FunnyWomen spat.

A little henfight broke out over the decision by Funnywomen to charge £15 entry to the FunnyWomen awards. As they have no sponsorship for this years awards they decided to charge a £15 entry and there was a a backlash from a few women comedians some of whom have been associated with FunnyWomen like Jo Caulfield and Shappi Khorsandi. I think it is fair enough to make this nominal charge when you consider what you have to pay to put on a show at The Fringe.

The situation of women within the testosterone and usually alcohol fuelled ghetto of the comedy club circuit and the commercial, corporate venues  is so dire. This charging for the Funnywomen showcases, to cover costs, cannot be compared with it. Despite defensive whimpering from male comedians like Dara O’Briain, Richard Herring, male comedy critics and venue impressarios wanting more women in comedy they have done fuck all about it and refuse to consider putting on all women bills/panels to help encourage women AND change the cockfight ethos that is the norm within the all male/mainly male domination of comedy. Those guys like Minchin, Addison etc, should butt out of this henfight until they can come up with alternative,  supportive ways of encouraging and keeping women in their ghetto.

Of course, I have my own beef with FunnyWomen as it does little to continue to support and help their hundreds of women entrants to go beyond their measly five minute showcase.  FunnyWomen is also playing the mainstream corporate game which is so very youth oriented.

I can not understand why the saga demographic is not been catered for. We have the money but we do not want to go to grotty pub/club gigs. We are a more sophisticated, want comfort and more variety in our entertainment. Comedy has got trapped and needs to be released back into its natural variety/cabaret  entertainment habitat. If Lynn Parker is still in the business when she joins the saga/hip op generation she might then begin to respond and start to encourage and give space to funny oldie women to tickle our fancy. Despite her claim to being passionate about empowering women why the hell isn’t she running comedy workshops for older women. Is she afraid that we will become saga louts and enjoy growing old disgracefully?

SHEELA NA -GIG GIGGED for IRISH ATHEIST STUDENTS in CORK and DUBLIN.

SHEELA-NA-GIG is off to Ireland for a working holiday as I shall be doing two student gigs. The recently formed atheist student societies have different titles. In Cork at UCC they are the Atheist Society, in University College Dublin they are the Humanist Society but,  in Galway my Alma Mater, they are the Skeptics  Society.

I had contacted these societies because I had written an article for HUMANIST IRELAND  in response to a misogynistic piece stating that atheists are “male, well educated, between 25 and 35, sarcastic and individualistic” . Of course, I was well aware that atheist/secularist  societies are very male dominated and that was why I decided to contact the burgeoning student societies to see if this was their experience and asking what they were doing to try to address this. This is why the UCC and UCD societies invited me to gig.  But I got no reply from Galway Skeptics and wondered if this is because their committee is, indeed, all male – Niall, Patrick, Aaron, George and Shane.

As I was doing the Cork and Dublin gigs and going to be based in Galway in  between I got in touch with the NUIGalway Skeptics Society again to offer to do one for them but again no reply at all. I emailed the NUIG student magazine and the societies office to see if they could help with the mystery of the unresponsive Galway Skeptics. I said I wondered if it is ‘cos I is an old woman’.   The editor kindly reassured me that he didn’t think it was because they were sexist!

So, what is the explanation for their behaving like a masonic secret society or Opus Dei. Is their skepticism making them unable to make decisions about how to respond to emails? Are they paranoid about an inquiry from someone calling herself SHEELA-NA-GIG. Goodness knows!

I am looking forward to gigging back in Ireland especially for young, enthusiastic, energetic atheists who will go forth to challenge all the piseog and supernaturalism that abounds in Ireland and beyond.  There will be a Q&A looking at  HUMANISM V ATHEISM and GENDER in ATHEIST SOCIETIES. I will be reporting back.