The Feminine Art of Comedy
Apr. 25th, 2010 03:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
acmespaceshipFanci-full temporary hair dye "chocolate kiss" to cover gray -- $6
CoverGirl volume + length + separation mascara -- $5
Bali "all-in-one spandex shaper" -- $34
Dealing with yet another decade in which women doing sketch comedy have to fulfill different expectations about physical appearance than men do: Priceless.
Through no fault of their own, sketch comedy is a field dominated by men. Men tend to write bits in which the women are not in themselves funny, but are instead objects of desire that inspire the men to act funny. God knows this happens often enough in the real world. But what it means onstage is that, all too often, an actress is really only expected to stand there and look pretty.
Moebius has been, over the years, less male-dominated than the vast majority of comedy troupes. Women get to be funny in Moebius. But still. The current show is directed by a Man and he has selected... well... a typically male range of material. These are the roles I'm playing in the next show and, to those of you who do not know me, I will point out that I am a 53-year-old fat lady:
Lovestruck teenage checkout girl
Fairy tale princess
Young bride genetically engineered to be a pinnacle of perfection
Housewife who strips to a sexy outfit and does a Meg Ryan in the deli routine (I should be doing Estelle Reiner not Meg Ryan)
An SF writer with writer's block (ok)
A 56-year-old bureaucrat (ok)
Now I will admit that several of these bits were written by women, including me (back when my hair was brown). But... How many roles are there in this show that require a young, attractive man? Exactly zero. Well, there's one object of female sexual desire... but he's an offstage voice.
Now if you'll excuse me, my first test application of hair dye isn't taking (I have a towel safety-pinned over my shoulders as I'm typing this), so I'll go see if a second coat does the trick or maybe I'll have to resort to the semi-permanent 4-to-6 week color. If you see me at Duck and my hair is brown... or greenish... don't be surprised. Blame it on the muse of Comedy. And Men. You can always blame Men.
CoverGirl volume + length + separation mascara -- $5
Bali "all-in-one spandex shaper" -- $34
Dealing with yet another decade in which women doing sketch comedy have to fulfill different expectations about physical appearance than men do: Priceless.
Through no fault of their own, sketch comedy is a field dominated by men. Men tend to write bits in which the women are not in themselves funny, but are instead objects of desire that inspire the men to act funny. God knows this happens often enough in the real world. But what it means onstage is that, all too often, an actress is really only expected to stand there and look pretty.
Moebius has been, over the years, less male-dominated than the vast majority of comedy troupes. Women get to be funny in Moebius. But still. The current show is directed by a Man and he has selected... well... a typically male range of material. These are the roles I'm playing in the next show and, to those of you who do not know me, I will point out that I am a 53-year-old fat lady:
Lovestruck teenage checkout girl
Fairy tale princess
Young bride genetically engineered to be a pinnacle of perfection
Housewife who strips to a sexy outfit and does a Meg Ryan in the deli routine (I should be doing Estelle Reiner not Meg Ryan)
An SF writer with writer's block (ok)
A 56-year-old bureaucrat (ok)
Now I will admit that several of these bits were written by women, including me (back when my hair was brown). But... How many roles are there in this show that require a young, attractive man? Exactly zero. Well, there's one object of female sexual desire... but he's an offstage voice.
Now if you'll excuse me, my first test application of hair dye isn't taking (I have a towel safety-pinned over my shoulders as I'm typing this), so I'll go see if a second coat does the trick or maybe I'll have to resort to the semi-permanent 4-to-6 week color. If you see me at Duck and my hair is brown... or greenish... don't be surprised. Blame it on the muse of Comedy. And Men. You can always blame Men.
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no subject
Date: 2010-04-25 10:33 pm (UTC)There are a lot of funny things to say about attractive young slim women, but maybe we should think about funny 60-year-olds or funny 70-year-olds too.
If you want to work on that niche that REQUIRES young, attractive males, you can do that as well.
(I just read a 1952 Frederic Brown science fiction novel whose protagonist is 57. Pretty unusual for SF of the time, or, really, ever.)
no subject
Date: 2010-04-26 06:05 am (UTC)Sketch comedy is so deeply entrenched in the boy-meets-girl story it's hard to get writers/directors/actors to come up with something new. It doesn't help that the typical audience for sketch comedy is a bunch of 20- and 30-somethings out on dates or trying to hook up at the bar after the show.
I look forward to seeing Betty White host SNL. Maybe she'll show these Boomer comics how it's done.