LYNN FERGUSON told Greg Fleet ten years ago: "Women talk with people and men talk at people – that is why men are naturally better at stand-up comedy than women."
Women, however, have been surging forward in comedy in recent times, because when women set their minds on achieving a goal it is hard to hold them back.
Women are more prone to character comedy and acting rather than stand-up. That's probably a
s there is some kind of protection in performing with other people or in being a character than being just you. Stand-up is a very tough and vulnerable medium, to stand up and talk about yourself for any length of time and for audiences to listen and find it funny is not easy.
Men find it hard to laugh at women, either because they are watching with their wife or girlfriend and think they will be accused of fancying the performer – or because of the fact that laughing at a woman can be compared to laughing at your mother and that a man would hardly ever do.
Through the ages there have been very few women comedians. They have been support acts or the equivalent of straight men in sitcoms and variety shows.
America was the first to bring women comics to the fore with Lucille Ball in I Love Lucy, The Mary Tyler Moore Show and Phyllis Diller, who proved that women are very, very funny indeed. In fact a lot funnier than any man – this certainly shows over the years with our own Hattie Jacques, Joyce Grenfell, French and Saunders, Ruby Wax, Victoria Wood and many others.
However, there have never been enough women in comedy, the reason being that women are not natural show-offs like men are, and if they decide to go into the medium of comedy, they take that step very seriously. There is a big difference between acting in a comedy and performing stand-up comedy – it is about being a natural comic, and I think women find this hard in case they make a fool of themselves.
In the early eighties women started getting involved in stand-up comedy and the ones that succeeded were strong intelligent women who were good writers. Like Jenny Lecoat, Jenny Eclair, Jo Brand, Donna MacPhail, Kathy Burke, Helen Lederer and others, there was never enough.
More have followed such as Sarah Kendall, Gina Yashere, Lucy Porter, Shappi Khorsandi and Shazia Mirza, and although they are strong, funny women, the majority of the audiences tend to give them a hard time and it is more difficult for women comics to get audiences than it is men.
Sexist maybe? In fact the ones that do get audiences more easily are the ones that approach the whole genre more like men – showing off and talking dirty. A few years ago the girls staged a protest against the then Perrier Award, saying that they were being ignored by the panel. In fact it was just that the judges did not think any of their comedy was strong enough.
There is light at the end of the tunnel, though – there are more and more women taking the risk to stand up for laughs. The Gilded Balloon takes more risks on women in comedy than any other venue, and this year there is Rhona Cameron who's not scared to talk about her beliefs and be very funny. Also Lynn Ferguson with very intelligent, dark comic writing and performing, and Maeve Higgins with very funny, whimsical humour. There is Karen Dunbar with her very infectious comedy, and Fiona O'Loughlin with the funniest tales of being a mother of five in Alice Springs.
There are many new comediennes like Martha McBrier who brings bizarre twists to her comedy, Eleanor Tiernan from Ireland – cousin of Tommy, though that doesn't make her funny, it's her talent – Hils Barker, who was a runner up in the So You Think You're Funny? competition a few years ago and a character comic. There are Americans Becky Donohue and Nicole Korkolis with hard-hitting stand-up. Helen Keen, a winner of a Channel 4 New Writing Award; Wendy Wason who draws on her resemblance to Audrey Hepburn for her image; Lady Garden, six very talented young girls from Manchester University, and Gavin & Gavin, all with very bright futures. It looks like it could certainly be a bumper year for the ladies at this Festival.
It is a complete joy to observers of good comedy when new and funny women come along. More power to them.
The full article contains 767 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
