We celebrated the life of Jo Fletcher-Cross a week ago today. It was an honour to deliver this Tribute on behalf of Funny Women and our community.
They say you can tell a lot about a person by what they leave behind. Jo left us with a movement, a mountain of memories, and a ton of virtual glitter.
I was privileged to work with Jo as a comedian, facilitator and a non-executive director of Funny Women for 15 years or more.
When Jo was diagnosed in 2022, she was preparing for her first full run at the Edinburgh Fringe. She was remarkably pragmatic about the outcome and once she overcame the surgery that followed, I recall our conversations about her prognosis and what we could all do together to create some kind of legacy.
We looked at the comedy world, which can be lonely, competitive, and difficult for women and we came up with what became The Glitter Project.
We created an initiative to provide mentoring, advice and performance opportunities to freshly-minted female acts going to the Edinburgh Fringe, (thanks to Pauline Eyre, Louise Leigh and Rachel Creeger who helped to realise and deliver this concept).
This was funded with the BBC Comedy Grant in 2024, and then we were able to extend the initiative around the UK with funding from Arts Council England.
We worked with Jo to ensure that what she inspired would live on in her image to make sure that no woman or non-binary performer ever felt they were navigating the circuit alone.
We built hubs from London to Manchester, creating safe creative places that Jo knew the industry desperately needed.
Jo now lives on through every industry panel, mentoring meetup and open mic night we put together as part of The Glitter Project.
Her legacy is ‘a safe place’ where nervous newcomers can find their voice, explore creativity and improve their health and wellbeing through comedy. And those who are already established can pay it forward.
Jo said that everyone deserves a bit of glitter. To Jo, glitter was a metaphor for joy.
On one of our many WhatsApp exchanges over the last year she said about The Glitter Project, “It’s all a total delight and it’s genuinely made a dreadful time something so special.”
So, let’s make a pact. We at Funny Women will carry Jo’s legacy forward, but we need you, too. Every time you see someone struggling to take their first step onto a stage, or every time the world feels a bit too grey, think of Jo and sprinkle some glitter.
