Laughing Cows Comedy Night ushers in Laughing Calves

“Funnily enough”, if you type ‘Funny Women’ into a search engine, you’ll find more material debating whether women can actually be funny or not, than a glossary of the funniest women in the world popping up. Although I realise, with that dreadful opening pun, I’m not exactly helping women’s case much here either. In all seriousness though, the world of comedy is still a very male-dominated one, with Nica Burns, director and producer of the Intelligent Finance Comedy Awards (formally known as The Perrier) commenting that only 15% of the 400 acts eligible for the awards this year are women.

This is also reflected in comedy shows such as Mock The Week and QI; as great as they are, they seem to only ever have one “token bird” on their panels, who often appear to be a little bit dewy-eyed and somewhat slightly cowed by having to cope with being surrounded by so many hilarious men. (I mean come on, let’s at least let them have some other girls to talk about kittens with!) Ok, so I omit Jo Brand from this description, never is she cowed.

Statistically though, there are far less women ‘doing’ or involved in comedy than men, and the reasons behind this are often complex and open for debate. Some would argue they stem from women’s long-held beliefs as to how society expects them to behave – women shouldn’t be ‘vulgar’ or outrageous or draw attention to themselves and really,  it would be far more beneficial to develop more feminine and demure ways of attracting Mr Darcy, leaving the acerbic and quick-fired wit  to the boys.

However, the view that women simply are not that funny has been ingrained in certain comedy circles for years and it’s one that Hazel O’Keefe challenged after a promoter told her he would never ‘risk’ having more than one woman a night perform on his bill. In 2004 she set up the Laughing Cows Comedy Night which provides an all-female line-up of comedy helping female comics to develop and nurture their talent and redress the balance. It’s still going strong across London, Birmingham, Manchester, Leicester and the Edinburgh Fringe, and the night has since set up Laughing Calves which also gives fledgling comediennes the chance to tread the traditionally male-dominated boards.

Up and coming talent Pippa Evans, 27, won Best Newcomer at the Fringe; women will not just appear overnight but that more and more will emerge as part of an evolutionary process and eventually become household names. I personally look foward to this as I continue to witness more women becoming comfortable with exercising their ‘funny bones’ and exploring this side of themselves.

However, as one of the performers myself at the last Laughing Calves night in London, I must confess that I do struggle to make people laugh. Er, no, I do make them laugh, honestly yes I do, but before I go on stage, as well as the inevitable heart thudding like an angry baboon in my head experience, (which I think the majority of novice comics get, whatever gender) and the sudden desire to rush to my mother’s knee like a startled four year-old forced against their will to be an angel in the nativity play, I do sometimes imagine her reproach or see her wincing in the aisles as well: “Oh Charlotte, that was a bit vulgar”; then looking at me as if to say “er, yes, are you sure you don’t want to be a teacher?” This would all of course, be linked to her views of the ‘proper’ and ‘improper’ ways in which women should behave, nothing to do with me just not being funny..