Funny Girls Zine

FUNNY GIRLS liv jones

Welcome to Funny Girls, where we champion women in comedy and explore the UK stand up scene.

3. Rachel Fairburn

5. Sophie Duker

7. The trouble with panel shows

9. Mary O’Connell

12. Funny Women

13. What does America have to offer British comedians?

15. Fatiha El-Ghorri

17. All female comedy nights

19. Rosie Holt

21. Club guide

Rachel

@rachelfairburn

One half of the ‘All Killa No Filla’ podcast duo, Rachel is a comedy circuit veteran with six solo shows under her belt.

When Rachel and Kiri-Pritchard

McLean started the podcast in 2014, it was rare for two female comedians to be on the same bill - “it was sort of a sexist environment”

Speaking to Broadway World, Rachel theorises that AKNF is so popular due to the background soap opera of their friendship, the way women talk to each other is refreshing and relatable.

The pair explained that they felt a bit silly starting a podcast, as all of the popular comedy podcasts were made by men.

Fairburn

Rachel is a multimedia comedy success story, and the impact of the podcast on her stand up career has been massive. An inherently shy person, the podcast has greatly improved her confidence as a person and performer.

Rachel features on the BBC documentary Victoria Wood’s Secret List, discussing Wood’s impact on her career and comedy.

As her most recent tour ‘Showgirl’ wraps up, Rachel is looking to move into character comedy.

2013-16

Working as a researcher on various tv shows

Before Sophie was on our screens, she was behind them! Researching, writing, and assistant producing on comedy shows before going on to host and guest star!

2015

‘Funny Women’ award finalist.

2016-17

Founds and hosts the ‘Manic Pixie Dream Girls’ show at EdFringe with comedian Erin Simmons. With a different headliner every day, the show aims to ‘bring atypical acts to the forefront and big-up female and non-binary comics’. All profits go to the charity Women Against Rape.

Following her previous solo shows, ‘Venus’ & ‘Hag’, Sophie promises her most delusional performance yet. Her brand new Edinburgh Fringe show ‘But Daddy I Love Her’ is playing at the Pleasance Courtyard from July 31st to August 25th! Tickets can be purchased on the Pleasance website.

@sophiedukebox

duker

2018-192021

Sophie is an assistant producer on ‘Frankie Boyle’s New World Order’

2024

See for yourself!

Quits female-led panel show ‘Yesterday, Today, and The Day Before’ after censorship of her proPalestine monologue.

2022

Wins Taskmaster series 13

The trouble with panel shows

Comedy panel shows have historically struggled with finding a balance between male and female guests...

A 2016 study by data scientist Stuart Lowe found that between 1967 and 2016, 1,488 of the 4,700 panel show episodes aired featured an all-male cast. In those 49 years, there was only one episode with an allfemale cast – a 2012 episode of Victoria Coren Mitchell’s BBC Radio 4 show Heresy.

In 2014, the BBC announced that it would no longer produce all-male comedy panel shows, committing to increasing on screen representation of women to meet objectives set by the BBC Trust

Mock the Week, which aired its final episode in November 2022, was frequently labelled a boy’s club.

Comedians Katherine Ryan and Jo Brand have both spoken out against the show’s lack of diversity –find out why Katherine quit the show!

On one episode of QI, Sandi Toksvig comments on how rare it is to be sat next to another female comedian. When there is more than one woman on a panel, they will often be sat separately.

In 2019, YouTube user Rachel Baker combed through every episode of Mock The Week available online and found no clips of two women sat next to each other.

One user has created an online database tracking gender representation on a range of UK panel shows. It’s updated regularlycheck it out here!

Mary O’Connell in discussion with Meet Mary, a rising star of comedy fresh off a Soho Theatre run of her show ‘Money Princess’.

Hastheindustry changed significantly since you startedcomedy?

‘The industry feels very different, it’s a lot more ageist now I’d say. What the beauty of stand up was, was that anyone could do it at any age. But now the industry feels exclusionary to people above a certain age. Also the pandemic changed a lot. We didn’t know what would happen with live so lots of people turned to online content which was probably always going to happen but the pandemic sped this up. Stuff that works for live doesn’t always work for online and vice versa but I really admire the creativity of the comics who are able to do both.’

Could you share your experience of navigating theindustryasawoman?

‘Navigating the industry as a woman is hard. It takes longer to build community because often you could be the only woman on the lineup. You have to be better to be thought of as being just as good as the guys. You can feel audiences tense up when the first female act is on because inherently a woman is still not a ‘safe pair of hands’. It’s still quite a sexist, backwards industry, with no real HR or anything. Sorry to sound bleak! More people run their own nights so there’s agency that way but there’s still so much work to be done.’

Any advice you could give to aspiring femalecomedians?

‘For upcoming female comedians I would say try to make friends with other female comics. They’re the only people who have an understanding of what it’s like for you. Try to focus on your craft, do it for the love of it. Everyone has bad gigs but what you realise is that even if you ‘died’ it didn’t actually kill you, so just do it again. You don’t need to be apologetic, or likeable to be funny. Try to do it your own way, everyone is going to have advice about the ‘right way’ to have a stand up career but try to do it in a way that works for you. Try to start straight away, just throw yourself into it because in order to do stand up you just have to do it.’

funny women

Since 2002, ‘Funny Women’ has been providing a platform for emerging female comedians.

The annual Funny Women awards has categories in Stage, Comedy Writing, Comedy Shorts, and Content Creation. The competition offers exciting and career-changing prizes.

funny women

They hold events across Europe, as well as onlin, so keep an eye out on their website.

funnywomen.com

Funny Women has created a thriving community in a historically male dominated space, offering mentorship and fostering connection between like-minded people.

what does America have to offer british comedians?

Comedians Gina Yashere and London Hughes moved from the UK to LA in 2007 and 2019 respectively, with both seeing a huge boom in their careers following the decision.

In the UK, both women had countless experiences with successful auditions that ultimately led nowhere due to the systemic racism within British media institutions.

inayashere

In a 2020 discussion with the Guardian, they compare their experiences and reflect on their careers.

YoucanreadGina’s book ‘Cack-Handed: A Memoir’ now, and watch out for her show ‘Bob Hearts Abishola’ on streaming platforms.

“Women in comedy get TV shows if they have experience. Men get them if they have potential”

Despite London winning the Funny Women award in 2009, her career over the next decade never quite pushed her to the heights she deserved. She describes women, especially black women, as being an afterthought in the British comedy scene., emphasising that there are more opportunities for female comedians in America.

“England!

What is wrong with you? How dare you make me feel like I wouldn’t make it when I had all this talent in me. To this day, I tell anyone who is not a white man who is trying to make it in comedy in Britain to leave.”

You can watch London’s Netflix special ‘How To Catch A D*ck’, or read her book ‘Living My Best Life, Hun’ now.

Gina

says that the glass ceiling is a lot higher in America.

@thelondonhughes

FATIHA El-ghorri

Fatiha started doing stand-up in 2015 after her second divorce, in a bid to do something for herself. Just two years later she was a finalist in the 2017 Funny Women Awards, and since 2020 she has been a staple on British panel shows.

She is currently performing her Work In Progress Show, Cockney Stacking Doll, at venues around the country, with a full UK tour surely coming soon.

“smashing the stereotypes people have of Muslim, hijabi women”

In 2024, Fatiha performed around the UK as 1/6 of the Comedy Queens – Shazia Mirza, Yasmin Elhady, Ola Labib, Fathiya Saleh, and Zain Shami. ‘A pioneering female only Halal comedy tour’ that sold out within hours and is now going global due to popular demand.

In a recent Guardian article, Shazia Mirza lays out the importance of the Comedy Queens. They are writing the history of Muslim comedy in real time and impac ting the changing narrative around Muslim women in the UK.

‘We’re the Muslim Spice Girls!’ Shazia Mirza on finding box office gold with her halal comedy supergroup

As well as keeping an eye out for more Comedy Queens dates and future Funny Women live shows, here are some more all female comedy nights across the UK.

FOC IT UP!

Founded by Kemah Bob, the Femmes of Colo(u)r ComedyClub,isdescribed as ‘an unapologetic celebration of comedians ofcolourthatarenotcismen’. Their next live shows are the 12th and 13th of July at Soho Downstairs in London, or you can listen to the FOC ITUP!podcast.

Fem de la Femme

The Fem de la Femme comedy night runs every fourth Thursday of the month at the Liverpool Everyman Bistro. Showcasing female comics and poetsforjust‘theprice of a posh pint’, the show is always sure to selloutsobequick!

Femmes & Thems

A quarterly night at the Frog and Bucket in Manchester,Femmes&Themsisashowcase forfemaleandnonbinarycomedy.

LOL: Ladies of Laughter

This tour promises a fresh mix of talent at each show, it has upcoming dates in Hayes, Birmingham,andManchester.

Female comedians

touring the UK this year:

Fern Brady: I Gave You Milk To Drink

Katherine Ryan: Battleaxe

Tatty McLeod: Fugue

Laura Smyth: Living My Best Life

Catherine Bohart: Again, With

Feelings

Harriet Kemsley: Everything Always Works Out For Me

Grace Campbell Is On Heat

Jenny Éclair: Jokes, Jokes Jokes Live!

Kiri Pritchard McLean: Peacock

Lucy Beaumont: The Trouble and Strife

Maisie Adam: Appraisal

Rachel Parris: Poise

Ria Lina: Riawakening

Sarah Millican: Late Bloomer

Sikisa: Hear Me Out

@rosieisaholt

ROS

Rosie shot to fame in 2020, going viral with satirical videos on Twitter during the pandemic.

She performs sketches as a suspiciously convincing out-of-touch Tory MP, with many actually believing her to be a politician. Having previously dabbled in stand up alongside other work, the pandemic led her to this successful online niche.

Rosie’s type of comedy flourishes in the current political landscape, the general public are frustrated with the government and need something to laugh at.

SIE

The online material has translated well into stand-up, with Rosie adding two more characters on her UK tour: That’s Politainment! You can catch it around the country until May 31st

One of these additional characters, the right-wing talk show host Harriet LangleySwindon, can also be found hosting the NonCensored podcast.

Her new book “Why We Were Right”, an ironic ‘catalogue of Conservative successes’ is due in July 2024.

1.Comedy Garden by heycar hosts festivals in Brighton, St Albans, Bristol, and Cambridge, bringing together the biggest names for a weekend of laughs.

2.Manchester’s award winning Frog and Bucket is the full package,asalongsidetheshow you can order a range of food fromtheirdeliciousmenu.

club

3.The Stand has venues in Glasgow, Edinburgh, and Newcastle. Their weekly ‘Red Raw’ new comedy nights are legendary.

5. Glee Clubs in Birmingham, Cardiff, Nottingham, Glasgow, andOxfordarehometomixedbill nightsandbignamesoloshows.

4.Top Secret Comedy Club in Covent Garden keeps their lineup on lockdown. With tickets as cheap as £1, audiences put their trust in the club as comedians are revealedactbyact. guide check