGE OF MIND

One woman arrived at the door with two tickets that she had bought in advance. She said that her friend wasn’t feeling well, so could they both have a refund as she didn’t want to come in anymore. 

No. You wouldn’t buy tickets to the Hippodrome and then ask for a refund because you didn’t feel well on the day of the show. You’d just accept that this happens sometimes.

THE PENNY PINCHERS

"£8 for a ticket! Daylight robbery! You must be raking it in, you greedy cow!" This has actually been said to me. And words to that effect. Several times. And clearly by people who have never put an event on, or realise the expense that goes into it. 

That £8 ticket price goes towards: paying the acts (between four and six per show), sometimes putting acts up in (cheap) hotels, public liability insurance, venue hire, designing posters and flyers, printing posters and flyers, marketing, printing tickets, distributing tickets, website hosting, business telephone costs, petrol costs to get to gigs... and a million other boring things.

Am I raking it in? Err, not at £8 a ticket I'm not, no. Which is why tickets are going up to £10 in June. Sorry about that. But we'll still be cheaper than pretty much every other comedy night in Bristol.

THE 50p FRETTERS

On two occasions, I’ve had tickets bought in advance from people who I’ve noticed live around the corner from me. So I’ve hand delivered their tickets within 30 minutes of them being ordered. Only to come home to an email asking for their 50p postage fee back. Which I returned, although I also sent polite emails explaining that the 50p postage fee doesn’t even come close to covering the combined costs of PayPal, ticket printing, admin etc.

Would you haggle with Ticketmaster over their booking fee (which is close to £5)? No, because they're so big you can't get hold of them. And they'd never hand deliver your tickets within 30 minutes of you booking them anyway!

THE SOMETHING FOR NOTHINGS

Someone filled in our recent feedback survey and, when asked if they thought the current ticket price of £8 was reasonable, they said: “I don’t have to pay as I’m a club member, so I get in for free. Wahey!” That’s true, Square Club members do get in for free – but I don’t get any money from them being a club member, and by coming in for free they mean I’m unable to sell a ticket to someone who would pay, meaning that I'm automatically £10 down. 

On the other hand, there are one or two Square Club members who have chosen to pay because they recognise I’m a small business, they like what I'm doing and want it to succeed. Those people are fab (and they know who they are) because, without anything being said, they recognise that I can't afford to let people in for free.

And so it goes on. These are just a handful of recent examples of the way a small minority of people try to rip off a new business. I could give you more.

HERE’S WHY I CAN’T AFFORD FOR PEOPLE TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF MY BUSINESS…

What The Frock! ticket prices are among the lowest for comedy in Bristol, especially for a line-up of between four and six comedians a night. While the more established comedians get paid (as they should do), they are the only ones who do. 

My friend who works on the door doesn’t get paid; my friend who takes the photos doesn’t get paid; my graphic designer didn’t get paid for a year and now works for peanuts; my website designer doesn’t get paid; my accountant doesn’t get paid; and many more people who happily offer their time don't get paid…

I also don’t get paid and I work seven days a week, often way past midnight, to make What The Frock! happen. And I do that because I have no other job to pay my bills (having lost my job in November), and because I fervently believe in the importance of what I’m doing. But I’m well aware that I’m only afforded the luxury of TRYING to make What The Frock! work because my husband has a job.

That said, I wouldn’t be doing this if I didn’t believe that one day What The Frock! has the potential to be a strong independent business. And when that day comes, the first thing I will do is find some way to repay the fabulous people who have donated time and talent to help me get there. The people like Gaby, Emily, Kellie-Jay, Hannah, Paul, Paul (another one)… and a whole chorus of other superstars.

NB: I should stress that it’s only a very tiny percentage of audience members who’ve taken advantage (or tried to) of my small business. The vast majority of my audience members are lovely, loyal, friendly and supportive people – many of whom come to almost every show, many of whom send me appreciative messages afterwards, many of whom realise how much hard work goes into doing what I do and even thank me for doing it. And if it wasn’t for brilliant people like them, I wouldn’t keep doing this. To those people, I take my hat off.

WOW, what a weekend!

As I write this on a freezing Tuesday morning, I’m still basking in the toasty afterglow of a fabulously feminist few days.

On Saturday morning, I was up with the fairies to catch the Megatrain to London, where I spent a zinging weekend at the Women Of the World Festival (WOW) at the Southbank Centre. On the train up I was reading a review copy of the forthcoming Virago anthology Fifty Shades of Feminism, which had only arrived the day before, and in the evening I watched Made In Dagenham in my mini B&B room. I was Not Doing Feminism By Halves. No, siree.

Being at WOW was a wonderful experience. 2013 marked the third WOW festival but the first that I’d attended, and my reason for going was that the women’s comedy event I run, WhatThe Frock! Comedy, had been invited to put on a show in the Royal Festival Hall’s ballroom on the Sunday afternoon. That wasn’t an opportunity I was going to say ‘no’ to. Putting on a show (only our sixth ever) to 500+ people in the UK’s biggest arts centre? Err, yes please.

I headed up a day early to make the most of the festival and to see as much as possible. I lived in London for most of my 20s and still feel very fond of the place, so it’s always nice to have an excuse to go back. The Southbank Centre was somewhere I spent a lot of time in my London years as I both lived and worked nearby, plus I love the heritage of the place and the reasons why it was created in the first place.

To see the buildings (Royal Festival Hall and Queen Elizabeth Hall) filled to the rafters with women-friendly stalls and events promoting women in business, women in comedy, women in fashion, women in charities… was brilliant. The buzz in the whole centre was electric, and the atmosphere was nothing but warm, welcoming and inclusive.

I saw several talks over the two days, but with up to 10 events happening simultaneously, I inevitably also missed a great deal. But I did catch a brilliant session celebrating women who don’t have children (whether by choice or by circumstance); debating the outcome of the Levenson Report into how the media continues to view women; the brilliance of Jane Austen. I saw Ruby Wax’s soloshow Losing It, in which she talks frankly and hilariously about her very real mental breakdown and ongoing problems with depression. And it was great to finally see Michael Kaufman talk, having interviewed him a few years previously for his book A Guy’s Guide To Feminism – and he didn’t disappoint.

All three pictures, copyright Southbank Centre

Of course, my main focus was putting on the What The Frock! Comedy show on the Sunday afternoon. With a one-hour timeslot, I’d booked Rosie Wilby as MC, and Shazia Mirza and Danielle Ward for 20-minute slots. It seemed a tough call – the ballroom turned out to be not a ‘room’ but a huge sunken space within the main foyer, meaning there was a lot of background noise and distractions. But it also meant that as well as filling our 500 seats, we gained about 200 extra audience members who were standing around the edges, sitting on the floor at the front, and pulling up chairs to peer over the balcony to watch. It was fabulous. And where else was I going to put on a show where our ‘warm-up act’ was Woman’s Hour’s Jenni Murray (who had done a piece on What The Frock! earlier in the week), and where we were succeeded by Sandi Toksvig?

The tweets and messages I’ve since received from people in the audience, who previously didn’t know about What The Frock! but who had a wonderful time, and who also discovered one or two comedians they didn’t previously know, has made it all so worthwhile. Putting on any show is never a piece of cake – there are contracts to sign, money to be negotiated, publicity to garner, and inevitably technical hitches on the day. But the buzz of the day and the resulting feedback is what always makes it worthwhile. Even as I sat squashed into an uncomfortable corner of a bumpy coach for three hours going home, I was still basking in the glow of a weekend where the women deservedly won.

So, thank you to everyone at WOW and the Royal Festival Hall for inviting What The Frock! along and for taking a punt on an up and coming comedy event. I had a ball, and whether or not What The Frock! comes back for WOW 2014, I’ll certainly be there, come hell or high water.

The Stand-Up Intuitive Show

Who says stand-up can only involve a person standing with a mic at the front of a room telling jokes? If that’s you, stop being so conservative and check out Becky Walsh – a well-established and brilliant Bristol-based psychic, intuitionist and stand-up.

I went over to The Square Club on Bristol’s Berkeley Square last night to check out Becky’s show, and got much more than a few laughs. Interspersed with a few stand-up spots inspired by comments from the audience, Becky led several readings of audience members… including me!

But as Becky said at the top of the show, while audience involvement is a big part of The Stand-Up Intuitive Show, it’s about laughing with people and not at them. And I don’t think anyone in the Square Club’s Lounge Bar felt otherwise. The atmosphere was warm, friendly and inclusive, and the message was very much that you could be involved if you wanted, or simply sit back and observe if you preferred. But most people wanted to be included…

Becky has a range of methods for engaging the audience, from reading a personal item of theirs (such as a pair of glasses, or piece of jewellery, to read the vibrations of a person she doesn’t previously know), or inviting someone to rip up an egg box so that she can read their personality from the way they tear up the cardboard. Not to mention reading the particular flower someone picks from a posy, or using random (or are they?) song lyrics to answer an audience member’s specific question.

This was certainly a fun evening and one I’d love to repeat. Because with an intuitive show, it is all about the audience and what they bring to the venue with them that evening. Becky starts the show with no idea of what questions she’ll be asked, or how events will unfold, which means you’re guaranteed a new experience every single time.

Becky Walsh appears at The Square Club on the first Sunday of every month. Visit her website for details of her other events around Bristol and the UK, and to find out about the books she’s written.

In which sexism in comedy is mansplained

There’s a lone voice in the crusade to end these beastly women-only comedy nights. And that voice belongs to Sean Ruttledge – a man who, according to his 'official blog' (not that I could find an unofficial one), is “the man of over 9000 voices”. But there’s only one voice coming through loud and clear on his blog, and that is the one saying he knows best and women must be told (especially the ugly ones).

Sean has spent a lot of time and energy on his campaign to put a stop to women-only comedy nights – although why the issue threatens him so much remains unclear. Though he does seem to have made a habit of living his life online, and having a record for the most number of accounts blocked from YouTube (at least 110).

I’ll agree with one of Sean’s points: namely, the absence of women in comedy is a topic that has been discussed to death. See this, and this, and this, and this, and you get the idea…

Sean is so sick of talking about it that he’s written a bog post, stating his views on the situation. He’s called the post: “’Sexism’ in comedy, those poor downtrodden lady comics: The sad plight of female comedians”. I think it’s clear where he’s pitching his stall. But let’s read on because Sean is a comedian by trade and his post is nothing if not entertaining.

In it he says: 

'Self-victimise'. Isn't that another way of saying 'victim blaming'? Regardless, what would Sean expect from 'manipulative' women folk, albeit ones who he acknowledges might be more 'political' then teh menz? Which, hang on, surely suggests women are better informed of social and economical injustices?

Sean goes on to say that he thinks sexism in the comedy industry is indeed rife. But it’s not the men who are being sexist. Nope! It’s the bloody women, with their man-hating women-only gigs who are the sexist ones. (I doubt Sean’s stopped to consider that maybe the women-only gigs were created as a result of the difficulty for women to get bookings, regardless of talent or, obviously, looks – an issue he goes on to discuss later in his post. Yes, really, that's how serious he is.)

Explaining why it is the women (sorry, ‘lady comediennes’ in Sean’s language) who are the sexist ones in the comedy world, Sean says:

Wow! Those are some strong claims in there. Firstly, while it’s true there are a handful of women-only comedy clubs (as in women-only performers, but anyone is welcome in the audience), does Sean realise that – even if they don’t label themselves as such – many of the comedy clubs in the UK are male-only comedy clubs (eg: 60% of the clubs listed in my previous post have exclusively men on their bills tonight - September 28).

Where Sean’s already-weak argument really falls apart is when he starts to discredit various female comedians because of their appearance. Under a photo of Sarah Millican’s DVD, he has inexplicably inserted the caption: “Jo Brand, funny but you wouldn’t shag her”. 

Under a photo of Kate Smurthwaite reads the offensive caption: “Smurthwaite, ‘really pretty’”, implying Sean believes the opposite. But then, Kate is a person about whom Sean has written the following:

From this, aside from the unnecessary rudeness about Kate, we can learn that as well as not liking female-only comedy events, Sean's own leanings are towards right-wing politics, men's rights and he's definitely anti-choice. 

In the meantime, I look forward to hearing from Bristol City Council, who Sean intends to report me to for the crime of holding an event that only promotes women comedians. 

PS: You don't know what mansplaining is? Click here. 

Birds of a Feather

They flock together, do birds of a feather – and seemingly these Chigwell sisters just can’t be separated either from each other or their sex-mad neighbour Dorien. Following a nine-year run of the BBC sitcom, Birds of a Feather has been brought to the stage and features the three original leading cast members: Pauline Quirke, Linda Robson and Lesley Joseph.

One of the things that made Birds of a Feather so popular and unique was that it stands as that rare beast – a sitcom focused on female characters. And now the stars have reunited to regenerate sisters Sharon and Tracey and brassy Dorien.

Sharon and Tracey are living a new life in Chigwell with Tracey’s younger son Travis, and battling on through their various problems of unemployment, low wages, agoraphobia and a big family secret – all dealt with in the brash, off-hand and blunt comedy manner you’d expect from these two. But their daily routine is shaken up when a blast from the past suddenly writes to them… and their lives are turned upside down when Dorien reappears, bringing with her as much excitement and drama as befits a woman of her reputation.

It’s a small cast of six, that’s supported by Robert Maskell as Roger Zimmerman, and Caroline Burns Cooke as DS Teddern, and it’s a welcome interruption to the intensity of the three leads to have the supporting actors appear on the stage and soften the impact of the somewhat relentless cheeky jokes and hen-do humour. It was a shame the supporting cast didn’t get more time on stage, especially Cooke as the no-nonsense detective, but Quirke, Robson and Joseph kept the packed audience in stitches throughout. And as the crowds filed out afterwards, I heard nothing but praise for the two-hour show.

I caught the production when it was at the end of its one-week run at Bath Theatre Royal, but Birds of a Feather is currently touring the UK until mid-July. Click here to see future dates and locations. To see what else is on at the Theatre Royal Bath, please click here.

We are Women, We are Funny

Funny Women promotes female comedy talent – from finding and developing new acts through the Funny Women Awards, to working with established performers.

Founded in 2002 by Lynne Parker, Funny Women has become a leading comedy brand, promoting new female talent through live events, workshops and training programmes.

At the heart of Funny Women is the Funny Women Awards, which have introduced many women performers onto the comedy scene. Last year saw more than 350 entrants and a tour of showcases that took Funny Women to some of the UK's best arts venues and festivals.

Over the last ten years, Funny Women has recognised that women can achieve a lot by finding their comic voice, so runs public workshops around the UK for women who want to learn about performing stand up comedy in a safe, non threatening environment.

Part of Funny Women's ethos is to raise awareness and funds for causes relating to women – from charities that conduct research into female specific cancers to organisations that work towards combating violence against women.

The Funny Women Awards are celebrating their tenth anniversary this year, and over that period they have been the first to see many wonderful female comedians who are now major names on the comedy circuit.  Funny Women have played a part in bringing more female voices onto the comedy scene, and What The Frock! is looking forward to working with them for Ladyfest Bristol in July 2012.  

Visit the Funny Women website by clicking here.

Visit the What The Frock! website by clicking here.

Visit the Ladyfest Bristol 2012 website by clicking here.

What Makes Women Laugh?

Tonight, I attended a panel discussion at the Bath Comedy Festival about what amuses women. And before I go any further, I need to stress the irony of the inclusion of this event on the bill of a 10-day comedy festival that includes pretty much no female comedians (and not one headlining woman). A scan through the colourful 32-page brochure shows that while men are extremely well represented with coloured photos and portraits, women are ONLY included in group shots, including one instance of two bikini-clad women being draped over an older man.

The two lone events that are about women in comedy are not illustrated by photos of these women, but by a black and white cartoon of a dated WI-type dear in a frilly dress and hat (reproduced twice on facing pages, such is the difficulty of finding two different pictures of women). Poor show, Bath Comedy Festival, poor show. As Lynne Parker of Funny Women said: “We’re here at a comedy festival and there are simply not enough women on this bill.”

Both events were organised by Women On The Make – the first being a performance workshop, and the second a panel discussion. The panel was chaired by BBC producer and presenter Jenni Mills, and included Funny Women director Lynne Parker, Clare in the Community creator Harry Venning, and playwright Hattie Naylor. I scribbled notes throughout, so here’s a few highlights…

Jenni: Who’s your favourite funny woman right now?

Lynne: Because I work with new comedians, my favourites are among the new crop on the block. I love Andi Osho because she’s herself, she’s beautiful, she’s sassy and she’s funny, but she doesn’t play to stereotypes. I also love Susie Bennett, who’s been on the circuit for six years or so. She’s an interesting woman who talks about everyday stuff… and she’s just been signed by Peter Kay’s agent.

Hattie: I’m a great fan of Mrs Merton (Caroline Aherne), but also of Joyce Grenfell.

Harry: Victoria Wood, of course, but also Linda Smith, who’s underrated, and her scripts are a delight to read.

Audience contributions: Miranda Hart, because she belies her physical presence. Beryl Reid, who was hilarious and personified working-class witty and sharp women. Peggy Mount, and I wish there was a modern version of this big and brassy woman.

Jenni: Is there a gender divide in humour?

Hattie: If humour is good enough, men and women should laugh together. I’m very aware of who we expect to be funny, and how people’s appearances affect how we are amused by what they say.

Lynne: Miranda Hart has the physicality of a performer. When she’s on stage, she has a wonderful presence, and she comes on and you look at her and you expect her to be funny. Male or female, physicality has a lot to do with it. Susie Bennett is a big girl, and when she comes on stage you do smile. But it’s harder for women as there are less women stand-ups, so unless they come on with a degree of confidence, they’re not going to be seen as funny. An ugly man doesn’t have the same problem.

Hattie: A lot of the top women in comedy in the US are slimmer and more conventionally attractive. While the funnier women in the UK are odder to look at. [American] Tina Fey is terribly beautiful, very thin and extremely funny. But there’s something terribly odd about everybody laughing at a fat woman, which seems rather old-fashioned.

Lynne: I don’t think it matters if you’re fat or thin. Funny Women works with a lot of different types of women. You can’t generalise what a funny woman looks like.

Jenni: Is there a difference between what men and women laugh at?

Lynne: There is a difference in the way men construct humour to how women do. Women have tremendous bonding experiences when laughing together, such as on a girls’ night out. Women bond among their internal group with smutty stories, while men in checked shirts love to share knob jokes in late night comedy clubs.

Harry: They’re terrible those comedians…

Lynne: …Yes, they are. But they get gigs. Don’t get me on that soapbox!

Man in audience: Does anything other than sex make women laugh?

Lynne: Gay men make women laugh [here’s an article Lynne wrote]. Men like Graham Norton and Alan Carr are popular with women because they can relate to them. But Peter Kay and Michael McIntyre are also very popular with women, and both talk about domestic issues and about the women in their lives, which we can relate to. Peter Kay, in particular, talks about his mother a lot.

Jenni: Do you think there are enough women in comedy?

Harry: No. Clare in the Community was planned to be a TV series [it’s currently a successful radio series], but has been repeatedly rejected, despite commissioners saying there are no women-led comedy shows on TV, or shows about women’s professions. I have one but they’re not interested.

Lynne: I haven’t seen Watson and Oliver [BBC2’s recent sketch show starring two women comedians], but everyone in my group says it’s pants. Miranda Hart was a long time in development with her show, and it took eight years to get on to television. What irritates me in that the BBC in particular thinks they’ll just promote one woman at a time (first Miranda, then Sarah Millican and now Watson and Oliver). The BBC never fully backs Funny Women as they have an all-inclusive policy, yet everything else is done on quotas so why not women in comedy?

Hattie: You have to have a huge team to believe in you to get anything made. And it’s much harder for women to be believed in en masse. It’s no coincidence that we have more women novelists and poets, as they’re solo activities.

Lynne: In comedy, most of the big TV commissioners are women. But I don’t think that helps other women – I think sometimes they’re attracted to the male product, going back to the simple sex issue. We want more women to watch TV, so we put men making fools of themselves on TV for the women to watch.

Hattie: The internet is bound to change comedy, thanks to YouTube. There’s some unbelievably funny stuff on there, which is hugely accessible.

Lynne: The new frontier for comedy is the internet, but I’m a great pioneer of live comedy, which you just can’t beat.

For more events at Bath Comedy Festival, please click here. 

What The Frock?

As you’ve probably noticed, there’s an aching hole in the comedy circuit where women should be. All too often, panel shows like Have I Got New For You? or Mock The Week have (at best) one woman on a line-up of five or six, while live comedy nights very rarely feature women full stop.

In Bristol, we’re served extremely badly – one local comedy club, for instance, has 24 events listed on its current flyer: just one of these events features a woman. That’s right, one! It’s like we’re invisible.

Enough is enough.  This cultural femicide of funny women cannot continue. So I’ve been hard at work since January plotting a way to redress the balance in Bristol, and would like to invite you and your friends to two upcoming events that will tickle your funny bones, while giving female comedians a well-deserved moment in the spotlight.


‘What The Frock?’ comedy pub quiz and raffle with exceptional prizes
April 17, 7.30pm. The Big Chill Bar (upstairs in the function room), Small Street, Bristol
To put on a comedy night and attract high calibre funny women, we need some money to pay the acts, feed the acts, and make sure they have somewhere safe and warm to sleep. So we’re throwing a fundraising quiz night with a comedy theme. It’ll be a hoot. There are some genuinely starry prizes (donated by, at the time of writing, Stewart Lee, Tina Fey, Stephen Merchant, Simon Pegg, and, err, Noel Edmonds). As well as some tickets to upcoming shows that have been kindly donated by Watershed, Bristol Old Vic, Bristol St George’s and the Hippodrome. If you don’t manage to win a prize in the quiz, there’ll be plenty of other opportunities to win one as a raffle prize.

It’s £3 per person to enter the quiz, and a maximum of four people per team. Bring your friends, family and colleagues – it promises to be a fun and sociable night out. As if that’s not incentive enough, there are free (yes, free!) button badges for all.


‘What The Frock?’ women’s comedy night, May 18, 8pm, Arnolfini, Bristol.
Thanks to the wonderful Bristol Festival of Ideas, who have been so enthusiastic and supportive of this project, we’ve been lucky enough to get the fantastic theatre at the Arnolfini as the venue for the comedy night. Hosted by Kate Smurthwaite, your entertainment for the night will be provided by Tiffany Stevenson, Dana Alexander and Zahra Barri. While it’s an all-women line-up, absolutely everybody is welcome in the audience.

There will also be a raffle at the end of the night (tickets sold before the event and during the interval), where there are some really choice goodies up for grabs – including signed merchandise from the likes of comedian Stewart Lee, Thick Of It writer Ian Martin, very funny woman Tina Fey and much more.

Money raised will go towards the running costs of the event. If there is any extra money once costs are covered, it will all be donated to Bristol charity One25, which helps local women to exit prostitution. What The Frock? is a not-for-profit event and the organisers will not benefit financially in any way.

Tickets will go on sale in April, along with the tickets for all the other Festival of Ideas events, and can be bought through the Festival of Ideas website or from Arnolfini’s box office. I’ll circulate more information nearer the time.


Thanks for reading, and I hope very much to see you at both events. If you’d like to help, can offer more prizes for raffles etc, or simply want to ask a question, please contact me direct on madamjmo[@]gmail.com.

Join the Facebook page, follow us on Twitter,  and keep an eye out for the What The Frock? website and logo - launching very soon!

Why is Sarah Millican a minority? Comedians and promoters talk about the lack of women on the comedy circuit.

The other day, a flyer fell out of a local listings magazine advertising a comedy club. Of the 24 events being profiled on this flyer, only one featured a woman.

This in itself isn’t news. The absence of funny women on TV screens and on the comedy circuit is well documented, with a recent resurgence of articles about this (including my own). Yet still there are no conclusive answers as to why female comics are continually being overlooked.

The trite answer could be, well, women just aren’t very funny. But that’s not true. If it was, Victoria Wood, Sarah Millican, Miranda Hart, Jo Brand, Catherine Tate, Dawn French, Jennifer Saunders, Shappi Khorsandi, Ruby Wax, Rhona Cameron etc would have been forced to sign on a long time ago. As comedienne Kate Smurthwaite confirms: “There is a long, long history of awesome funny women: Lucille Ball, Hattie Jacques, Joan Rivers… But the truth is sexism in comedy is getting worse, the door doesn't seem to be truly open to a new Victoria Wood, Jo Brand or French and Saunders.”

And they’re only a few of the women who have made it as comediennes.

While comedy is of course subjective, I think we can agree that of the endless male comedians doing the rounds, many of them simply aren’t very funny. So are they there just because it’s safer to have an unfunny man than a funny woman? Are comedy bookers and TV producers threatened by intelligent and witty women, so much so that it’s easier to book Russell Howard again and hope for the best?

“It’s such a shock”

Comedienne Josie Long, who says if she talks about sexism she’s accused of “moaning”, opens up about the problem in this YouTube clip. Josie says: “[We’re] brought up to believe you’re on a level playing field, and as an adult you’re suddenly brought up to date with how much you’re going to be affected by sexism, and it’s such a shock… About once a day, someone says to me ‘There aren’t any funny women’, or ‘Women aren’t as funny as men’, or even, ‘I like you but I don’t normally find women funny’. Something to say they’re judging men against women in the arena of comedy, which is ridiculous.”

Chris Coltrane is a stand-up comedian whose biography lists these three things among his loves: comedy, socialist politics and feminism. So Chris seemed like someone to ask what he thought was behind the lack of women on the comedy circuit – and his answer backs up what Josie says: “The interesting thing is the amount of self-denial people have. I always hear female comics tell stories of audience coming up to them after a gig to say, ‘I don't like female comedians, but I like you’, as if that female comedian were somehow an exception, a blip that science can't explain. Rather than just judge each individual person on their merits, they've decided they don't like all women comedians, and then are surprised and astonished when they're proven wrong. But even when they are proven wrong, they won't adjust their beliefs. They're like True Believers in that respect, and that makes it incredibly hard to reason with them to prove them wrong, because for the True Believer, no amount of evidence can change their mind.”

However, Steve Lount, who runs The Comedy Box club in Bristol, disagrees that there are many funny women to choose from and says that if more existed, he’d gladly book them: “There are so few female acts out there, and fewer still who are any good in my opinion. Promoters and club owners want to see good acts on their bills and they also want to offer variety, so it isn't in club owners’ interests to deliberately avoid booking female acts - although anecdotally I have heard that some audiences don't respond well when a female act is announced onto the stage. But that has never been the case at any of my shows. We have never set out to create some kind of anti-female mentality in our venues.

“Stand-up comedy is a meritocracy. Yes, some personal taste does come into who you book and there are plenty of male comics who I also avoid booking. But my aim has always been to book the most interesting and best acts my budget will allow, disregarding their gender, disability, race or creed.”

‘It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy’

One of the two stock answers from anyone trying to defend the dearth of female comics is that women aren’t very funny. And Chris thinks this attitude extends to many in the audience, too: “As you say, the number of people who genuinely think women aren't funny is shockingly high, and you can imagine that illiberal club owners will run their booking policy accordingly. Of course, this means it's a self-fulfilling prophecy. So that then raises a new question, of whether clubs should always cater to the perceived desires of their customers, or whether they have a responsibility to try to liberate their minds and make them less sexist. I'm sure you can guess what I think!”

Josie stresses: “There’s not fewer women than men. If you go to open spot clubs, it’s at least 50/50. It is, it really is. If you go to workshops it’s half and half. Then what happens is I think people genuinely get ground down, and in my own experience I’ve had jobs that I didn’t get but then a model or a presenter does get. If you look at a panel show, it’ll be male comedian, male comedian, female presenter… If you look at Mock The Week, the people who got really famous off that were all men. And all the people doing arenas now are men. The only person who’s touching that is Sarah Millican, or possibly Shappi Khorsandi. There’s not that many women who’ve been allowed to break through in the last few years.”

Kate, however, thinks that the culture of high street misogyny has a lot to answer for: “It might sound strange but I think the so-called lads’ mags have to take some of the blame. They’re just soft porn, but in order to get themselves off the top shelf they had to present themselves as ‘men's lifestyle’. But what the hell is that? There are already tons of sports mags, gardening mags etc so they're about ‘funny stuff’. So this perpetuates the myth that funny is a male preserve, and of course the two get mixed together, so now funny equals sexism in a lot of cases.”

The recent C4 Mash Up of 8 Out Of 10 Cats with Countdown (broadcast on January 2) showed that the all-male comedians from 8 Out Of 10 Cats desperately struggled with the idea of the two intelligent Countdown women, so instead the men quickly resorted to sexually objectifying the women to belittle their obvious intelligence and put them in their place – as totty. It was embarrassing to watch, for the men who were shown to be nothing more that misogynistic cowards. But it did add some weight to my thoughts that men are frantically clinging to their funny bones as some kind of power struggle – as if by allowing women a platform to make others laugh, then women will make even more headway towards one day achieving gender equality. It’s pathetic.

‘There is absolutely no shortage of funny women’

The other stock answer in defence of why there are so few successful comediennes is that, apparently, there just aren’t as many women as men trying to make it as comedians. Something Kate, who teaches on a stand-up comedy course, disproves: “There is absolutely no shortage of funny women. At workshop and open mic level there are honestly more women in comedy than men. When I teach, I often have classes with only one or two guys in.”

But what about the promoters and TV producers who mostly book male comedy acts? “There are definitely promoters out there who will only book one woman per night,” says Chris. “I've heard people say that the reason some clubs deliberately book less female comedians is because they don't think the audience will react well to more than one female comedian, as if the audience will patronisingly let one woman give it a go, but no more than that. I can actually imagine that this is true, sadly.”

Comedy promoter Steve is less convinced that female comedians face as many barriers as have been suggested, and he believes it’s more down to many women being less suited to the lifestyle of a professional comic. He explains: “There is no bar to female stand-ups at club level. Female acts decide themselves if and when they want to perform, in exactly the same way a male act will. But, as with live music, I don't believe live stand-up is that appealing a lifestyle to female performers, which can be quite a lonely and depressing existence – lone writing, travelling and hotels.

“Whereas there is a surplus of female talent in acting, dance and comedy improvisation, I also believe there might be a more equal representation in sketch comedy. But what do these other performance arts have in common over stand-up? Human and group interaction, which females are generally better at than their male counterparts. This might explain why you see more females at comedy classes and open mic nights. These events are a lot more sociable than actual professional nights. But this is just a theory and probably not worthy of academic scrutiny.”

Kate can identify a deeper sociological problem behind the gaping void of women performers: “We've always bewailed the dull, repetitive stand-up pointing out the difference between men and women. But even ‘cutting edge’ acts like Chris Rock do it. And there are a huge number of comedy shows that are marketed on it: Men Behaving Badly, Two and Half Men, Rules of Engagement, Friends, Coupling, How I Met Your Mother… all of those shows are more or less EXCLUSIVELY about jokes about men and women and their cliched differences. The men are always horny, the women easily shocked. Speaking as an unshockable horny woman, I don't get it!”

She continues: “But also it perpetuates itself. If the clubs book lots of male acts doing sexist material, then they'll attract audiences who appreciate that.  Comedy does become something that is generally perceived as by and for men.  It's tough to challenge that: clubs will lose audiences in the short term if they buck the trend, but in the long term they'll benefit because more women will want to come and there'll be more variety among the acts and more great talent to choose from.  I think to be honest, some of the guys currently doing well are very, very afraid of clubs booking more women because they're not sure they'll be able to compete.”

Promoter Steve adds: “There aren't that many female stand-ups who I think are worth booking but I'm always on the look out for new talent. No good promoter/producer worth their salt would stop looking for new people.”

“The fact is we do book female acts”

The Comedy Box in Bristol is the comedy club I’m referring to in the opening paragraph: the club with only one female comedian on the 24 in its programme (and only one woman headlining a show until May, according to its website). The club is run by Steve Lount, who tells me: “The fact is we do book female acts. Last week, we had Sally-Anne Hayward, next weekend we have Mary Bourke, the weekend after we have Katherine Ryan, a couple of weeks after that we have Nat Luurtsema. Our print always features the headline acts or touring shows plus support or guests, which we don't name. As it happens, this season we only have one female headlining act, which is Isy Suttie.”

Steve adds: “There are only a few female acts that I think are worth headlining. Headliners at The Comedy Box have to be experienced at doing 45 minutes plus and yet we do book female acts who are capable of doing these ‘extended sets’. These acts we have booked in the last 12-18 months include Josie Long, Jo Caulfield, Sarah Millican, Zoe Lyons, Shappi Khorsandi, Lucy Porter and Andi Osho. Recently, we tried very hard to book Roisin Conaty who we think is an act who is definitely one to watch but she wouldn't take the booking.”

I contacted Off The Kerb Productions, too – which also runs the aptly named Laughing Boy Comedy Clubs. Off The Kerb is one of the biggest comedy promoters in the UK, and after more than 30 years in the business it boasts acts as huge as Jonathan Ross, Michael McIntyre, Dara O’Briain and Alan Carr on its books. But despite having just under 40 artists listed on its website, Off The Kerb promotes just three (THREE!) women: Jo Brand, Shappi Khorsandi and Suzi Ruffell. I asked Off The Kerb for a comment, and they replied to say someone would get back to me… but nearly a fortnight later I’m still waiting.

Conclusion

It’s impossible to reach a conclusion to this big issue in one blog post, but the volume of interest and range of theories expressed about the dearth of women on the professional comedy circuit does prove this is an issue that inspires a lot of emotion and demands more attention. As Kate Smurthwaite says in her closing comment below, if you see a good female comedian doing a show – email your local comedy club and ask them to book her… create the demand!

Kate concludes: "The good news is clubs are all about their audiences. If you see a great female act, please, please contact your local comedy club and request them by name. Just a 10-word email might make the difference between getting that spot when that TV producer happens to be in the third row that changes the face of comedy forever… ideally to mine!"

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For more information:

Funny Women is THE place to go to fill all your comedy needs. They're celebrating 10 hilarious years, and you can visit their website by clicking here.


Kate Smurthwaite wrote an article on this last August, and you can read it by clicking here.

The F Word interviewed comedienne Ava Vidall in October about sexism in comedy, and that piece can be read here.