Female Comedians

Question mostly for stand-ups, this. Do you feel that there's still a difference in audience reaction to female comedians? I started on the circuit back in October and seem to receive reactions on opposite ends of the spectrum. At smaller comedy nights (those held in rooms above pubs etc.) I've been getting a really good laugh and great feedback from other comedians and promoters. At larger clubs or more "mainstream" gigs, I play to silence.

I'm aware that a big part of this is that my set isn't as "mainstream" or "accessible" as it could be (it sounds written) but I'm trying to remedy this but balancing it out with more accesible parts. But I sometimes feel that the audience's enthusiasm is dampened from the start - especially if I'm coming on after other women who maybe haven't been that good and perhaps the audience has already turned against the women on the bill.

Since I haven't been doing this long I feel like I'm not in a position to judge yet so I'd love to hear other people's thoughts. Am I just being paranoid? Promoters have offered to give me good references and encouraged me to book in at larger nights but my experience in front of those audiences has stopped me from doing this - I just presume the audience won't be up for it. Am I just imagining this because I'm nervous on stage or has anyone else noticed it?

I am embarassed to admit that I have, in the past, been guilty of rolling my eyes when a female comedian gets on stage, and took that opportunity to go to the loo.

In fact it was a female comedian I saw on a night out with friends that made them nag me into trying stand-up.

Then I started to go to open mike nights, rather than established chains, and was pleasantly surprised to see so many funny women.

I would say that all open mike nights I've been to don't care what you are as long as you're funny. But the audience at the chains don't seek out comedy, they prefer being told someone is funny.

The prejudice exists, but it's subsiding, and won't exist in a couple of years. It just means that female comedians have to raise their game and work harder than the guys.

Quote: AngieBaby @ January 30 2010, 1:45 AM GMT

I am embarassed to admit that I have, in the past, been guilty of rolling my eyes when a female comedian gets on stage, and took that opportunity to go to the loo.

In fact it was a female comedian I saw on a night out with friends that made them nag me into trying stand-up.

Then I started to go to open mike nights, rather than established chains, and was pleasantly surprised to see so many funny women.

I would say that all open mike nights I've been to don't care what you are as long as you're funny. But the audience at the chains don't seek out comedy, they prefer being told someone is funny.

The prejudice exists, but it's subsiding, and won't exist in a couple of years. It just means that female comedians have to raise their game and work harder than the guys.

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Now that you've said that, I suppose I would have said women weren't funny before I started going to smaller nights. Almost all of my friends are female comedy writers (I'm the only performer) and even we have all agreed in the past that women just aren't as funny as men (apart from us of course!)

It's stupid really. I guess I'd kind of forgotten about thinking that way.

This was a really good answer, cheers.

I'm guilty of that prejudice in the past too. Most times it's unfounded, but just occasionally there seems to be a female stand-up on the line-up as the token woman.

The different venue thing but me down to style of comedy sglen. I couldn't imagine someone like say, Issy Sutie, pulling off a Jongluers in a market town on a Saturday night - yet she's great.

Maybe it's some female stand-ups seem to have quite gentle material - that doesn't mean not funny - but not loads of aggressive ranting, swearing and knob gags.

I was dreading one gig when I saw loads of suits in the audience, but then my set was a bit sweary and stuff (got likened to a 'female Russell Brand'!) and the suits seemed to laugh the most.

Quote: Dolly Dagger @ January 30 2010, 1:54 PM GMT

The different venue thing but me down to style of comedy sglen. I couldn't imagine someone like say, Issy Sutie, pulling off a Jongluers in a market town on a Saturday night - yet she's great.

Maybe it's some female stand-ups seem to have quite gentle material - that doesn't mean not funny - but not loads of aggressive ranting, swearing and knob gags.

I was dreading one gig when I saw loads of suits in the audience, but then my set was a bit sweary and stuff (got likened to a 'female Russell Brand'!) and the suits seemed to laugh the most.

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This is true. I'm doing a gong show in a club in Nottingham on Tuesday and, since I normally do a kind of storytelling thing (though it's still a bit sweary) I'm barely doing any of my usual material. Trying to lean toward Mock the Week style jokes and I do have one Madeleine McCann joke that I really don't want to tell but might end up stooping if it seems to be the sort of thing the audience like.

It's a bit annoying that its not the funniest women that get on TV, I have no idea why that might be. It reinforces the idea that women aren't good at comedy. That's where I'd got my prejudice from anyway.

Things seem to be changing, the excellent Sarah Millican is popping up in all sorts of places on TV and radio, along with Holly Walsh and Danielle Ward and, of course, you have Lucy Porter, Nina Conti, Gina Yashere, Nina Benjamin, Jo Caulfield, Shappi Korsandhi, Josie Long and Shazia Mirza amongst others.

Not saying that they are all to my taste but they are all there or thereabouts when it comes to a reasonable level of success (ie. public consciousness).

One piece of advice to sglen, I wouldn't try to pre-judge audiences too much and tailor your material to them, the comic needs to lead the audience not the other way round (although that's not to say that different audiences don't need different approaches sometimes).

Quote: Tony Cowards @ January 30 2010, 2:16 PM GMT

One piece of advice to sglen, I wouldn't try to pre-judge audiences too much and tailor your material to them, the comic needs to lead the audience not the other way round (although that's not to say that different audiences don't need different approaches sometimes).

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Thanks, that sounds right. Think I'm probably getting too worried about this and starting to overthink. It's probably a lot down to condidence really. If I feel intimidated then it stands to reason that the gig will go worse!

Quote: sglen @ January 30 2010, 2:21 PM GMT

Thanks, that sounds right. Think I'm probably getting too worried about this and starting to overthink. It's probably a lot down to condidence really. If I feel intimidated then it stands to reason that the gig will go worse!

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Which Gong show is it?

If it's Funhouse Comedy then you've got 3 minutes grace before you can be gonged off, that should be enough time to get going and build up a bit of rapport with the audience.

Do what you're happy and confident with but try to remember to have something that the audience can laugh at every 20-30 seconds max.

Comedy is mostly a confidence trick, make it look like you belong on stage and that you KNOW 100% that you're funny and the audience will follow.

Good luck and enjoy it.

Quote: Tony Cowards @ January 30 2010, 2:30 PM GMT

Which Gong show is it?

If it's Funhouse Comedy then you've got 3 minutes grace before you can be gonged off, that should be enough time to get going and build up a bit of rapport with the audience.

Do what you're happy and confident with but try to remember to have something that the audience can laugh at every 20-30 seconds max.

Comedy is mostly a confidence trick, make it look like you belong on stage and that you KNOW 100% that you're funny and the audience will follow.

Good luck and enjoy it.

View original

It's funhouse, yeah. I think "rapport" is something I really need to work on anyway. I'm very shy offstage and although I've been told I hide my nerves quite well onstage, I find it quite dificult to connect with the audience. Just need to throw myself into it really. It'll come with practice.

Thanks for the luck and the advice! I'll get there in the end!

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Great name!

I've seen more live comedy in the last few months than in my previous 20-some years and I reckon comics are defined by nothing other than their sets.

One thing I do think needs working on, is the representation of female-targeted general comedy in the mainstream. The last DVD I bought had two Malteasers commercials before the trailers. The first one showed two men passed out on a settee and the women placed them in a position where they were embracing and close to kissing eachother, when they awoke the women began laughing.

The exact equal reverse of this would be; two men place two passed out ladies in a romantic clinch, which would probably attract critiscm.

Second one had a bored lady at her desk, her male colleague walks by, so the lady approaches the window and lifts her top and flashes him, causing him to drop his paperwork and sheepishly walk off and she returns to her desk and smugly (now empowered) eats chocolate.

Again; the equal reverse of this would be; a man at his desk, sees a female co-worker by and so decides to go the window and take out his penis and wave it around at her causing her to drop her work. This take on it would probably not be allowed to be aired, and I think when advertisers and marketers understand the flaw in campaigns like this they'll understand why this stone-age 'are women funny' thing continues to make it harder for girls in comedy.

That all said, female comics can be, and usually are, hilarious.

Most excellent points JD

Equality only runs so deep; social norms, historical roles, lingering prejudices, perceived threats, physical differences and evolutionary drives, mean that situations involving men and women can never be entirely analogous. When a man whips out his penis to woman with whom he is not intimate he is saying he wants to have sex with her, with the implication that she could not stop him from doing so; when a woman whips out her tits, she is saying, well, I am not sure what she is saying, but not that.

'Get on with the mammogram and stop staring'?