The female of the species

While the boys are away sweating it out every night at The Edinburgh Festival (and I mean literally, one of them is doing a show in a sauna), the girls are at home making buns and writing hilarious material for a secret ladies comedy show to be launched in 2007 called ‘Over My dead Ovary’.

It’s very cutting edge, avant garde type stuff, way ahead of it’s time, don’t miss it. Ah no just kidding, we’re only making buns. Actually there are a few of us comedy gals still around and a few new ones too, but let’s not make this a boy girl thing. I love being the only female on the bill, the boys bring you campari and food and stroke your hair and sometimes if they’re in a good mood they’ll give you punch lines for free (the boys have to pay each other 48.70 euro for a gag).
All you have to do is lie on a chaise longue with your top off looking perplexed until they ask you what’s wrong and then you reply in a breathy voice ‘it’s just this idea I have, but no matter how I hard I try I just can’t find the punchline’ and then sigh really heavily. Within about four/five minutes (depending on the comic, some take longer) you’ll have your tag. They love the feeling of power and sometimes they’re the kind of lines that’d put all your children through college. Actually I’ve been getting even specialer treatment since I’ve become pregnant – they lift you on and off the stage and punch anyone who heckles you, and they improvise for you if you forget your material, which happens quite a lot in the second trimester.
It’s a different climate back stage these days too, they no longer punch the air like a boxer in a ‘I’m going to beat everyone up with my comedy’ type fashion before doing their set– no, it’s very ‘new stand-up’ altogether. There’s usually great chats about soufflés and Braxton Hicks contractions and photos of new borns being passed around (mainly of they’re grandchildren – there’s a few who have been doing comedy a long time). The truth is we all get on like a comedy club on fire and some of the girls have even had comedy sex with the boys – apparently it involves a lot of laughing, then you both write some material and an unplanned comedy baby arrives.
But as much as we love the boys sometimes the comedy sisters just have to do it for themselves which brings me to the big plug – ‘Funny Girls’, the best of Irish female comedy is on in Whelan’s on the 16th and 17th September as part of the Bulmers Comedy Festival.
Compered by the wonderfully hilarious Anne Gildea, co-founder of The Nualas, it features such luminaries as Pom Boyd whose character comedy creations have been described as ‘genius’; there’s Kathleen O’Rourke, who is taking the comedy circuit by storm with her side splitting droll delivery; and there’s me as my alter ego ‘Carmel’ who recently appeared in my one woman show ‘Only Gorgeous’ in Bewley’s Café Theatre a few weeks ago. (If you missed it, I’ll be touring it as soon as the epidural wears off).
But in the meantime don’t miss ‘Funny Girls’ – a glorious night of comedy with these glamorous gals of stand-up, lots of gags and not a bun in sight.