Sarah Millican was crowned the 'Queen of Comedy' in the British Comedy Awards on Friday. She follows hot on the heels of Miranda Hart who took the throne last year and no doubt celebrated in her trademark down to earth way with a nice cup of tea and a slice of cake!
Women have always been funny and their ability to win popularity with television audiences is strangely at odds with the continuing ‘boys club’ attitude of the live comedy circuit. What Sarah demonstrates so well is that you really have to be well and truly IN it to WIN it. A focused work ethic and a goal is what you need to succeed in the highly competitive world of comedy, whether you are male or female.
“We give women a great start by providing a platform away from the gladiatorial environment of the circuit,” explains founder Lynne Parker about why she set up Funny Women back in 2002. “It’s where Sarah performed some of her very first gigs and away from any of the pressures of inherent sexism.
"I know we have our critics and that women need to be seen performing alongside their male contemporaries to be taken seriously but until there is more balance, Funny Women provides a form of quota system that is achieving its objective. It’s where you take it after you’ve performed with us that really matters.
“It was so strange to me to see night after night of shows featuring all male performers when I worked as a comedy publicist in the late 90s,”continues Lynne. “Even then there were some brilliant female comedy acts around – Jenny Éclair had won the Perrier Award in 1995, French & Saunders had been on our small screens since 1987 and Jo Brand was long established on the circuit, but the promoter I worked for still insisted that there were no funny women around worth booking! I had to do something to make a statement and Funny Women was my knee jerk reaction.
“It’s fantastic to see really funny women like Sarah getting the recognition and media exposure they deserve. I watched a clip of one of Sarah’s recent performances and, as with other great comics, she still includes some of her best original material in her set today. You have an obligation to your audiences when you get to this level – the ‘greatest hits’ are as important for comedians as they are for musicians. The proof is in the DVD sales and Sarah has now taken her place alongside some of the other biggest selling comedy names in the business with her DVD already topping the charts this Christmas. I am confident there will be more funny women following in her footsteps in the years to come.”
If you want to see Sarah perform live she is currently touring the UK and you can book HERE – do it soon as a lot of the dates are already sold out. To buy her DVD click HERE.
