The other day, a flyer for a comedy club fell out of a magazine. Of the 24 events profiled on this flyer, only one featured a woman.
This isn’t news. The absence of professional funny women is well documented, despite organisations such as Funny Women. Yet still there are no conclusive answers as to why this is.
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, Dawn French, Jennifer Saunders etc. would have been forced to sign on a long time ago.
While comedy is subjective, I think we can agree that of the endless male comedians, many simply aren’t very funny. Are they there 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?
Josie Long says: “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.”
One of the two stock answers from anyone trying to defend the dearth of female comics is that women aren’t funny. Stand-up comedian Chris Coltrane confirms: “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.”
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.”
Kate Smurthwaite, however, thinks the culture of high street misogyny has a lot to answer for: “I think the so-called lads’ mags have to take some of the blame. They’re soft porn, but in order to get themselves off the top shelf they had to present themselves as ‘men's lifestyle’. But what 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 other stock answer is that there aren’t as many women as men trying to make it as comedians. Something Kate, who teaches stand-up comedy, disproves: “There is absolutely no shortage of funny women. At workshop and open mic level there are honestly more women in comedy than men. I often have classes with only one or two guys in.”
However, Steve Lount, who runs The Comedy Box in Bristol, disagrees that there are many funny women to choose from: “There are so few female acts out there, and fewer still who are any good in my opinion.”
Steve is also not convinced that female comedians face as many barriers as have been suggested, and believes it’s more down to many women being less suited to the lifestyle: “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. … 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.”
Steve’s club, The Comedy Box, is the club I’m referring to in the opening paragraph: “The fact is we do book female acts” he insists. “As it happens, this season we only have one female headlining act, which is Isy Suttie. … There are only a few female acts that I think are worth headlining.”
It’s impossible to reach a conclusion in one article, but the volume of interest about the dearth of women on the circuit does prove this is an issue that demands more attention. Also proved by the fact that Funny Women is celebrating 10 years of business in 2012.
Kate concludes: "The good news is clubs are all about their audiences. If you see a great female act, 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!"
Jane Duffus
Jane is a Bristol based magazine editor and a longer version of her article is available on her blog HERE
You can comment about the issues raised in this article on Twitter to Jane @MadamJMo and us @funnywomen
Pictured: top to bottom, Josie Long, Kate Smurthwaite, Isy Suttie.
