Funny Women: Money Women?

All-female comedy award, Funny Women, launched in 2002 as an attempt to put right the under-representation of women in comedy. Whilst initially supported by many acts, its reputation has gone rapidly downhill in recent years.

Although Funny Women style themselves as a feminist organisation, many believe that they're actually doing far more to damage the reputation of female comedians than to help it. Acts claim to have been censored by the organisers, being warned against swearing, talking about being gay, and material that was not considered 'appropriate' for women. Most worrying of all, perhaps, is a story recounted by comic Elise Harris of her experience at a heat: "I overheard a conversation between the organisers and a person who was trying to enter. This person was insisting they were female, they had a female name. The organisers argued for quite a time that they did not accept that and then told the person they would not let them enter."

However, Funny Women founder Lynne Parker denies allegations of censorship: "We don't censor acts' material," she told us, "unless there is a reason to do so, either for broadcast or a commercial commission."

Funny Women announced yesterday (20 April) what could be the final nail in their coffin: with entries now open for the 2011 competition, they have introduced a £15 administration charge.

'Pay-to-play' is a practice that has been universally criticised in the UK and quashed by the comedy community wherever anyone has tried to institute it. Comedy should be a meritocracy, nurturing talent on its own basis and allowing for experimentation, and comedy promoters should be part of this process. Where promoters both charge performers to play, and charge the audience to watch (tickets to Funny Women heats are priced at £10-£12); the incentive is not to programme acts based on talent, but rather on what they are willing to pay. Ultimately, audiences are likely to turn away from a comedy industry devoid of artistic practice, and without an audience, the industry is dead.

We asked Scottish comic JoJo Sutherland what she makes of this latest news. "Exploitative, divisive and reprehensible are some of the words that spring to mind." says Sutherland, a finalist in the inaugural awards, "I was initially supportive of an organisation that seemed to be providing a platform to encourage women into an ultimately male-dominated arena. How naïve and wrong I was."

She is vehemently opposed to pay-to-play in any situation and believes "we must fight tooth and nail" to stop the practice.

“It is no coincidence that most comics who have been involved with Funny Women in the past are no longer willing to be associated with the brand, which persists in perpetuating the myth that somehow women need to be nurtured into performing stand up. The existence of Funny Women is a ridiculous notion but the idea that women are now being told they have to pay to be marginalised is frankly obscene."

Parker insists, however that "anybody trying to change things will always get criticised." She claims to have had an enormous amount of support on the issue, and that promoters of this kind of competition deserve to have a value put on what they do. "Maybe I’m just making a stand, perhaps rather bravely, that other people might agree with. We’re not the ogres; we love what we do."