Pack your bags to celebrate International Women’s Day with Funny Women
To celebrate International Women’s Day, leading female comedy community Funny Women is running the inaugural Funny Women Around The World. This exciting and hilarious virtual free event will showcase comedy and entertainment from every corner of the globe to launch the Funny Women Awards. Taking place over a continuous 12-hour stream on Twitch, this curated programme of brand new regional talent and familiar Funny Women faces, including Sarah Keyworth and Sooz Kempner, will keep audiences laughing no matter when they tune in.
The Awards were launched in 2003 and continued to run in 2020 during lockdown to fulfil a continuing need to raise the profile of women’s comedy across the world. Over the past year, Funny Women has strengthened its virtual communications and widened its community reach to stretch from London to Manchester, Glasgow to Dublin, from Amsterdam to Boston, Singapore to Melbourne – creating a fabulously international network of comedy-makers!
Kathleen Price, Community Engagement Producer, comments, I don’t think I could ever really summarise the uplifting triumph that I have felt from our community outreach in the face of these tough times, but Funny Women Around the World comes incredibly close. The passion from creatives and performers spanning across several continents and twelve hours with the shared goal of embracing laughter and empowering women will not only be amazing fun, but a sign that there are no limits to where Funny Women’s ethos and ambition can take us.
Funny Women is a not for profit; Community Interest Company founded in 2002 by Lynne Parker to give women a powerful voice through comedy. It provides a centre of excellence for comedy skills and training to enable a stronger female presence in mainstream comedy through performance, new writing and creative development. It runs workshops, comedy courses, outreach events, and provides strong community engagement. The annual Awards have launched many female comedy careers including Zoe Lyons, Sarah Millican, Susan Calman, Bridget Christie, Andi Osho, Katherine Ryan, Sara Pascoe, London Hughes, Jayde Adams and Desiree Burch.
Funny Women Around the World is proud to act as a promotion partner for Plan International UK’s ‘Because I’m a Girl’ campaign. Plan International UK works with young people and youth activists to understand the solutions they need to see in their communities and to lobby those in power, creating last impact and enabling girls to live the lives they choose. Previous successes have included raising the age of marriage to 18 in Guatemala and Malawi, as well as getting the UK Government to recognise street harassment as a form of gender-based violence.
The programme is as follows:
10.00 Welcome with Sooz Kempner
10.15 Comedy Debate (Melbourne)
11.15 Delicious Monster (Singapore) – In this solo stand up and storytelling show, follow the strange and strangely hilarious adventures that Stephanie’s obsession with nature has taken her. Animal puns included.
12.35 Funny Women TikTok Extravaganza (Global) – Millicent Binks, a self-confessed TikTok wormhole victim, will showcase the best female comedy on TikTok for a whole half an hour! A scrolling marathon!
13.05 Salford Student Showcase (Salford) – Meet a new generation of funny women.
13.35 A Funny Kind of Education (Kent) – Mo and Martha are friends, but more importantly than that, they are mothers, trying to survive in the world of online learning, whilst running a business. On the flip side, Mo is also an art teacher. Join her as she shows how you can get creative with an item you can guarantee every home has! What you will need – A bowl, A plastic bag, A dish of water with a sponge/cloth and a roll of toilet paper. A large glass of wine is optional.
14.05 Sedusa Medusa: Gorgon Clown (Exeter) – Myth busting seductive clown Sedusa Medusa, created by Dr Maggie Irving – the first woman to investigate and attain a PhD on becoming a female clown – invites you to participate in some sassy, silly and savvy clowning to re-vision this art form for broader political use.
14.35 Humour as a Second Language (Global) – Are you ready to do English comedy in a country where English isn’t the main language spoken? Are you ready to do comedy in another language? Talk about the intersection of language and humor with Erin Crouch (USA / Germany), Amanda Urban (Germany), Soness Stevens (USA / Japan) and Mariana Feijó (Portugal / UK).
15.20 Eyre-Leigh Doors (Bristol & London) – Louise Leigh and Pauline Eyre host this game of risk that aims to take what we know about our guest’s past and use it to predict their future. Special guest to be announced!
15.50 Funny Women Behind the Scenes with Ivy Paige LIVE! Join a live recording of our podcast, where International Showgirl and comedian Ivy Paige dusts down her feather headdress, sequined leotard and nipple tassels to interview a special guest about their lives ‘behind the scenes’ of the entertainment industry.
16.50 The Dam Panel (Amsterdam) – A panel show about body positivity, getting comfortable with yourself and anything else that pops up!
17.20 Craic N Notions (Dublin) – Four Irish and one American take you through the ABCD of Irish culture.
17.50 Hurt, Hate, Help or Heal? Reflecting on the Power of Humor (USA) – Founder of Boston Comedy Chicks and Executive Communication Coach, Robin Golinski will facilitate this deep dive panel discussion with 4 US comics on how comedy/humor can influence and persuade and how female and non-binary comics feel about being intentional regarding whether that humor opens minds or reinforces stereotypes/tropes. Is Funny all that matters in the current World or should we be doing more with this powerful communication?
18.30 EVERYBODYYY DANCE (Toronto) – Everybodyyy Dance is an all-levels virtual dance class for babes of all ages, sizes, genders and corners of the world. Rubyyy Jones and Prinx Lydia, present this joyful online space for moving, challenging and celebrating our radiant selves!
19.00 Being a Difficult Woman (Bristol) – Do you catch yourself apologising all the time? Are you scared to speak up at gigs, in meetings or social situations? Are you scared of being called, or have you ever been called a ‘Difficult Woman’? Join Imogen Palmer (The Delightful Collective, The Bristol Improv Theatre) for a 30-min interactive workshop to help empower you using improvisation skills.
19.30 Let’s Be Nosey in the USA (USA) – OMG What is she/they doing right now? Robin Golinski will pop in for three minutes on eight different US comics to see what kind of trouble they are up to at that moment. This live, impromptu, unpredictable check-in on our funniest women is sure to be hilarious!
20.30 Funny Women Awards Showcase (Global) – Join our host Sooz Kempner for an evening of fabulous female comedy talent from Funny Women Awards alumni Katie Green, Eryn Tett, Mary O’Connell and headliner Sarah Keyworth.
21.30 Doon For a Laugh (Glasgow) – Cabaret beaming in from bonnie Scotland. Five acts. Each with Five minutes.
Performance Time Saturday 6th March 2021, 10am – 10pm
Box Office Registration and streaming information is available here: https://funnywomen.com/eventinfo/funny-women-around-the-world/
