Building Confidence with Comedy

I’m celebrating the things I love the most about my work with Funny Women this month.

I’m all about women having a voice regardless of age, culture, ethnicity, sexuality, ability and lifestyle. We need to be heard and my passion is helping us to achieve this. Public speaking is a big fear for most people (me included) but spending the last 20 years around funny people has given me some extraordinary insights which I’ve poured into running my workshops and workplace programmes.

I’m really looking forward to running my last Stand Up to Stand Out comedy workshop of 2022 back in the gorgeous surroundings of the Groucho Club, where I’ve been a member since it first opened, (yes, I’m that old!) and there are still some places left. As you subscribe to this newsletter please use code: Partner_SUTSO when you book to get this half-price. ?

The video above is courtesy of Havas Lynx who commissioned me to work with them up in Manchester on a series of workshops back in the summer. This really captures the joy and energy of running these events whether they are in your workplace or for a group of women who want to experiment with performing and creating comedy.

At Funny Women CIC we offer a corporate programme of activities, from workshops to personal coaching, conferences to comedy nights, all outlined on our sister website www.herlarious.co.uk along with some incredible testimonials. Not only do I love this kind of work where my two worlds of comedy and business collide, but it generates vital income to support our community outreach programmes encouraging women to build their confidence and improve their mental health through the power of comedy.

After the highs of running two big events over the last six weeks - the 2022 Funny Women Awards Final and HOW TO HAVE FUN AT WORK – I’m now facing the cold hard reality of preparing funding applications, putting together sponsorship proposals and dealing with banks in the hardest financial climate we’ve experienced for years. Yet, I’m positive and optimistic that humour will always prevail and looking forward to some positive meetings about next year's Awards and more.

In other news I enjoyed talking to the wonderful ?? Amy Kean ?? about my brain (as depicted above) and other things in this article here on Shots.net and was fortunate to finally met her in person last week.

As inspirational in real life as she is on social media, meeting up with Amy served to reinforce the importance of connecting properly with other people, face to face. It’s the way I always did business when I embarked on my career over 40 years ago and has always stood me in good stead.

The emotional rollercoaster of life is all set to tip again, in a good way, as I await the birth of my first grandchild. It brings back memories of how I coped with having my first child 34 years ago – there is a far greater acceptance of ‘working mothers’ now but I know that the ‘return’ can be tricky.

In 20 years of running Funny Women, I’ve seen many performers cope with parenthood and talk about this as part of their comedy, both men and women. I'm pleased that nothing is 'off limits' these days and everything is tackled, from periods to menopause. Culture is an important barometer for change in society.

I’m all for the learning and development side of my business so please get in touch if you’d like to discuss, babysitting duties permitting of course!

Enjoy the rest of November and have fun at work!