I can’t think of any comedy festival that has a narwhal as a mascot. At least, I couldn’t until I heard about Montreal’s Ladyfest. With a mix of funny women, improv, a confidence-building workshop and a brave soul in a narwhal costume.
(As an aside, you wouldn’t believe how easy it was to find a stock image of a narwhal to accompany this article.)
Ladyfest was created to give female comedy more exposure in Canada. It also comes in response to four other Canadian comedy festivals for women which have started in the last six years alone. There are quite a few groups like Funny Women in the Montreal area, such as Ladies Out Laughing and Women In Comedy Montreal. The annual Just For Laughs Montreal comedy contest is also held in the city.
It’s the perfect place to put on a festival. In the run-up to the weekend, the delightful blue-haired narwhal beamed out from posters across the city. Lise Vigneault gamely donned the costume, looking a bit like Lady Gaga mated with a unicorn.
We’ve never tried running our Stand Up To Stand Out workshops with female wrestlers, but the event at Ladyfest was just that. Few things inspire confidence more than the sight of the League of Lady Wrestlers. And the title of the workshop – ‘Put Doubt In A Chokehold‘ – was just inspired.
Here’s hoping there’s another Ladyfest next year. Maybe if we’re feeling flush one of us will get to review it. Or maybe just dance around the living room in solidarity looking like a unicorn.
