On Monday 22nd September we will be holding the 12th annual Funny Women Awards. Some fantastic women have come through our flagship annual competition including Katherine Ryan, our host for this year’s event, who won in 2008 and is now a regular on television and radio. BBC Radio 4 wouldn’t be the same without 2006 finalist Susan Calman and can you imagine the comedy scene without 2005 runner up Sarah Millican?
Other women who have graced the Awards before going on to make a name for themselves in comedy are Sara Pascoe, Bridget Christie, Roisin Conaty and Kerry Godliman. And those are just the finalists! 2007 Winner Andi Osho is in America working on various projects and the first ever winner of our Variety Award, Gemma Whelan, joined the Greyjoy family in smash hit TV show ‘Game of Thrones’.
We aren’t the only comedy awards in town, of course. But we are the only comedy awards exclusively for women, and very proud of this we are too. It’s nice when this gets recognised by other people. Warren Lakin of Lakin McCarthy said of the Awards: "Wishing you much success with the Final. It seems that practically every younger woman comic of note in UK today has taken part in Funny Women – much credit to you."
So why do we still need the Funny Women Awards? Funny Women founder Lynne Parker said: "It is interesting to see how few women still get their breaks via the other awards and how successful some of the recurring names have been. I still believe it is harder for women to make an impact on the comedy circuit, let alone get booked, which is why I set up Funny Women in the first place." We took a virtual tour around the awards landscape to see how well women have fared against the male competition.
Since its beginnings in 1988 ‘So You Think You’re Funny’ has had three women winners, Rhona Cameron, Aisling Bea and Demi Lardner.
The Amused Moose award began as 'Search for a Star' before becoming the ‘Comedy Award’ in 2005 and now the 'Amused Moose Laugh Off'. 2011 Funny Women Awards winner Lara A King was runner up in 2011. Catherine Seamark and Jessica Fostekew made it to the semi-finals in 2010, Katherine Ryan was a runner up in 2008 and, most notably, Sarah Millican won in 2005.
The Golden Jester competition was launched in 2011 and had its first woman runner up, Tammy Stone in 2012.
The Fosters Comedy Awards, the most prestigious of all comedy accolades, started life in 1981 as the Perrier Awards, and is still often referred to by the same name even though Fosters has been the incumbent sponsor for at least four years. There have only ever been three women winners in 33 years: Jenny Eclair was the first woman to win in 1995, Laura Solon in 2005 (10 years later) and Bridget Christie was named the winner last year in 2013. There has been a sprinkling of female nominees over recent years across the main and newcomer categories with some of today’s most successful female comics picking up the best newcomer prize – Josie Long in 2006, Sarah Millican in 2008, and Roisin Conaty in 2010.
New Comedian of the Year has been going since 2009 and has yet to find a woman to wear its crown. However Sofie Hagen came third in 2012 and Amy Gledhill was joint third in 2013. Tania Edwards and Sally Tatum shared third place in 2009.
In 2003 Sofie Hagan became the first women to win the Laughing Horse New Act of the Year award which started in 2001. Andrea Hubert was runner up in 2010 and Nina Conti came third in 2002.
Asked about the validity of an all female comedy award, Lynne Parker, who created the Funny Women Awards in 2003, said: "It was once said to me very early on in the development of our Awards, that after five years there would be no need for us to have a dedicated female competition because ‘there would be quite enough women in stand up by then’. 12 years on and we have more and more entries for the live category each year and we’ve introduced new Awards for comedy writing and video shorts.
"Over the years we have aimed to meet the creative demand for female comedy in all its component parts and are so privileged that we now have the support of our fantastic sponsor Benefit to ensure that our legacy continues.”
Pictured: Sarah Millican in 2005 and Katherine Ryan in 2008 who hosts this year's Funny Women Awards Final on Monday 22nd September.
