Women Stand Up

A writer for the Scotsman had the temerity to claim that we were suffering a dearth of female comedians. ‘Are men really funnier than women?’ he asked.

This was the last straw for Glasgow comic Susan Calman, who decided to have a round up of all the women comedians out there and get some photographic evidence of their hitherto debated existence.

Fortunately this was August, a time when there tend to be quite a lot of comedians around. A time of 11:30 in the morning may have been a little early for the discerning Fringe performer, but even with the amount of no-shows for reason of hangovers, shows clashes and previous engagements, 80 funny women showed up to sit on the steps at Hullaballoo and yell ‘Cunt!’ to the waiting photographers.

There are inarguably fewer women than men out there doing it, and one theory which holds is that women are more likely to know when to give up, meaning the average quality of female comedians is in fact going to be higher. Here are our top five of the very many female comedians you can see around Scotland this September.

Susan Calman

Fresh from her successful Fringe run at the Underbelly, Calman, the brains behind the female comic photoshoot, can be seen at venues across the country this September.

JoJo Sutherland

Look out for Scottish comedy mother Sutherland gigging all over the place this month, starting with the LOL comedy club in Kirkcaldy on 1 September.

Susan Morrison

Morrison is frequently to be found hosting weekend shows at The Stand, as well as at new night Electric Tales, in collaboration with the Storytelling Centre.

Elaine Malcolmson

This quirky and loveable Northern Irish comic has been All Kinds of Everything with Niall Browne at the Stand over August and now she’s back standing alone at gigs all over Scotland.

Viv Gee

Frequent comedy tutor who has worked with both Sutherland and Malcolmson, Gee’s own work can be seen DAM Fine Comedy in Glasgow every Friday