Going Global and Writing a Book!

I can’t believe it’s already May with one of two bank holidays down! At Funny Women CIC we are planning our Awards and managing an ever-increasingly international portfolio of events with the support of Rosana Jimenez our tireless Funny Women producer in Amsterdam.

We now have Funny Women Live shows run by our communities in Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Brussels, Dublin, Paris, Montreal, Brighton, London and the latest addition: Basel!

Our London community was relaunched in April at its new venue, The Groucho Club Ltd. , and we welcomed back Rachel Barber - Content Marketing who is the best ‘open mic’ wrangler I know!

Our longest running gig at Komedia Brighton also got a 'facelift' under the new management of Kate McGann.

Dublin will be enjoying the Funny Women craic again on Monday 20th May as our dynamic duo ChatterBoxx host another incredible line up of Irish talent. Read about how Val Troy and Orla Doherty came together to scratch their comedy itch and whose on their next line up HERE .?

?So many of people I know have written books and I confess to finding this intimidating. However, I have finally started writing the book that I’ve been planning for more years than I will own up to! As a way of making myself accountable I’ve decided to launch it chapter by chapter to the growing band of Patrons who pay as little as ￡1.50 plus VAT a month for exclusive content on our website.

I would love you to read my first ‘taster’ chapter of How to be a Funny Woman over on Patreon and, every penny raised will go toward supporting the next generation of new female comedy talent. Honestly, every little really does help in these very tricky times and it will incentivise me to finish writing the next chapter!

The big news story of the comedy world over the last month has focused on the Netflix mini-series, Baby Reindeer. Written and starring comedian Richard Gadd it’s about as far away from being a comedy as you can get and tackles issues of sexual abuse and being stalked.

It’s a compelling but difficult watch and the biggest credit of all goes to Jessica Gunning for her chilling performance as ‘Martha’ who stalks the lead character ‘Donny’ as played by Gadd himself. I asked multi-award winning comedian and broadcaster, Sajeela Kershi, to share her views about the series and she explored the relationship between trauma and comedy. Please read her brilliant article Baby Rein it in Dear! on the Funny Women website and I’d love to hear what you thought about the series too.

I had a totally brilliant time at Modern Woman as a guest panellist talking about fun in the workplace, ageism, menopause and grief. I was one of four experts covering this very broad range of topics which could have taken up a whole event on their own! Huge congratulations to founder and event producer Rosie Coxshaw for a wonderful day and I look forward to more collaborations in future.

Looking ahead, I will be running my next Stand Up to Stand Out workshop on Saturday 18th May at the Groucho Club. It’s my most favourite thing that I do, and I love empowering women to release their innate comedic talent. If I had ￡1 from all the women who’ve told me over the last 22 year’s that they aren’t funny, I’d be a wealthy woman!? Some of the funniest things I've ever heard and seen all involve brilliant funny women.

?And, to think I set all this up because a man told me that women aren’t funny. I was delighted to explore this further for the Female Leaders' Club in my article about How Women are Changing the Advertising Industry by Writing their Own Jokes .?A great follow up to meeting some incredible women at last year's MAD//FEST LONDON .

If you’d like to know more about this please check out www.HERlarious.co.uk or get in touch with me if you’re looking to work with female performers, writers and creators. We offer a ‘boutique’ service for casting, booking, producing and curating shows, events and more from an incredible talent bank built up over 22 years of Funny Women.

?Finally, an explanation about why we’ve delayed launching this year’s Funny Women Awards . The search for partners and sponsors continues and to reinforce what we know is already a compelling contest which accesses an endless pool of new talent, and all the benefits of an association with our amazing and increasingly global community, we’re undertaking a review of our award categories. Please take part in the survey and express your interest in this year’s competition.

If you’d like to know more about sponsoring a category or partnering us for the 2024 Funny Women Awards, please contact me direct either on here or send an email to [email protected].

?Thanks for reading this newsletter and wishing you a happy and fulfilling May! Here’s to the next bank holiday!

All best - LYNNEx