Burn your bra?

Last night was the 5th anniversary of Long Live Comedy at the Dog and Parrot in Newcastle. For those of whom don't know of it, it's an open mike night for new acts to give comedy a bash and for existing acts to try out new material. On the bill was Geroge Zach as MC, Gavin Webster, Andy Fury, John Scott and Kai Humphries as well as myself and Callum Cram. There was another guy who I haven't met before who had lots of silly props, he was fun. Callum (as resident sound man) had lots of silly intro music which made me laugh before the gags even began. It was an absolute cracker of a night. One of Gav's songs were stuck in my head for the rest of the night, he's a little bit awesome.

I performed a 5 minute set, the same set as I did at the North Shore gig the night before. It was well received, still room for improvement though (as Rebecca Stevenson might say) after each gig I try to tweak my material, its all part of the learning curve, the stage is my school.

I managed to get a couple decent shots of the acts, I bailed before the last section though my bed was calling me. Zach took a couple of me, most of them were blurry never mind pfft!

Upon leaving the gig I was stopped by a couple at the door. They excitedly began telling me how much they enjoyed my set, my feelings however, altered from feeling flattered to being extremely annoyed and this is why:

"Oh man I have got to say that for a FEMALE comedian you are really F***ing funny!" said the female audience member 

I realised that if I had of punched her at that moment she'd be more shocked than anything else, so I decided to politely thank her then walk away. I mean you wouldn't go up to a doctor and say:

"you are a really good doctor considering you're gay"

"hey Martin Luther King, you're a canny president for a black guy"

(he was black wasn't he?)

 I appreciate that there aren't very many female acts on the circuit and that there's a stigma against comediennes. I have not set out to prove anything I'm not on a "women are hilarious" campaign, nor am I an extreme feminist. The fact that I don't have a willy doesn't come in to the equation, the successful male acts on the circuit, do they get their comedy power from their tadgers? (some might) comedy comes from your perspective of the world around you and a level sensitivity as to what others find funny. I'm not about to burn my bra as its a nice la senza one and they don't come cheap. 

Women audience members are a female comics biggest challenge. In the first 10 seconds of being on stage you are being picked apart visually, with in that time frame people decide whether they like you or not. If you focus on this fact then you'll go insane with paranoia, so I just get up there and enjoy myself despite my lack of a schlong. 

I was approached by a lady from the BBC the other day who is wanting to prove that women can be funny. She wanted me to say my favourite joke. I told her that my stand up stuff doesn't work like that and it'll just sound out of context and weird. She then asked me who my favourite TV stand up was my reply:

"I don't think that stand up WORKS on TV, I prefer live comedy with an intimate audience.."

In retrospect I don't think this was the best thing to say to a BBC person. Cack.