Page 11 - Katherine Ryan press pack 2015-20

COVER STORY
‘EvEn malE

comIcs hErE

arE fEmInIsts’

A comedy revolution is under way, led by a new wave of female stand-ups
who are mining humour from real pain. Is this the end for rape jokes,

Stephen Armstrong asks the leading comic Katherine Ryan

Photograph by Carla Guler

n April, the comedian Katherine Perriers, now sponsored by Lastminute. overleaf for a guide to the newer faces person if you think all nurses are
Ryan went home to Canada to see com) and the top two spots in the in this group.) women,” she nods cheerfully. “But if
her sister’s new baby, and popped newcomers competition So You Think Were the women as funny as the you see one female comic on the bill,
out to a local comedy club. “It was You’re Funny? Even cocky young male men at the Fringe this year? It’s a maybe a few more women will go to the
25 white men, one after another, comics prefaced riffs on dating with question that was made redundant by gig... then another woman will give it a
Idoing four or five minutes of jokes a quick nod to “intersectionality” (a many of the female acts on show. It’s try... and so it grows, until audiences
about rape or shagging some girl — gender politics buzzword referring to not helpful to over-generalise, but the in the UK no longer flinch when a
really violent, sexually aggressive the degrees of persecution any one women have a knack of giving emo- woman stand-up comes on. The
material.” She shakes her head at the person might experience based on tional ballast to their big belly laughs. women I really admire were the Jo styling: Jennifer Michalski-Bray. hair and Make-UP: fiona eUstace. dress: vintage. earrings: PoMellato. rings: annoUshka, caroline creBa, carat london, venyx
memory. “Everybody was laughing their gender, sexuality and race). They tell stories about their often hard- Brand generation, who’d appear on
because it was unanimously under- Ryan’s 2011 Fringe debut, on the scrabble lives, and make serious points a bill with male comics and female
stood that this was what comedy was. other hand, came soon after Jimmy about the way of the world, without strippers — they’re the women who
And I remembered, wow, this is what it Carr quipped “What do nine out of losing their audiences. Quite the oppo- really hustled for us. Oh my gosh…”
was like when I first came to the UK. 10 people enjoy? Gang rape”, and the site: audiences of both genders seemed That “oh my gosh” is a brief flash of
“Even the male comics I work with Australian Jim Jefferies ended one gag equally in thrall to this kind of content. Ryan’s stage persona, a cheeky, wasp-
here now are feminists, so I forget how with the punchline: “So I raped her.” And the male comic who shared the ish, upbeat and knowing older sister
different it was. This is what it’s like “It’s been a big six years,” she nods. main comedy award with Gadsby this with all the best gossip and by far the
when you’ve had the privilege of being The foot soldiers of this revolution year, John Robins, was also venturing best take on it. In a 2014 Live at the
able to see the most amazing comedy have been a determined bunch of into what’s usually a no man’s land: Apollo set, she made sly royal quips —
in the world… I’m not sure you all strong female stand-ups, a group of baring his unhappy soul over his recent “Prince Harry, or, as I like to call him,
realise what sort of a scene you have which Ryan is very much a member. break-up. Tears were shed on stage. the Duke of I Just Cambridge… right,
going on here.” From Bridget Christie and Sara Pascoe For Ryan, who has spent six years ladies?” — and delivered a rich physical
Ryan believes the Edinburgh Fringe to this year’s Edinburgh award-winner building her profile through the male pastiche of Beyoncé’s Super Bowl
has a big part to play in the continuing Hannah Gadsby, these are funny preserve of television panel shows, as reunion with Destiny’s Child that
revolution driving British comedy — women who neatly avoid apeing male well as becoming only the second UK- managed to be silly, edgy, political and
and this year’s festival pretty much stand-ups’ techniques and concerns based comic to have a Netflix stand-up slapstick all at the same time.
proved her point. Women picked up as deftly as they sidestep “just us special, the changes have been gradual. In person, of course, she’s nothing
two of the three Edinburgh Comedy girls” comedy, the kind that’s been “If you walk into a hospital and only like that. She speaks so softly, I have to
Awards (formerly known as the crudely labelled “too tampony”. (See see female nurses, you are not a bad ask her to hold the recorder closer ▶
6 10 September 2017