I still get asked what it is like to be a female comedian.
I think the main difference is one of acoustics. Most male comedians have willies, which are solid (if a little squishy) objects whereas female funny folk often have vagina’s which are, by design, hollow and therefore fundamentally change the acoustics of the room.
Sometimes someone yells that I should get my tits out. More often, they do not yell this, and I wonder what is wrong with my tits. I once got an email from a promoter who would have loved to book me for a specific gig, but had already booked another women (on his lineup of five comedians).
But mostly, I bumble about, get gigs, panic about gigs, do well at gigs, do less well at gigs, eat pasties in my car at 1.00am and spend too long on social media. Like all comedians. And, like most comedians, occasionally I enter comedy competitions.
Someone asked me recently why we need women-only competitions. Honestly, my very first instinct was to say that we probably don’t need any competitions in comedy at all; we are drowning in comedy competitions. If you throw a paper plane on a motorway after midnight there’s a good chance you’ll hit a multi-award winning comic.
But, when I thought about my own comedy competition experiences it has almost never been about the winning (shut up, I have won one). I have met some of my very best friends and frenemies in comedy through competitions; I’ve received some of the most useful feedback and support through them. I’ve lost, like, two or three whole pounds through nervous pre-competition pooing, and I’ve seen incredible diversity and talent of acts.
There are still some people out there who think that ‘female’ is a genre of comedy. People who think that female comedians are, or should be, just one thing. Women are kinda wonderful. We can be strong, vulnerable, rude, whimsical, aggressive, sarcastic, shocking or naïve. We are all kinds of hilarious. We can make people laugh with puns, one liners, storytelling, characters, music and yes, even (especially) knob gags.
Competitions which showcase female comedians are a great chance to demonstrate the diversity of hilarious women out there. It’s a chance for people to find comedians that inspire, tickle, shock, disgust or delight them. Showcasing fantastic funny women is a way of stopping people asking what it’s like to be a female comedian, and getting them to think about what makes them laugh regardless of gender. It’s a chance to prove once and for all that when it comes to comedy female isn’t a genre. It’s really just a minor difference in acoustics.
