Uplift Magazine

Gender Imbalance? Don’t Make Me Laugh!

By: Sarah Barnes, 21.11.2007 | Comments (1)

Gender imbalance makes me squeamish. It’s not something I often like to tackle face to face, because most times I imagine it would be much more forward thinking to just ignore that factor and get on with the promotion of women-in-art or women-in-music and hope the scale may be tipped just through these actions. Effectively, I stick my fingers in my ears, go “la la la” very loudly, and carry on as if we’ve already reached equality.

But when it came to trying to write about the Ladyfest London comedy night, taking place on November the 24th at the Hackney Empire, this was one very tipped gender scale that was hard to ignore. The Ladyfest London comedy night will be comprised of 5 funny women and 2 funny men…and this is really very unusual in the comedy scene. I don’t think I’ve ever been to a mainstream comedy night that has featured one female comedian, let alone 5.

I spoke to Claire Pollard, the organiser of the Ladyfest event to find out why.

“Without carrying out a survey, I think I can confidently state that there are more men on the circuit than there are women. It follows then, that the gender percentages lean towards male dominated nights. Certainly when I started doing stand up 5 years ago, I was rarely on the same bill with other girls. You’d hear about other female performers but never meet them because promoters (who are usually men) rarely booked two of ‘us’ on the same night.” Josie Long, who will be compering on Saturday, agrees; “Some clubs will only put on a token woman, and won’t have more than one on the bill, although this is a happening a lot less than it used to.”

The idea that two comedians might do the same material just because they both own a vagina is a common misconception but one that has really stuck in public consciousness and can be seen to have hindered women’s comedy. The late eighties is often thought of as being the golden age of ‘Funny Females’, it was an era where there was plenty to mock as feminism and anti-Toryism came together to make women the cutting edge of the alternative scene.

Jenny Éclair and Jo Brand were heralded as brilliant breakthroughs at this time, both being entirely confrontational in their manner and crushing old fashioned notions of femininity. Female humour became known as up-front talk about periods, boyfriends and boobs.

“When Jenny Éclair emerged, her style was fresh and broke a few taboos,” says Pollard “but in a society where a woman having sex with the neck of a bottle can be shown on television, attempting to shock your audience by talking about one’s sexploits or menstrual cycle seems unquestionably lame.”

I spoke to Penny Broadhurst, the compere and organiser of the 2007 Ladyfest Leeds comedy night, about her experiences of stereotypical female comedy;

“I’ve seen a lot of female stand ups who have descended into that trap of thinking that they must already be alienating a male audience and therefore they should only speak to the women in the audience about subjects like shoes, shopping and menstrual flow. It’s okay to do a bit of that, but it can alienate as many women as men. It also perpetuates the stereotype that women only have a limited range of things they talk about.”

The idea that women’s comedy can be alienating to the audience has meant that it is generally perceived as coarse and tiresome; I am reminded of an episode of Friends where Chandler is dragged along to a one woman comedy show only to be screamed at in the face; “Why do you hate me!?”

So female comedy has had to evolve and expand, but the general perception of it has not really moved on from this ‘Golden Era’. Long finds this to be the only major set back as a female comic; “The challenge for me is not to get too beaten
down by people’s ridiculous outdated attitudes about what female comedy is.” The un-shockable modern audience thinks it knows what to expect from female comedy, and is bored of it, no longer finding it entertaining, or even funny.

Of course, there are those who think that women just aren’t made to be funny. Doing my research for this article I read one very depressing piece that appeared in Vanity Fair back in January. The author Christopher Hitchens, writing under the title ‘Why Women Aren’t Funny’, managed to pen gems like ‘as the bishop said to the barmaid’ whilst summarising that because women are always conscious of their innate duty to give birth and raise children, they will forever take life too seriously to make jokes.

“The tragedy is that while there is this gender imbalance, people will continue to misread this as women not being as funny as men” agrees Pollard, but she does feel there is a change in the water. “When I look at comedy listings now, there seem to be so many more women on the circuit. I think that in a society striving for equality, it makes sense that the balance should gradually even out. Also, tastes are shifting to more traditional acts with a modern twist. Sketch comedy, which was desperately un-cool 7 or 8 years ago seems to be making a come back, and character comics are forging new and exciting paths. Many female acts are on this path: Bridget Christie, Joanna Neary and Penny Snubb are all examples of incredible actresses with a sharp wit and an inventive approach. This also means that there are better role models; women making comedy look cool, not caring about dicking about a bit for a laugh.”

So who will be ‘dicking about’ for our entertainment this Saturday? There will be the aforementioned Bridget Christie, along with Caroline Clifford, Caroline Mabey, Helen Keen, Tom Basden and Andrew O Neill. And of course, Josie Long will be compering, which Pollard is ecstatic about; “I think Josie Long is an important figure in the circuit – she’s a girl who really loves stand up; traditional, one-woman-and-a-room-full-of-strangers stand up. I remember seeing her win the BBC New Act final when she was 15 or 16 and her stuff was garbled and surreal and so exciting. She’s not mean, aggressive or sexually provocative- she’s just funny and that makes her a positive role model to younger girls thinking about a career in comedy.”

I wonder, since Pollard is keen to showcase female stand up, whether she feels there are aspects of female comedy that shine brighter than male comedy? “I’m a female promoter, I like female acts and so I booked female acts. But, truthfully, there isn’t a single thing I can think of that is done best by members of either gender. A good comedian is someone with intelligence, wit and good judgement, who doesn’t underestimate their audience and is willing to look stupid. None of those qualities are gender specific.” Long agrees; “I don’t believe that there are different writing styles according to gender and I wouldn’t generalise performance styles in that way. My comedy is obviously informed by the fact that I am a woman,
because everything I do is, but it’s for women and men.”

So if humour is non gender specific, then why should it even matter what the person delivering the punch line has in their underpants? Why would Pollard carefully construct her line-up in order to be mainly women? “In the spirit of Ladyfest, I thought it was important to book as many women as possible and they’re all delighted to be on the same bill together. Like I said before, the balance is usually the reverse. But most young women in comedy aren’t angry about the gender imbalance; they’re sick of talking about it and just want to get on with it.”

It seems that Pollard is a woman after my own heart, quietly tipping the gender scale whilst remaining modest in her motives. “I’m a strong believer in leading by example and by just being a girl and being funny, you’re gently retaliating against the sexism of those ‘my wife’ comedians, who are – lets face it- mostly dead or working in Blackpool.”

Have a laugh, and do your own gentle retaliating, at the Ladyfest London comedy night on Saturday the 24th of November. It will be at the Marie Lloyd Bar in The Hackney Empire, 289 Mare Street, E8. Doors open at 7.30 and it’s £8 in. See you there!