Magazine

Women Standing Up for a Challenge

So, was the Challenge on us to get through the whole evening, or on our Challengers?! Last week’s comedy marathon was a triumphant celebration of Funny Women’s 10^th Anniversary with the Charity Challenge event last week on 8^th March, which also happened to be International Women’s Day. 10 nervous comedy virgins lined up to take the ultimate challenge in performance, a stand-up routine that some of them only had two weeks to rehearse!

The evening got off to a swinging start with music from Four Femmes on the Thames, who describe themselves as a ‘vintage’ girl band, although there was nothing vintage about their bright sassy performance?

Our host for the evening was the wonderful Kate Garraway who literally sparkled her way through the evening with just the right amount of chat between the comedy and a cheering interview with each woman after they’d performed. Kate has previously subjected herself to performing comedy so provided an empathetic atmosphere for the brave Challengers.

First up was Deb Leary who used 30 years of marriage as the basis for her material! With her husband in the audience we’re pleased to report that he took it all in good spirits and Deb has now forgiven him for dressing their new baby as Adam Ant all those years ago… just!

Amisha Ghadiali delivered a wonderful set about being an ‘@ girl’ and the social etiquette surrounding Twitter. Life as seen through 145 characters appealed to the social media addicts in the audience and Amisha’s material was only outshone by her fantastic dress!

The gutsy, down to earth delivery of Vanessa Vallely’s recount of relationships – first with her mother and then her daughter, had many of us reeling in recognition. Vanessa confessed to ‘outsourcing’ parenthood and then described her disastrous attempts at how to readdress the balance, let's say we'll never quite see her in the same way again!

Sharon Simpson continued the motherhood theme with a hilarious account about her attempts to communicate with her teenage sons. Again, well observed humour that struck a note with the audience and a flawless, well balanced performance that left us wanting more.

As an experienced television presenter Charlie Webster is used to chatting to an audience but recognised that the discipline of stand-up was a challenge for her. She rose to it like a trooper and got laughs a plenty in a set that played tribute to her life in sport and media.

After the interval we welcomedAyesha Hazarika back to the stage as a very special guest after an absence of five years from the stand up circuit while she has been pursuing a political career. Ayesha works as a senior political advisor to Harriet Harman and Ed Milliband and regaled us with a mix of material from both her personal and professional life.

Then it was the turn of Rowan Pelling who, as former editor of the Erotic Review had everybody reeling with tales of ‘posh porn’ and middle class sexual angst. Rowan went onto take the Funny Women trophy for her performance much of which she credited to her brilliant comedy mentor, Julia Streets!

A tough act to follow but they did it with style,Annie Brooks and Hela Wozniak-Kay had taken holy orders for the night and donned their habits to bring us their alter egos: Sisters Lilac and Violet – complete with Irish accents, (well, almost!) and a sprinkling of communion wine!

Then it was the turn of self-confessed 'girl geek' and 'Geordie on Tour', Dr Julie Greensmith, who talked about being a woman in a man’s world and her resistance to wearing a dress, amongst other things of course! A far cry from her usual lecturing, said Julie, but we’re confident that she has her students laughing in the aisles as much as our audience did last week.

Our last Challenger but by no means least, was uber networker, Carole Stone, who focused on the trials of self-image covering topics as diverse as late marriage, big noses and small breasts! Her huge crowd of supporters were not disappointed and, even if she didn’t take the trophy for performance on the night Carole is an award-worthy fundraiser with over £13k already in the kitty for her charity, TOPS UK.

The night ended with a superb performance from Lara A King who won last year’s Funny Women Awards – with a blockbuster American style raffle, fab food and well-dressed tables, we can’t wait to do it all again! But can we have a year off first please?!

See our film review below that captures all the fun of the evening!