There’s no easy or guaranteed pathway to becoming the next Katherine Ryan, the next Desiree Birch, or the next London Hughes. But – just a massive tip – they and many other amazing icons in our industry do have one thing in common…
In April we launched registration for the Funny Women Stage Awards and it is amazing to already see people flooding in with their submission videos in the hopes of following our legacy for the 19th year and becoming the next Ones to Watch, Finalists or even Winner.
I rejoined Funny Women last year as the Awards Coordinator, in which I helped the team turn hundreds of standout submissions to a final eight and then our winner, Izzy Askwith. It was tremendous to see Izzy’s calendar filling up and securing a top agent within such a short time frame of winning, but a rewardingly long stretch of judging rounds and adapting to nearly every type of performance the pandemic threw at us.
There’s a lot to still discover between now and this autumn’s final at the Bloomsbury Theatre, which perhaps should add some nerves to the giddy excitement of stepping into my role as Stage Award Producer. But through last year we somehow found more opportunities to mentor and support acts which we will continue to build on, and this year we have already begun to take our search more global than ever before. So however the world around us shapes in the next months, I know it’s already looking to be a cracking year.
There’s still a chance to meet me (digitally) face to face at our Comedy Chill Out before registrations close on the 30th June. But before then, I will leave you with one of my biggest pieces of advice to anyone submitting their self-tapes or gig recordings: Own your space and make sure the material is true to yourself and what you find funny. We’ve already met Katherine Ryan, Desiree Birch, and London Hughes – this time I want to meet you.
Register here by 30th June.
