It's really hard work modelling for a photo shoot. Keeping your leg up straight and holding it for the photographer so she/he can take photos of it from different angels. It's like doing a twenty minute workout on the tread mill!
Anyway, this month's blog from the open book that is Naomi Hefter is about the female comic. One topic many men (and even some woman) may sigh at. I can almost hear it now - The long deep breaths coming out. But read me out! Times are changing. At a very slow pace I must admit, but in the three years I've been on the comedy circuit, I've seen a huge positive change to how audience members treat and respond to female comedians.
Not only are there more female comics out there, but they are getting better and better too, Hey, I'm living proof. From being voted funniest person AND class clown at school, I was thinking stand-up comedy would come naturally, but I found it very hard to begin with. It took me a long long time to figure out what type of stand up I am. I tried the glam look, I tried the girly look, and I even tried the slutty look. They weren't working. Same with my delivery too! I tried the angry comic, the posh comic, the 'drank too many Red Bulls' comic; it's only now, after having a venue where the ceiling was too low for me, and the experience to relax on stage, I am able to be the comic I was always meant to me... ME! It's a great relief I don't have to hide behind the heels, aggression and the aggressive heels to make audiences like what they see (and hear of course).
Ironically, I've only been heckled by woman. And even booed off stage by woman. We can be really mean when we want to be. I was happening a lot in the first six months of me doing stand-up, and it really knocked me for six. It put me off, but there has never been a moment where I have thought 'Why am I wasting my time'. Because I'm not. Stand-up comedy, for myself and I'm sure for many other female comics, is a way to express ourselves and for us to be heard in, I guess a more unusual way.
And the female comics I have seen from when I have started, like me, have really become funny little troopers. Gigs get longer, audiences get bigger, and more people know names and faces get remembered. The big question is - who is going to make it big? As good as it is that female comics are being more accepted, there seems to be only a certain amount of room in the 'big time' world of stand-up comedy. I guess, as Bob Bills said to me earlier this year - if you are unique, memorable, marketable, and professional, you have nothing to worry about. I think he may have been letting me know something there ;-)