The Twitter touchpaper is lit again as comics vent their rage over the competition's new �15 entry fee. Are they going overboard?
It doesn't take much to get standups venting spleen on Twitter. The Foster's comedy awards, the Paul Chambers affair, the plagiarism storm involving Keith Chegwin ? all have had the comedy community up in arms (or as convincingly up in arms as you can get in the space of 140 characters).
Over the last two days, there's been a new source of seemingly reasonable indignation: the decision of one of the country's biggest and most prestigious new-act competitions, Funny Women, to charge aspiring female comics �15 to enter. A wide range of comedians both male and female ? including previous Funny Women finalists Susan Calman and Sarah Millican ? have criticised the decision and advised newbies not to take part.
It might seem fair enough to set performers an entry fee for taking part in a big-name contest. But this move has to be seen in the context of the standup circuit, which in this country has always been firmly against the idea of "pay to play". This doesn't hold the world over ? in New York, for example, new comics are routinely expected to fork out in exchange for stage time ? but on these shores, new comedians aren't usually asked to do more than attempt to entertain. Perhaps this means there are a few more hopeless amateurs clogging up the open-mic circuit, but at least it means there's less scope for exploitation by promoters.
I think it's unlikely that the people at Funny Women want to exploit anyone. They say the entry fee is to cover vital promotional and administrative costs. From my experience of the organisers, they are genuinely committed to doing everything they can to advance the cause of women in comedy. (Full disclosure: I was a judge in last year's final.)
But they're leaving themselves open to criticism. Steve Bennett, the influential editor of leading comedy website Chortle, has done the maths and worked out that, on the basis of last year's contest, the organisers could be making �5,000 ? even without taking into account the admission fees charged to audience members on the night. The organisers of Funny Women might be well advised to show a little more openness about where the money's going if they want to take the sting out of the protests. Thus far, all they've done is issue a rather defensive blogpost in which they claim their critics are a few female comics who "would rather spend their time proving to the world, yet again, that women have nothing better to do than gossip and whine". (Although that post has since been taken down and replaced with an apology.)
Given the obstacles female performers still face on the standup circuit (including prejudice from audiences and promoters alike), it's surely important to defend all initiatives that protect and promote them. Or am I being tediously paternalistic about the whole thing, and should women just attempt to compete on the same footing as men? Sarah Millican ? surely the most successful female standup to have emerged in the last few years ? might have put it best on Twitter: "Advice to any budding female comedians, no need to pay to play by entering @funnywomen. Just be funny, write loads & work very hard."
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/theatreblog/2011/apr/21/comedians-funny-women-twitter-entry-fee
COMPAL ELECTRONICS COSMOTE MOBILE TELECOM DLINK DIGITAL CHINA HOLDINGS DIRECTV GROUP
No comments:
Post a Comment