Austin Improv

So I'm looking at the DSI schedule and I notice that Girls are playing tonight with all-female troupes. I don't know if that's insulting or not. I mean, it makes sense for women to want to have all-female ensembles, and I'm looking forward to the first LAFF. But when producers, male for the most part, stick all the women together in one showcase, there's something a little condescending and marginalizing about it. Or is it just me? Maybe it doesn't bother people. We've tried to avoid that for the most part at OoB, putting troupes together because of the nature of their work (either as complements or deliberate contrasts--with varying success), but maybe the 'femaleness' is so central to the work that it's automatically complimentary when three female groups are brought together.

And by the way, slay tonight, ladies.

I don't like the idea either.
I think sometimes women in improv try to manipulate their image too much towards being an especially unique performer for being a female in a male-dominated artform. Then it's used as a sort of marketing tool that exploits the whole idea behind it - making the image and idea much cheaper and cliche than it has to be. And then there's of course others outside of it who will try to use it as well, probably male producers, like mentioned above.
I think it may be something that deserves recognition but not in such blatant ways.
But just in general I dislike the whole "are females funny?" debate.

kaci_beeler wrote: But just in general I dislike the whole "are females funny?" debate.

I do to. And not because women don't have it hard/bad/whatever in comedy. They do. But it's not a debate unless you're some kind of caveman drooling on himself or Christopher Hitchens (oh wait, there's a difference?-ed.). Women are funny. Deal with it.

I agree 100%

It almost seems like putting all of the female acts on one bill makes it easier for someone to say "oh, I don't think chicks are funny. I won't go see that night."

There's also a broader pet peeve of mine where there are 2 simultaneous messages being sent. One is "Don't think we're not funny just because we're X" and the other is "Come see us BECAUSE WE'RE X!!!" Sort of this PC thing in our culture where we're told to ignore our differences and everyone's the same...until someone can use the differences to their own advantage. Well are we all the same or aren't we?

This has less to do with improv and more to do with me just venting about hypocrasy in our culture.

How about this "Women can be just as unfunny as men. Remember Andy Dick?"

I think this whole thing is weird. I had never heard the phrase "women aren't funny" -- and I never once thought about it -- until I started to do improv.

There are a ton of great female comedians and actresses who are great at making the world laugh. I think this is an internal thing. A political business thing that is not unique to the entertainment industry. It is all around us in EVERY gd business. The only way to stop this from BECOMING a bigger issue is to treat diversity - ethnic, too - as the norm.

Mix it up DSI! And thank you Shannon & OOB for taking the lead on this.

I don't understand why they did that (I didn't talk to any of the DSIF producers) but it did give us a chance to meet the ladies of The Shower and The Pearl Brunswick and have a female improv backstage bonding moment.

Whatever.

Mo Daviau wrote: it did give us a chance to meet the ladies of The Shower and The Pearl Brunswick and have a female improv backstage bonding moment.

This is a pretty good reason for having that line up.

This probably would not have happened otherwise.

Dave wrote:

Mo Daviau wrote: it did give us a chance to meet the ladies of The Shower and The Pearl Brunswick and have a female improv backstage bonding moment.

This is a pretty good reason for having that line up.

This probably would not have happened otherwise.

Agreed.
See ladies, the men did you a favor. Here's to Ya-ya Sinterhood and Traveling Pants and all that for making us sensitive to the fact that women need othe women to survive and thrive.

I found it a little bit marginalizing especially since we were back to back with the Rap Battle thing and we were in the largest house (400 seats) and we in no way sold out (though I think only ComedySports did). That big venue just didn't work well for anyone.
I'd rather see troupes by genre or region so I could see a bunch of folks from NYC or Austin or LA or musical/puppet/longform or whatever.
I'm new to festivals, but it felt like let's stick all the women together.
Anyway.
But I did enjoy meeting the Shower and PB. And PB was musical improv so there's that similarity.
I don't think there was anything purposefully patronizing about it but I can see what you mean.


And we did indeed slay.

marketing. at CIF last year they put "Let Them Hos Fight" with "Pimprov." clever, eh? they're both great shows and i think they looked at the schedule and thought, hey this is kinda funny and they're styles are similar.

but it really is about marketing. having "we're not compartmentalizing and marginalizing our talent for you" on a flier is not as attractive as "all female." or more realistically, just having the names of groups is not as easy to promote as if it all just fits together in the eyes of the marketed to.

and how does this compare to an entire festival devoted just to funny women? and what about affirmative action?

oob tries to not glom groups based on their makeup but i can't blame anyone who does, especially when they have a giant festival to undertake and promote.

I truthfully think that Pearl Brunswicks and GGG were in the same slot because of the issue of the grand piano that had to be set up and for no other reason. It might have been an afterthought to have a third all-girl group in there.

Asaf wrote:I truthfully think that Pearl Brunswicks and GGG were in the same slot because of the issue of the grand piano that had to be set up and for no other reason. It might have been an afterthought to have a third all-girl group in there.

As a crafter of the Jenga-puzzle that is a festival schedule myself, I was hasty in not thinking through all the logistics that other festival organizers have to take into account and should keep my trap shut and mind open before I get all peevish.

Occam's Razor. THat makes sense. Thanks Asaf.