The Feminine Art of Comedy

[acmespaceship]

Fanci-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.

Comments

[beamjockey.livejournal.com]

Do we need to invent some better comedy?

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.)

[mia-mcdavid.livejournal.com]

Your solution is simple...recruit a Hot Chick.

And, when you find her, find twenty Army Recruits and send them up here for Gaffney's Regiment!

[acmespaceship.livejournal.com]

SF does tend to focus on youthful coming-of-age stories, doesn't it? With a kindly old scientist (or wizard depending on the sub-genre) to provide exposition. I keep thinking Boomers might change that.

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.

[acmespaceship.livejournal.com]

I would think finding a Hot Chick is a necessary first step for attracting 20 regimental recruits.

Gen Y has been very frustrating for Moebius. After capturing a steady stream of Boomer and Gen X recruits over the past 30+ years, we've lately had a devil of a time finding 25-35 year olds who want to do live theater. Video and blogs, yes. LARPing, yes. But rehearse and perform on a stage? Nope.

I have great hope for the Millennials, who were raised on a steady diet of High School Musical. But they have to get out of college first.

[qtrhorserider.livejournal.com]

Sigh...know the feeling, kinda. 51 year old fat lady takes riding lessons dressed in lose yet close fitting clothes. Must see self when riding past the mirror once every time around the arena. Worse still, instructor instructs her to check her posture, foot position, etc when riding by. But I keep going back for more.....

[acmespaceship.livejournal.com]

Horses don't care what we look like, bless their hearts. I guess they do care about our posture though. Whatever keeps the Giant Animal happy is ok by me. As a veteran of The Thee-ah-tah, you know appearance is 9/10ths attitude anyway so sit up and smile and you'll look gorgeous! After all, you're the one on a horse!

Unless they make you wear jodhpurs. Then there is no hope for you or anyone.

I don't mind being plump and middle aged (I've earned it; so have you; so have we all*). What I mind is having to pretend I'm not.

* I'm reminded of Susan Sarandon's line in Bull Durham: "Honey, we all deserve to wear white."