By Sonnjea Blackwell
Have you ever noticed there are fewer women than men in comedy? Not just improv, but comedy in general. It's true. It seems like the same number of women start off in the beginning classes, but as the classes advance, fewer and fewer women keep pace. At Groundlings, it takes far less time for women on the waiting list for Writing Lab to get there than men, because they keep the classes balanced gender-wise and there are just fewer women at that level. Even in the Held2gether Improv Comedy Troupe there are twice as many men as women.
So what's the deal? Are men naturally funnier than women? Huh, as if! And don't worry, I'm not going to go off on a feminist rant or anything; that's just not how I roll.
But I do think there's something to the relative dearth of women at the highest echelons of comedy. Look at Tina Fey: she's fabulous, brilliant, hilarious and did I mention brilliant? And yet, if she were a man who had accomplished everything she's accomplished, no one would care. Because plenty of men in comedy have achieved her level of success.
Here's my take: In general, girls (even in 2011) are more conditioned to be pleasers. As a gender, we don't take the risks that men take. We don't feel as free to say whatever's on our minds. We drink beer... but we don't belch. If we had balls, we still wouldn't scratch 'em all the time. There's still some ingrained "Good Girl" nonsense that keeps us from going all-out and being fearless and just not giving a fuck. We don't want to look foolish or inappropriate. We want to please everyone. We want to do it right.
If we're me, we want to do it right the very first time and if we don't, we don't want to do it again. Like the time I tried to roller skate on my fifth birthday. But I digress.
In improv, I hold back A LOT... without even realizing it. I'll think I look furious as a character in a scene, and Darren will say I look mildly irritated. "Loud" for me is quieter than a normal speaking voice for the guys. I don't do raunchy or over-sexed or brash or inappropriate - because it's not appropriate to be raunchy or over-sexed or brash or, um, inappropriate.
Which isn't to say there are no women who do those things. There are. But not nearly enough. I'm getting better, but it's slow going even in classes that are as encouraging and supportive as Held2gether improv classes in Long Beach. I know I'm not the only one out there, so if you're a woman and you are sick and tired of the Good Girl label, come take an H2G improv class and learn to be completely inappropriate with me. After class, I'll buy you a beer and we can practice our belching.
