Thursday 7th March, the eve of International Women’s Day saw Funny Women’s busiest event yet in 2013, with a sell-out crowd enjoying a truly international group of inspiring women. Women from 10 nations came together to celebrate women in comedy at the beautiful St. James’ Theatre in support of Womankind Worldwide.
The evening began with a discussion of women’s humour across cultures and how our humour defines us, chaired by Funny Women finalist Viv Groskop who ably steered the wide ranging discussion. Lynn Ruth Miller, who took to stand-up in her 70s talked about how the opportunity to express herself wasn’t available when she was young, and how ageing has been helpful for her comedy, explaining that the older we get, ‘the more ridiculous you realise we are.’ Lynn spoke of the difficulties of getting booked due to her age, despite the fact that, as she wrote for us, she knows that if she gets on stage, she will make and audience laugh.
Sylvie-Aboa Bradwell, a native Cameroonian now based in the UK who founded African People’s Advocacy shared some of the history of women’s humour in Africa, with thousands of years of tradition of the ‘jester’ figure not being divided along gender lines. She threw a fascinating light on the imposition of Victorian colonial values on African women, who are struggling to express themselves due to this cultural shift, and her work in part to recover those African traditions.
Vanessa Vallely, founder of women’s network We Are The City, charity campaigner and Pearly Queen told the audience about her experiences of travelling to Africa, and Sylvie and Vanessa discussed the universality of some elements of comedy as witnessed by Vanessa on a trip to Tanzania. Despite not speaking Swahili, Vanessa found the laughter infectious, and discovered that slapstick comedy crosses the boundaries of language.
Andrea Mann, editor of the Huffington Post UK Comedy section broadened this discussion to touch on the nature of internet comedy, memes and virals, and how these have a global audience that crosses international boundaries, of course mentioning our universal obsession with cat videos.
Andrea discussed how women’s comedy isn’t ‘gag’ focussed, with the woman centre of attention as in quotidian day-to-day male comedy, but more inclusive. Jewellery designer and political activist Amisha Ghadiali, (who wonderfully told us that her mum- who was in the audience- is her greatest inspiration) shared how in India when women are cooking together, the room is fully of happy laughter, and how women’s comedy often follows these patterns.
The conversation turned towards what can be done to promote women in comedy, with an acknowledgement of how much has been achieved already. Andrea explained the process that she uses as an editor- she can make a conscious choice to use a photograph of a woman rather than a man when announcing the winners of the British Comedy Awards for example. If women are to progress further, the panel concluded, they must be visible to act as role models for future generations.
After a few more drinks were downed, it was time for the veritable smorgasbord of international comedians to take to the stage, hosted byFilipino-German Ria Lina, (no- she assured us – she wasn’t a ladyboy.) Grecian Katerina Vrana told us about her experiences of a Hollywood audition where she was told she ‘didn’t look Greek enough,’ and gave us a whistle stop tour of the world as enacted in a primary school classroom. Danish Sofie Hagen loves England due to a certain breed of British man that is a ‘Chubby Chaser’ and dreams of forming a club of like-minded fat women to get together and do ‘inactivities.’
Australian Tessa Waters as ‘woman – hear me rraarrr!’ taught the crowd some of the sexiest dance moves ever seen on a London stage. Watch a six second clip of her crunk, directing aeroplanes, arm stretching and foxy lady dancing HERE – you won’t believe your eyes. Sindhu V regailed us with tales of her mother, cigarette butts , flowers and the language barrier that saw a large bum-model being installed in the lobby of her apartment, with Lynn Ruth Miller sharing her traumatic experiences of dating in older age and the perils of stepping onto her date’s respirator.
After a raffle draw for Womankind Worldwide which saw one of the four men in the room win a pair of custom made high heels(!) Austrian Alice Frick opened by telling us how she got free of her basement, and how her lesbianism helped her prove to her grandma that there was not God. Kenyan Njambi McGrath’s husband, we discovered, had only married her to get a Kenyan passport, and that no, despite her country’s heritage, she wouldn’t be competing in a marathon for a gold coin that you can’t even spend.
Gabby Best’s Funny Women Awards winning set as Croatian alter-ego Marijana wowed the crowd with her discussion of her work as a fitness instructor teaching ‘yoga and pee-lates,’ with a special yoga moved demonstrated on willing audience member Sean. Shazia Mirza’s caustic set encompassed her experiences of being brown and constantly being asked where she comes from, with her deadpan reply always being ‘Birmingham.’ Her characterisation of her mum and Dad and their obsession with her not having children, and having 10kg bags of rice in case of apocalypse (not related,) had the audience in stitches, and rounded up the hugely enjoyable evening.
Funny Women and Womankind Worldwide would like to thank all of the performers who gave their time so generously for the event, and all the companies that donated prizes. If you wish you had been there, don’t despair! A podcast of the evening will be available to download in the coming weeks. If you would like to donate to Womankind you still can, by texting WMKD33 £5 to 70070, (or whatever amount you wish.)
Don't just take our word for how fabulous the night was though! Squeamish Bikini Editor and XOJane UK writer, Kate thought it was brilliant too! Read her review HERE.
Courtney Cooke
Pictured: The panel sharing the love with the audience, Tessa Waters teaching us to be 'sexy'
More pictures can be found at www.facebook.com/wearefunnywomen
