Funny Women Media

Prince Charles meets Funny Women

2010-06-29T08:12:00.000-07:00

I never thought I’d hear the words ‘Funny Women’ come out of the mouth of Royalty yet Saturday was a first when we had the honour of meeting Prince Charles!

We were invited to perform as part of the nationally celebrated Armed Forces Day in Cardiff Bay on Saturday 26th June – both in the Wales Millennium Centre and in the special Armed Forces Arena set up for the celebrations overlooking the wonderful Bay area of Cardiff, home to Doctor Who and Torchwood.

Anna Keirle, Suzy Bennett and Miss London disported themselves with pride amongst veterans, acting service men and the general public in a real display of patriotism improved greatly by the amazing hot weather. There were medals, muscles and ice-creams! Enough eye candy to satisfy a whole battalion of female comics!

I don’t know how many soldiers the girls recruited on the day – it was a bit like a real life enactment of the dating website, www.uniformdating.com, but they certainly supplied a bit of feminine sass in what was an immensely masculine display of pomp and splendour. Our particular thanks go to our lovely RAF boys in uniform, John and Greg, who looked after us – not sure if the girls smuggled 6’9” John home but I didn’t see him leave…

During our own ‘tour of duty’ the girls were asked to host an hour of entertainment for veterans in the Millennium Centre and in between piano playing and Welsh choirs, they engaged bemused onlookers with wit and charm.

Then it was the turn of HRH the Prince of Wales, who after making presentations to some veterans went walk about. I made sure that he stopped to talk to Anna, Suzy and London and introduced him to Funny Women. Sir was very generous with his time as he chatted with us and went on the comment that he’d clearly missed the ‘Best bit’ and liked the idea of Funny Women. Shame – next time Charlie!

Our focus then switched to the outside arena and all three acts impressed the crowds seated in the sweltering heat with comedy, dance moves and baton twirling – Suzy fulfilled a life-long dream to twirl her baton (a quickly improvised mop from backstage) in front of several thousand people, and London got the kids dancing along with her like Beyonce and JLS. Meanwhile Anna taught them how to spot a pirate hangover and encouraged more audience participating with a round of Mexican waves.

Miss London twittered throughout, see her commentary @funnymisslondon. In all an unforgettable day – now we have to get Prince Charles to a show!

Female comedy at heart of modern culture - Lynne at 10 Downing Street

2010-03-19T09:40:00.000-07:00

Recognition that female comedy is right at the heart of British culture was confirmed by my attendance at 10 Downing Street last night at the invitation of the Prime Minister for a reception to celebrate ‘women’s contribution to Britain’.

I was in esteemed company representing the full range of culture – I got to meet and talk to the goddess of comedy, Dawn French, chatted to young pop princess Duffy and conversed with the high priestess of contemporary art, Rachel Whiteread. It was all so fabulously informal that I didn’t even realise I was talking to Duffy until Fiona Phillips said her name during the course of our chat! She’s probably wondering why on earth she’s got a business card with Funny Women on it today but (just in case she reads this…) she did tell me that her twin sister is dead funny and should be in comedy.

As for Rachel Whiteread… well, in the cacophony of sound that can only be created by a roomful of women on full networking alert, I didn’t really work that one out until I mentioned to my A-level art-student daughter, Grace that I’d met an artist called Rachel White-something. ‘Oh no, not Rachel Whiteread, Mummy!' she exclaimed woefully. 'Omygod what did you say to her?!!!’. It was only then that I realised that I’d spoken to one of the most brilliantly innovative female sculptors of modern day art – in terms of artworld icons, Rachel is 'it' for me!

Being star struck is not part of the plan but when you do find yourself in a room full of some of Britain’s most powerful and influential women, you can allow yourself a little bit of self congratulation. This invitation was a reflection on what I have achieved with Funny Women in eight years. Comedy is not an easy thing to ‘sell’ and I did see a few eyes glaze over and wander over my shoulder to more tangible conversations beyond! Unless you are actually one of Britain’s funniest women, like Dawn French, the fact that you encourage, produce and develop new acts, may not be an obvious achievement.

My formula for some of the more successful conversations of last night lies in the fact that I believe comedy discipline is so close to political life. There’s the material to learn, strategies for dealing with hecklers and put downs, and of course the witticisms and jokes.

Lighthearted-ness is a winning strategy and both Gordon Brown and Harriet Harman who spoke at last night’s reception, are comfortable using humour in this environment and have got increasing bold about using a ‘set up and punch’ or two in their speeches. The presence of special advisor and former stand up, Ayesha Hazarika, in their lives may have an influence and she will now put this into practice herself as she sets off to explore her own political goals.

It’s good that more women are beating a path to the hustings for the forthcoming general election in May. Funny Women exists to give women their voice – not just on the comedy circuit but in real life as well. Learning how to use your innate sense of female humour will win you more votes. Authenticity does far more for you than an expensive suit or haircut. That assumes, of course, that the media back off on the fashion reviews.

On that front I will admit that I told Sarah Brown that I liked her shoes – they were gorgeously glamorous and it was a women’s event – but I’m guessing that I was one of only very few people in that crowded room uninhibited enough to talk to her about something so superficial. Sarah visibly relaxed given the opportunity to talk about something trivial after two hours of introductions, hand shaking and being directed around the room by her aides to achieve maximum charm levels. She is very good at this and will win votes for Gordon – plus she has the ability to talk about the normal humdrum stuff like husbands, kids and clothes which makes up the life of many women. The shoes were sending out a subliminal message of approachability.

I’ve done royalty, had tea with the Queen and now I’ve shaken the Prime Minister’s hand. There’s still all to play for. In the meantime it’s time to hit the road again for this year’s Funny Women Awards but if there are any budding female politicians out there who want some practise for the hustings, please get in touch!

Losers are the real winners – do competitions launch careers?

2010-03-19T03:20:00.000-07:00

Observing the success of several women who have come through the final of the Funny Women Awards and taken second, third or just a coveted place in the final, it says a lot about human ambition that being the apparent ‘loser’ often spurs you on to be the eventual ‘winner’.

Higher profile competitions encapsulating nascent talent on prime time television appear to prove the theory – X Factor’s JLS are doing pretty well for themselves having come second to Alexandra Burke in 2008, and I’m sure we’ll be seeing a lot more of heatthrob Olly Murs who came second to Joe McElderry in the 2009 X Factor, now that he’s also signed to Simon Cowell’s Sycho record label too. Famously Liberty X outlived their rival winners Hear’Say in the 2001 ITV reality talent show Popstars.

Something about coming second or even thinking you should have won can have the desired effect on your career. Talent can win out and never mind the persona. Take a lesson from Susan Boyle’s experience of being pipped to the top spot – less is expected of you for coming second and you do have to wonder if Susan could have coped with the pressure of being number one. She still has a multi million pound recording career at her finger tips and it gave talented dance group, Diversity a well deserved break.

The same has happened with the Funny Women Awards. Sarah Millican, who missed winning the 2005 Funny Women Awards by a nano point, has gone on to become one of the most sought after new female comics on the circuit, winning the Amused Moose competition the same year as the Funny Women Awards and latterly being dubbed as the ‘best newcomer’ in the ‘Eddies’ at last year’s Edinburgh Fringe.

Only just four years ago we were struggling to fill a room in Sarah’s home town of Newcastle with a touring show of female comedy acts. This is a real ‘if they could see me now’ story as Sarah has now performed to several million people with television appearances on Michael McIntyre’s Comedy Roadshow and Mock the Week, plus her own series on BBC Radio 4. Ultimately Sarah is the ‘winner’ because she’s living her dream, regardless of whether or not she won a competition.

And surely this is the point? I run the Funny Women Awards to give women the opportunity to perform comedy without the jibes and prejudices they may encounter on the unremittingly sexist comedy circuit. Although we have brought about a cultural change and it has become a different place from the circuit I first encountered eight years ago when I first launched the competition in 2003, some promoters remain resistant to booking female acts. Plus, ironically, the hardest people to please are female audiences! They tend to be the biggest critics of their own gender.

So how do we define ‘losing’? For me it’s when we fail to sell enough tickets to cover our costs and, the biggest sting of all, when our much celebrated sponsorship with Nivea fell through just over a year ago at the first bite of the recession. But that’s when the tough get going and necessity really is the mother of invention. I had so many women wanting to enter the Funny Women Awards it had to happen and a last minute minor sponsorship deal on the final from Boots, just about made it pay.

But just when you think all this is acceptable, there is another sting in the tail. Sponsorship, financial and in kind is still essential to keeping the Awards on the road. Yet, my harshest critics from within the industry have derided Funny Women as a ‘PR stunt’, a remark linked to the fact that over a period of six years we have ridden upon a wave of successful brand sponsorships with Babycham, Sheila’s Wheels, Avon, Nivea and Boots with supportive contributions from BA and the Londa Hotel in Cyprus, who continue to provide a holiday as first prize for the Funny Women Awards and hosts our touring show. Now we’re looking for sponsorship again but at least we’ve proved that we can survive (almost!) without.

I was even rather humiliatingly told by an established comic that she hoped that after five years there would be no more need for the Funny Women Awards as it ‘wouldn’t be necessary’ to encourage any more women to do stand up. The implication being that there would be quite enough, thank you!

Yet the odds continue to be stacked against female performers on the circuit who struggle for stage time. We have a waiting list for our regular Second Sunday showcase night at the Leicester Square Theatre and our entry rate for the competition rises year on year. We had over 100 registered for this year’s competition ahead of our launch.

Funny Women is surviving in restrained circumstances with the competition at its heart, and fueled by the lifeblood of new and innovative female comedy talent. Over 250 women participated in live shows during the run of the 2009 Funny Women Awards and we set off again in May taking in some new and wonderful locations as part of the drive to seek out the best new female comedy talent.

When I see great new female acts like Zoe Lyons, Susan Calman, Sarah Millican, Anna Crilly, Katy Wix, Sarah Pascoe, Andi Osho and our latest protégé, Miss London on the television, I feel pleased and proud that they’ve all graced the Funny Women stage along their way. We are just a small part of their success, and it’s good to celebrate the emergence of new talent.

Ultimately it doesn’t matter about the winning or the losing. It’s about making it happen.

The Secret of the 44 Inch Chest

2010-01-18T02:49:00.000-08:00

No, not another breast augmentation headline about Jordan, or the latest in the Pirates of the Caribbean series, but the latest gangster movie from the same writers as Dirty Beast, starring Ray Winstone.

Now this is the sort of film I know I need to see but am never sure I will like. I wasn’t sure for the first 40 minutes which I spent (I admit) flinching at the frequent use of certain derogative feminine expletives but, by the end of the initial tirade, this became part of the film’s context and I was laughing along with the ridiculous humour of the language and the action.

44 Inch Chest is part Beckett, part Berkoff in its composition – a staged piece of theatre on a screen. In a nod to its genre, Steven Berkoff even makes a guest appearance as a slightly murky gambling associate of the devilishly gay Meredith, played brilliantly by Ian McShane of Deadwood and Lovejoy fame.

The tale is Chaucerian in its simplicity. A cuckolded husband, a wanton wife and a young lover. The wife (Joanna Whalley) of lead character Colin (Ray Winstone), cheats on him. You are in anticipation of an escalating display of violence in the style of Dirty Beast and indeed the action leads you in that direction.

Colin found seemingly left for dead by his loyal mate, Archie (Tom Wilkinson) is beside himself with grief at his wife’s infidelity and the gang, dubiously drawn together by some clandestine and (we assume) criminal trade, decide on retribution. The capture of Loverboy, his trial by the gang and the denouement, is peppered with colourful dialogue straight out of Derek and Clive and helpless inactivity by way of Steptoe & Son and Til Death Do Us Part.

The action focuses around two main sets; the lead characters Ponda Rosa style suburban home and a scuzzy boarded up back street den with whisky stashed in a dirty kitchenette and an ominous wardrobe.

The resulting theatrical event is masterful. The whole relying on the exquisiteness of the individual performances. If it doesn’t win an over all Award, there must be some for individual performances which are hard to single out.

I particularly enjoyed the Steptoe-esque Peanut, (John Hurt) whose attempts at being ‘hard’ verge on pathos but who positions himself as a colourful raconteur when given to tell the story of Samson and Delilah, illustrated wonderfully with clips of the 1949 film featuring Hedy Lamarr & Victor Mature. A master stoke which contrasted with Technicolor clarity against the bleakness of the ugly squat in which they had imprisoned their unfortunate prey.

Loverboy never gets to cut off his hair or bring down the temple and to tell you more would spoil the pleasure of the tale as it unfolds. 44 Inch Chest is a dark parable of our times, a journey through man’s inhumanity to man, an updated, ‘big boy’ version of Lord of the Flies, with one beautiful woman thrown in for good measure. I loved it.

Not Just a Pretty Face

2009-12-30T11:17:00.000-08:00

In a world where a woman can still be raped up to 40 times a day as a consequence of a seemingly invisible war, it’s inconceivable that we in Western society churn out a diet of media that encourages women, and men albeit to a lesser degree, to preen, prod and promote ourselves for the purposes of attracting the opposite sex. I am not condemning women’s magazines for providing us with an endless dialogue about cosmetics, fashion and celebrity because content is revenue driven, but wouldn’t it be good if the big media brands took some responsibility and helped us to change this culture?

As the mother of a 17 year old daughter and a 21 year old son, I have witnessed first hand the difference between male and female expectation, even though I’ve tried to give both my children a healthy, non-sexualised perspective of the world, as has my husband. Not every child is privileged to have this balance and I would like to see the media taking steps to devolve attention away from the impossibly glamorous world inhabited by a seemingly alien race of thin, nipped, tucked, and airbrushed individuals. You know – the world where everybody has a trout pout, inflated breasts and a permanent expression of surprise? We may not believe it is real but if we promote it long and hard enough, the next generation just might.

What has happened to getting an education, being interested in science and politics, or just good old-fashioned entrepreneurship? Even they have to be garnished with the same sort of tinsel town magic to get page space. Where is this virtual world where everybody is a celebrity and nobody ever grows old? Even Susan Boyle has been plucked, slimmed and coiffed within an inch of her life just so that Simon Cowell can get even richer. At least he’s an entrepreneur even if his commodity is fame and celebrity!

It’s time to start changing the culture. It’s not enough to just be a pretty face. I am not suggesting that we all start growing out our body hair and stop using deodorant but there is more to life than a regular leg wax and the latest Dove commercial even if it does feature ‘real women’… yeah, right.

The world is not the unblemished CGI’d version we see on our screens, both small and wide. It has lots of warts and pimples and rather than cover them up we should be finding a way to bring the really ugly ones to a head.

Mass rape in the Democratic of Congo is not a myth – it’s ugly and real and happening every day. Yet it doesn’t get the media coverage that the death of every British or American soldier in Iraq rightly generates. Why is this? Is it such a huge invisible problem that the world doesn’t know how to deal with it?

Why do women and children get duped and trafficked into prostitution? Another unseen horror of our world today. I know full well that stories about this sort of thing doesn’t sell glossy magazines but with the on-line accessibility of the worldwide web, maybe big titles could extend their hard pages into virtual activity to help to build bridges and counteract some of the on-line atrocities of our age with positive action.

Cultural change is aided and abetted by those things that reflect our various cultures – like media, music, art, film, theatre and sport. My call to action is to get those big media brands and their owners together to see how we can start to rid the world of it’s ugliest ‘habits’ for death, destruction, rape and torture.

No amount of make-up or six inch heels is going to protect a woman from a predator, but having an education and an opinion about something other than lipstick will at least give her self respect and at best open up a world where freedom and opportunity exist.

Funny Women go large at Butlins

2009-08-13T04:15:00.000-07:00

How things have changed since my childhood – reassuringly the redcoats and the non-stop entertainment are still there but now Butlins comes along with a luxury hotel room, stylish restaurant and a fabulous spa!

Butlins has just opened its second hotel on its Bognor Regis resort, the Ocean Hotel. I was part of a team of parent bloggers who all write about the joys of having kids, bringing up a family and parenting issues. As a middle aged parent well past the nappies and buggies stage, I was reminded of the pain and pleasure of holidaying with younger children, toddlers and babies. This is the litmus test for any holiday brand that pitches to the family market and with the credit crunched middle classes taking a bashing, holidays in the UK are the ‘new black’ for the travelling cognoscenti.

I was brought up in the Butlins holiday tradition and our family fully embraced the dream set out by the eponymous Billy. As kids we loved the jolly redcoats who looked after us and let us throw them in the swimming pool day after day, we watched in awe at the dancers, magicians and sometimes famous pop groups who entertained us in the evening. We planned our holiday around what competitions we would enter and take suitcases full of extra towels and sheets to meet any fancy dress brief we might receive during our stay.

My proudest Butlins moment was winning the children’s talent competition at just four years old singing, ‘I’ve got sixpence’. Soon after this win was immortalised in our family history because I then actually swallowed a real sixpence… long story but it involved a careful lip balancing trick and a butchers in Sheperds Bush. Plus, yes, I am old enough to remember pounds, shillings and pence.

Back to today and enough of the nostalgia. Butlins are smart to be targeting the staycation market. The new hotels, the latest Ocean and the established Shoreline, clearly cater for those families who want to mix the activity and entertainment with the comfort and convenience of a hotel environment to make their stay even more special.

The Ocean Hotel’s spa is a fabulous addition to the holiday offer and clearly a child free zone for stressed parents –take the grandparents along to babysit or book the kids into the on site nursery while you chill out, which you can do quite literally in the spa’s second only snow room in the UK. The icey environment stimulates circulation and is part of the whole spa experience.

Now I can’t wait to go back – with teenage daughter in tow so that we can enjoy some girly time in the spa together. Butlins will never be the same again but it doesn’t cloud the happy childhood memories.

2009-08-12T10:28:00.000-07:00

There’s a definite ‘women on top’ about this year’s Fest. The very funny Susan Calman organised a photocall in Edinburgh yesterday with 81 female comedy performers to prove that women are not an invisible commodity. But are things going to really change?

Let’s not forget that only two women have ever won the coveted Eddie (formerly Perrier) Award and nominations for female acts have remained woefully thin on the ground. This is surprising since the freedom that the Fringe affords women to perform live comedy means that there is talent a plenty to choose from.

Seven years on since setting up Funny Women in 2002 and we’re still having to tell the world that women are funny. I’m not trying to prove anything – Funny Women is more about celebrating talent and campaigning more universally for women to have a voice than it is about ball breaking comedy.

So let’s just get on with it. Those of us involved with comedy know that there are some brilliantly funny women out there – we’ve seen over 200 news acts already this year and will be rounding up the best of them for our semi finals in London on 7th September. We will continue to showcase female comedy whatever happens in Edinburgh this year.

2009-04-16T11:22:00.001-07:00

OK so I'm blogging. What the hell do I write about?!!!