Last night’s Funny Women Challenge the Men at the Barber-Surgeons’ Hall in the City of London was a triumph in every sense of the word – great comedy, wonderful atmosphere, historic venue, lovely food and drink and lots of laughs! So please allow me to bask in a little pool of self-congratulation today on behalf of my talented and hard-working and loyal Funny Women Team.
We’d like to share and say our own very big THANK YOU to our male Challengers for being such brilliant students and good sports. The winner was a resounding Steven Williams who channelled his ‘cross-dressing-on-a-Saturday-night’ alterego ‘Morag’ to demonstrate his feminine (!) side. We’re pretty sure it was the string vest that did it – phwah! Funds raised from Steven’s performance are going to Pheonix Futures.
Runners up were smooth talking David McQueen and 'Big Fred' Anson, who’d give the Pub Landlord a run for his money! Look out for a full review of the night coming soon.
What we are proud to report is that together we’ve already raised over £11k for some amazing causes and please keep it coming! You can link to the different charities benefiting from the Challenge HERE.
In the meantime, it’s not often that we get so many lovely ‘thank yous’ from men – so we’d like to share a few of them here:
“What a freakin’ awesome night. Proud to have shared the stage with every single one of you. Thank you Andy for volunteering me. Thanks Lynne for the opportunity. Chuffed and merry and going to sleep!”
“A great evening on all levels. Thank you Courtney and Janet for the mentoring, thank you ‘Morag’ for the advice, and thank you Richard for the music, and the Funny Women militia for everything… And of course thank you Lynne for the opportunity to take part in such an amazing event.
“The hosing gag, the auto-bronzante and the wizz air gags are cliffhangers I shall use at the pub for weeks to come.” (you had to be there – Ed)
“What is it about people who dare to risk making a fool out of themselves that make them such lovely people? There is a self-effacing beauty to the pursuit that means all involved have humility in spades. Everyone was so emotionally generous throughout and I would do it all again.
“Thanks to all, especially, Lynne, for her unfettered support and tenacious organisation, Courtney, for her astounding mentoring, Lucy, for her outrageously useful advice and Geoffrey, Mick, Rob and Charles for being such fun chuckley pals throughout.
“When's the next one? . . . . just kidding.”
“Am I the first to report a booking received as a result of last night?! A friend who was there has just called and asked if I will be the MC at his wedding. Maybe it's not Live at the Apollo but it's a start!”
“I think everyone deserves a wonderful vote of thanks – it all came together really well and importantly I genuinely think the audience enjoyed it!
“Speaking with my charity hat on, I think you were all really brave to put yourselves on the line for good causes and a lot of money has been raised so that is truly fantastic. I cannot thank you all enough.”
“Thanks a million, girls! Especially Lynne for pushing me through it, and Janet And Teresa for their massive contributions (i.e. the jokes!) to my material.”
“Fun night….packed house……great craic……some nice cash in the coffers for our respective causes….
“Laughter is the best cosmetic……x”
A BIG personal Funny Women 'thank you' to all the men, my lovely mentors and for all the donations received so far. TWEET THIS ARTICLE OUT SO THAT WE CAN RAISE SOME MORE!
Lynne Parker, founder and executive producer, Funny Women.
Pictured top to bottom: Steven aka 'Morag', Big Fred, David & Steven, the Funny Women Team.
