Next week is the second annual Ladies are Funny Festival, aka LAFF (har de har har), sponsored by the City of Austin Arts Commission and organized by Las Geegsters. Troupes and stand-ups from such far-flung locales as Tempe, NYC, Chapel Hill, and Houston will be traveling to Austin to celebrate that most controversial member of the fairer sex, the funny female.
Last year when we did this, we experienced a bit of, how shall I put it, backlash against the idea that ladies should have their own funny festival. Such an event would fly in the face of gender parity and egalitarianism. Besides, it was mentioned, never in the history of Austin Improv has any male performer ever bulldozed a female performer or endowed her as his mother/sister/prostitute/secretary.
LAFF isn't about putting down the dudes, we explained, but several members of our community vocally (meaning on the internet) spat upon what we were doing, saying we were a big deal out of nothing. Not surprisingly, several females aligned themselves with this philosophy. We made a few people mad. Some guys threatened to go eat meat in a parking lot somewhere.
Even if people were joking or just blowing off steam, it still hurt our feelings. I promise you that it would be a most unpopular thing to be openly unsupportive of pretty much anyone else's improv endeavor except for ours. We might as well have been putting up the Aryan Brotherhood Improv Festival Sponsored by NAMBLA, the way people were carrying on. Yeah, I guess an all-female improv fest is, by definition, exclusive. But last time I checked, improv troupes themselves are exclusive, so what's the difference?
When the fest actually happened, it not only brought in an audience who hadn't come to see improv yet (one of our main goals), but a lot of the guys who we adore and love performing with came out to take tickets, watch the show, and empty the keg with us. The fest was a success, even if there were people who think we're assholes for doing an all-lady weekend (I assume these peeps think we're assholes the rest of the year too, so nothing we can do about that).
This year, public vituperation has been nonexistent, unless there's a friendslocked LAFFhating forum I don't know about. We've had plenty of volunteer offers from both men and women who want to support all forms of improv. Most guys recognize that what we're doing is intended to be inclusive and fun and that we're upping the Hideout's percentage of single women next weekend. This is good for community, and as always, improv wins.
If you are in Austin and want to come see all the funny ladies, click here for more info!
Posted by Zerd at April 17, 2008 10:54 AMMy impression of the backlash experienced last year was mostly over the marketing angle that was presented (in the newspaper article and among other places), not of the idea of the festival itself.
I fully support the festival and really wanted to be apart of it both this year and last, and I'm looking forward to it.
As far as last year...I wasn't unsupportive of the endeavor itself, just the marketing.
I think the festival is awesome because it celebrates women in comedy, not because it celebrates women doing comedy without men. Anyway, it's not really important, but I felt the need to clarify my position because I was one of the people who started some of the discussion last year.
But yes, I have noticed this year that any of that teasing from the dudes about starting their own dicks n' meat festival has died down, and I'm glad for it.
The line-up looks killer and I think the whole weekend will be a blast.
Thanks for the comment, Kaci. I think that the reporter from the Statesman overstated a certain quote that people took issue with, and some were led to believe that was WHY we were doing the festival. A all-female comedy fest isn't a new idea--NYC and Chicago had them several years ago but they ceased to exist. Our primary goal was to try to bring in a new audience--which we did--and hoped that they would become interested in ALL of Austin Improv. It was also a niche marketing thing for GGG. No one was trying to piss on anyone's leg or make a big deal out of past negative incidents.
I am totally looking forward to the fest AND I am really looking forward to Adventure Squad, too.
Posted by: Mo at April 18, 2008 12:44 AM