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Jan Ravens headlines at Orange Tree Theatre
3rd February | 3 comments | 0 votes yet, click here to agree or disagree
Funny Women brought impressionist Jan Ravens to the Orange Tree Theatre in Richmond on Sunday – the theatre, which opened in 1971 has been entertaining loyal followers for years with its alternative shows and can boast the only theatre "in a round" in London. Far from giving the performers neck-ache, the layout creates a unique and intimate connection between performer and the audience, although the performer could feel an edge...
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Review – Domestic Goddi Present..
20th January | 0 comments | 0 votes yet, click here to agree or disagree
As a lover of all things retro, the competition to win a ‘70s Bionic Woman annual would have been enough to tempt me along to Domestic Goddi’s night of sketch, character and stand-up. As it happens the duo (BBC Comedy Award Winner Helen O’Brien and Stage Award nominee Genevieve Swallow) featured an enticing line-up of talent, alongside their own sketches, including if.comedy Newcomer nominee Pippa Evans and Funny Women Finalist...
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Shazia Mirza to headline first Funny Women Showcase of 2010
8th January | 0 comments | 0 votes yet, click here to agree or disagree
Happy New Year to everyone from Funny Women! Hope this finds you embracing your thermals and enjoying the snow-clad environment that surrounds us. Just noticed a rather forlorn-looking snowman in my next door neighbour's garden. Like many of us at this time of year he could probably do with some belly-aching laughs and japes. Tis a shame he can't pop down to our first Second Sunday Showcase of the year...
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Sarah Millican – Funny Women’s favourite of 2009
22nd December 2009 | 1 comments | 0 votes yet, click here to agree or disagree
"Women don't like to be competitive", satirist Jan Ravens wryly noted at the Funny Women Final 2009, but as it's the time of year when we're being subjected to 'Best this' and 'I love that' countdowns, which tend to feature the inane cultural insights of minor celebrities, it seemed an opportune moment to discover which comediennes have most tickled the fancy of comics here at Funny Women, as chosen by...
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Funny Women 2009 Winner to star in BBC Three pilot
18th December 2009 | 1 comments | 0 votes yet, click here to agree or disagree
The winner of the Funny Women Finals 2009, Miss London (aka Dionne Hughes), is to star in a new BBC Three pilot called Laughter Shock. The show, due to be screened in February of next year, will feature a mix of sketch and stand-up from 12 of the best new multicultural acts in the country, who are all making their debut television appearances.
Miss London, 20, has been busy filming the... -
Feeling the fear at Funny Women Showcase
27th November 2009 | 1 comments | 1 person likes this
Strangely, I didn’t feel too nervous about my inaugural appearance at the Funny Women Showcase in Leicester Square Theatre. In the run-up to any performance, the majority of the day is often spent worrying on the toilet and pining for a get-away car back to my best friend’s house where we can settle in for a night of hot chocolate and Miss Marple re-runs, (the ones starring Joan Hickson of...
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David Arnold and friends mix comedy and music in ‘Concert for CARE’
30th October 2009 | 0 comments | 0 votes yet, click here to agree or disagree
For one night only, Grammy Award-winning film composer David Arnold is putting together an evening of music and comedy with performances from a stellar medley of stars including, among others, Mark Ronson, David Walliams, Kaiser Chiefs, Dara O'Briain, Rob Brydon and 2009 Barclaycard Mercury Prize Winner Speech Debelle.
This one-off, live event, taking place at Brixton Academy, is in aid of CARE International, a leading humanitarian charity that fights global poverty. Arnold, who is an ambassador for... -
Abbie Cornish shines in Jane Campion’s new film, Bright Star
27th October 2009 | 1 comments | 1 person likes this
In her new film, Bright Star, Jane Campion tells the true story of the intensely passionate, yet restrained, love affair that developed between the young Romantic poet John Keats and fashion student Fanny Brawne, who literally was, while Keats lived in a house next to her in Hampstead, “the girl next door.”
There was nothing ordinary or commonplace about this relationship however. The affair sparked a prolific period of creativity for... -
Bob Slayer launches comedy night with Viz co-founder Simon Donald
16th October 2009 | 0 comments | 0 votes yet, click here to agree or disagree
Since the return of classic panel show Shooting Stars, host Bob Mortimer has commented that 'comedy feels serious now.' I'm inclined to agree with him. Although extremely funny, shows such as Mock The Week do, to quote Bob, have a 'spirit of competition and cynicism' and a sense of continual one-upmanship among contestants, reminiscent of the sophisticated style of comedy my parents would chortle away the evenings to on Radio...
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Miss London, the ‘Miss Dynamite of Comedy’, wins Funny Women Final 2009
23rd September 2009 | 3 comments | 1 person likes this
Satirical impressionist, and host of the Funny Women 2009 finals, Jan Ravens, wryly remarked at the start of the evening: “It’s not a competition of course, we don’t like to be competitive do we girls, competitive in a cooperative way perhaps…” No, of course we don’t, unless we’re enjoying a hearty, harmless game of lacrosse or netball, but to send up yet another stereotype of women, if this year’s finals...
CONTRIBUTOR
Charlotte Browne
Charlotte hails from the Georgian city of Bath, a beautiful but at times stifling place to grow up in. Tired of seeing the same old faces every time she went out (and, equally, they were probably a bit sick of seeing hers every Friday night too) she moved to London to pursue her dream of becoming a famous script writer. This goal is yet to be achieved but to distract herself from this failure she writes the occasional article for women's magazines, plays drums to vent rage and presents an irreverant and nonsensical show on hospital radio at The Royal London Hospital, where she gets to meet some lovely patients. Probably at her happiest dancing around the kitchen to Chic with a cleared surface to work with, she loves most genres of music but particularly stuff from the '70s as she reckons it was one of the most exciting and eclectic decades for music ever
