As I settled into the cosy New England comfort of the Brattle Theatre in downtown Cambridge, surrounded by the cognoscenti of academic Harvard and more, the excitement of the audience was papable and expectation high. Fortunately our three acts did not disappoint.
There were hard core fans of all three performers in the room and the largest and loudest of all was sitting right behind me – I could feel his breath on my neck at every guffaw and verbal high five! That distraction accepted, I strapped in for a good comic ride.
First up and hosting was Kelly MacFarland – biting comedy disguised in her soft exterior. There were parallels with Sarah Millican (weight, hating kids) but it was less acerbic and a style that would easily travel to these shores. Laughs a plenty and a generous style which set the tone for the evening and built expectation for the two headlining acts.
Erin Foley is a strong, elegant comic – androgynous in her style with a slick delivery clearly beloved of her US audiences, especially the man sitting behind me! Gayness with an American accent and is all together different proposition, redolent of the glossy world created by the hit TV series, The L Word – streetwise and sassy, a badge to wear with pride and not a curiosity as it is sometimes portrayed here. With her sexuality clearly established from the outset, Erin covered topics as diverse as Obama and Wholefoods which would be as easily acceptable to UK audiences as they are to American ones.
Erin made her stand up debut on ‘Conan’ and has since appeared on ‘Comedy Central Presents’ and ‘Chelsea Lately’. She performs regularly at major comedy venues in New York and Los Angeles and has been selected to perform at the Montreal Comedy Festival three times. With appearances in ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm’ and ‘Almost Famous’ her star is currently rising fast.
Headliner Maria Bamford didn’t disappoint either. I first saw Maria when we shared the same venue at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2006. Maria’s is a weird, dystopian world full of characters from her real life, embroidered into the most wondrous engaging performance: part Eddie Izzard and part Lisa Simpson.
The provenance for her cartoon like, kooky sitcom style is there, of course, which is why the Brattle Theatre was sold out for the second time that evening. Maria is an accomplished voiceover artist for Cartoon Network’s ‘Adventure Time’, Disney Channel’s ‘Kick Buttowski’, Nickelodeon’s ‘Kung Fu Panda’, PBS’s Emmy-winning series ‘Word Girl’ and she is a regular voice on Nickelodeon’s ‘CatDog’ and ‘Back at the Barnyard’.
Maria is the first female comic to have two half-hour ‘Comedy Central Presents’ specials, and starred in the Comedy Central series, ‘The Comedians of Comedy’ and Netflix’s ‘Comedians of Comedy: The Movie’. Along with multiple appearances on chat shows like Jay Leno, Conan and Jimmy Kimmel, Maria has appeared regularly on Adult Swim’s ‘Tim and Eric: Awesome Show’ and guest starred on ‘The Sarah Silverman Program’.
I love a bit of comedy magic every now and then and this show had all the surprising and awe inspiring ingredients. We do have great female comedy here in the UK and I don’t want to ‘oversell’ this – yet there are lessons to be learned from these performers. Let’s hope we can get Kelly, Erin and Maria over this side of Atlantic soon!
Lynne Parker was reporting from the Women in Comedy Festival, Boston, which took place from 21st to 24th March.
Pictured Maria Bamford (top) and Erin Foley.
