Michele A’Court
Think you’re funny?? You probably are! Why not get out there and try stand-up comedy? Well-known comedian/comedienne? Michele A’Court offers advice if you’re thinking of giving it a go.
I remember a thousand years ago (okay, seven) when I started doing stand-up comedy in Auckland, that I would walk out on stage at Kitty O'Brien's and hear the audience thinking, "Oh, it's a girl, this won't be funny".
The perception was that women used comedy as a soap box to score feminist points. It could, of course, be argued that men might have been using comedy to score misogynist points, but that's always been a whole lot more acceptable. The reality was that women had a barrier to break through every time they took the stage.
At each gig, I guessed I had about 30 seconds to win them over. Generally, this was achieved by saying something so filthy they'd be shocked into paying attention.
Times have changed (though I still enjoy being filthy). Audience experience of women stand-ups over the last few years has been positive, and there's no longer any need to apologise up-front for not having a penis. During this year's TV2 International Laugh! Festival, the Divas shows - a showcase for women of the festival - saw capacity audiences over two nights in each city. Chick comedy sells tickets.
But there are still only a handful of women doing stand-up - which is why ALL the women can fit into one festival show. The NZ Comedy Guild, the union which represents stand-up comedians throughout the country, has a database of about 60 performers, only eight of whom are women.
So why is stand-up comedy still, in numerical terms at least, a boys' domain? Inside my tiny little comedy head, I'm playing with a couple of theories.
The first is about the nature of stand-up - that it's not naturally suited to the female psyche, and so only a few strange women would find it appealing.
It's not a theory I entirely subscribe to, but it has some merit. Stand-up is a solo performance genre - just you, the microphone and the audience. While women have a fine history of comedy in this country, it has tended to express itself through character comedy and ensemble pieces (like the successful Hen's Teeth shows or the early '90s Exposed tours), and music (When the Cat's Been Spayed, Manic Opera). To put it
crudely, women like playing dress-ups and our creative ventures are often inspired by the fun we have with each other.
I used to buy the idea that women are turned off by the aggressive nature of stand-up - demanding focus, taking the piss, and slamming hecklers - but not anymore. For one thing, there are plenty of male comedians here and overseas who are gentle and non-confrontational with their audiences. For another, I don't see much evidence that women are all that shy when it comes to verbal sparring, on or off stage.
The second theory is about the nature of women - that we only stick with things we think we're going to succeed at. A lot of young women give stand-up a shot - at the Class Clowns workshops run in secondary schools during this year's Laugh! festival, most of the contenders were women, and a woman won the final competition. But chances are, the women who didn't achieve immediately will find some other way of releasing their creativity.
It's the same at professional level - women don't stay if success looks unlikely. There are five women at the professional level of stand-up comedy, and you'll have seen all of them regularly on TV2's Pulp Comedy. Of the fifty-odd men playing the comedy circuit, less than half are of a standard that gets them regularly onto Pulp, and only about eight make their living through stand-up (not so different from the number of women). Women are well-represented in the "successful" group, but not so well-represented in the "also-rans".
It's also worth saying that women are fully involved in the stand-up comedy industry as promoters, publicists, producers, and venue managers. The Laugh! Festival director has always been a woman, and staff have been predominantly female. When it comes to being pro-active about getting stand-up on stage, women play a vital role.
That fact blows any theory that women aren't welcomed into the comedy industry. Sure, you will find us bitching occasionally that venue operators will only book one female comedian per night (some strange belief that women are the ‘carbohydrates of comedy’, and you can't have rice AND potatoes in one sitting). But comedy is a great leveller - you get support and you get gigs if you're good.
So is there any difference between "comedy" and "women's comedy"? The short answer is, "Don't be so ridiculous, you patronising wanker." There is a popular perception that women do a lot of boy-bashing and period jokes. There's another parallel perception that men do a lot about cocks and farting. (Though women right now are doing a lot about cocks, and men have largely cornered the tampon joke market.)
Whatever the perceptions, the reality is that ALL comedians talk about life from their own perspective - the things that make them angry, the things they find absurd, their personal experience, whatever occupies their mind. A fair amount of my material written during my marriage, the birth of my daughter, and my divorce was about exactly those things. Some of it was also about television and rugby - two other passions of the time. But I remember a review of a show I did in Wellington a couple of years ago which said I was "at my funniest" when I "steered clear of tampon jokes". I didn't actually do a tampon joke that night - in fact, I hadn't done one for about four years. Sometimes, people inflict their own perceptions on your work.
Women who do comedy are not an homogenous group. We have different styles, different experiences, and very different approaches. I do think it's fair to say that women are currently often doing "micro" comedy as opposed to "macro" comedy - how crazy THEIR world is rather than how crazy THE world is, and there's absolutely nothing wrong with this. But I get disturbed when I see new female faces arriving on the scene with a five minute set about their boyfriend, or how they can't get one. I'd love to see a woman do a set that makes no reference to her gender or her relationship - hell, I'd love to see ME do that! Which is why that's the challenge I've set myself for 2001.
My advice to any women wanting to give stand-up a crack?
In Auckland, there are good, safe places for anyone - male or female - to make their
debut: Raw nights at the Classic, Outspoken nights at the Temple; in Dunedin there are regular comedy nights at Fuel; and Wellington's comedy scene is blossoming. The NZCG has a website you can contact to find out more: http://www.nzcomedyguild.org.nz