Females Comedians

Beaten to the punchline
Guardian Monday 2nd March 2009
Germaine Greer does not think men are the funnier sex. But they are better at banter, innuendo and clowning. So what's holding women back?

Article can be read in full here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/2009/mar/02/germaine-greer-comedy-women


Response by Bonnie Fairbrass

I have worked as a female stand up. I have won acclaim and respect for my jokes.
I have also been stopped in my tracks by other females.
According to one female promoter, a lady does not tell the sort of jokes I tell. I agree. What is more, I am proud of it.

Mostly, to the untrained eye, female comedians are divided into two groups.
The lesbians and the fat girls.
Either way they are not groups that other women will openly admit to belonging in real life, let alone in a terrifying comedy club situation.
Stand up is a scary thing. Those first five minutes seem so much longer.
To put yourself through that level of scrutiny shows a lack of self-respect.
Only a warped individual would put themselves in such a position.
That is why women stand up’s are already in someway outsiders.
As such, them must be stopped at all costs.
Hell have no fury like a women scorned with a microphone., especially one that has phallic overtones, more so when the target of the joke is, well, everyone.

Listen carefully to a set. It is easier to spot in an amateur stand up, male or female.
There is a definite period of self-depreciating material that is just too detrimental to be funny and comes across as just mental.
Women are unfortunately more prone to this phenomenon.
Women are so used to putting themselves down, dumbing themselves down that they do it without thinking.
Listen closely to a woman’s routine. There will be a great gag, usually something personal and related to image (just like men do) and it goes well, but it is followed up by a plain negative statement about the artist and instantly the previous material loses credibility.
You become the lesbian or fat bird the audience first judged you to be.

Sometimes the comedian knows this fatal moment has happened and the rest of the material is delivered in a spew of professionalism, whilst others crumble into their own insecurities and are never seen again.

Men rarely laugh at themselves, they laugh at other men, which for women is the same thing, after all their all bastards’ right?
They address themselves in the third person. The alpha is on stage and the pack laugh obediently.
This changes when the Alpha is a gay man. Then the loyalty is divided, in much the same way it is for female comics.
For a female, stand up is a tool to be heard, oddly to be taken seriously.
It takes a certain amount of self-loathing and genius to pull of a joke about child abuse.
More to the point it means letting the audience know that you are the abused child you speak of.
That sort of revelation in public, for laughs is a heavy thing and one that I found divided the room.
The same goes for anal sex, eating disorders, & dysfunctional relationships.

Other women, less secure woman, of whom there are many, do not want these truths revealed, especially not when they have been working so hard to Stepford it up and hide the gin bottles.

Every break I received on the comedy circuit was given to me by men. Men appreciated my balls.
Not all women appreciated my honesty.

I never did it for them though. It wasn’t about sisterhood, it was about me. It was therapy. If my words and my life events touched others, then that is a bonus. I didn’t expect other woman’s reactions to touch me so deeply.

I will never forget my first gig. It was the biggest test of all. I was in a community hall in Glasgow on a none to pretty scheme.
I had a very strong joke about my own sexual abuse, a joke that worked for two reasons. Firstly, it turned the joke on the abuser and released the victim and secondly it was followed by a lighter, middle of the road gag.
As I went back stage I noticed two older women joining the audience, and I thought I was done for.
I thought, these women will not understand this joke. I will be hounded, hated, burned at the stake.
To my amazement that joke got the biggest laugh of the night.
At the end of the gig, the same women came up to me and congratulated me on my set and I explained how worried I had been about their reactions to the joke.
They could not believe it. They said how refreshing it was to hear a woman speak so openly about something so painful.
The other amazing thing was a young women also approached me, kissed me on the cheek, and said Thank you. It was the reaction that only another abused child could have.
Even now, that brings a lump to my throat.
I thought then, as I do now, that is what female comedy has the power to achieve. To remove scars.

Ironically the same set saw me banned from every gig with an all women comedy outfit for being needlessly crude. It did wonders for my reputation. Just not with women on the scene i.e. those that can get you the jobs.
Men do what is easiest. Stupidity comes naturally to them. As does logic. The combination can make for a killer joke.
Unfortunately, women do what comes naturally for them too. To hide their true feelings.
Not from men, but from other woman, and that is the reason less women make it.
Shame on us.