TMC reviews Funny Women: the jokes, the ambiance and the old lady tits

Call us cynics, but the word “cabaret” instantly makes us want to head for the hills and don’t let’s get started on “variety”. Maybe it’s the deeply repressed memories of “Minelli summers” following ill-advised experiments with cutting our own hair (hey, it’s your dignity on the phone, just called to say I’m leaving), but the idea of sitting through a “mixed theatrical bill” gives us the heebies.

So it was with trepidation that we filed into the New Players Theatre for an evening that promised “sketch, improv, drama, music and even… men”. Anticipating an improvised dramatic musing on The Chippendales, we convinced a kindly bar-keep to allow us a pint of wine a piece, and got ready to mount our cultural high horses.

However, we need not have worried. For £15 the company ‘Funny Women’ presented us with 7 varied and immensely talented acts, and threw in interval treats galore courtesy of Wendy May Cakes. Charmingly compered by the fantastic Suzy Bennett, winner of the 2006 Funny Women Awards, the evening proved a riotous jaunt through the avenues of gal-related humour, with more lady-friendly gags than we could wave our wine-pints at (elegance in the field at all times).

Highlights included Gillian Mckeith look-alikes Domestic Goddi and their take-off of ‘Top Gear’, ‘Hot Gear’, (featuring items such as “Drag Heel Race” and  “Members of Muse in Sensible Shoes”), and improv group “Don’t Tell Jimmy”, who shone with raw energy and are certainly ones to watch. However it was the turn of headliner Mandy Muden, with her fabulously deceptive “bad” magic (“I love magic. And tits. Old lady tits”) that really brought the house down. Be sure to see Mandy if she pops up near you – unless you’re a nervous teenage boy, in which case, good luck and god bless.

Shame about the gang of cackling TOOLS a few rows in front who kept interrupting the proceedings (there is an etiquette to the laughing and it is NOT cool to laugh before the punch-line…or significantly after), but all in all Funny Women’s latest venture proved a resounding success. Keep an eye on their website (http://www.funnywomen.com) for details of this years Funny Women Awards, the annual search for the UK’s next top female stand up that gets under way next month. And if you need further convincing – Zoë Lyons won in 2004. SWOON

Call us cynics, but the word “cabaret” instantly makes us want to head for the hills and don’t let’s get started on “variety”. Maybe it’s the deeply repressed memories of “Minelli summers” following ill-advised experiments with cutting our own hair (hey, it’s your dignity on the phone, just called to say I’m leaving), but the idea of sitting through a “mixed theatrical bill” gives us the heebies.

So it was with trepidation that we filed into the New Players Theatre for an evening that promised “sketch, improv, drama, music and even… men”. Anticipating an improvised dramatic musing on The Chippendales, we convinced a kindly bar-keep to allow us a pint of wine a piece, and got ready to mount our cultural high horses.

However, we need not have worried. For £15 the company ‘Funny Women’ presented us with 7 varied and immensely talented acts, and threw in interval treats galore courtesy of Wendy May Cakes. Charmingly compered by the fantastic Suzy Bennett, winner of the 2006 Funny Women Awards, the evening proved a riotous jaunt through the avenues of gal-related humour, with more lady-friendly gags than we could wave our wine-pints at (elegance in the field at all times).

Highlights included Gillian Mckeith look-alikes Domestic Goddi and their take-off of ‘Top Gear’, ‘Hot Gear’, (featuring items such as “Drag Heel Race” and “Members of Muse in Sensible Shoes”), and improv group “Don’t Tell Jimmy”, who shone with raw energy and are certainly ones to watch. However it was the turn of headliner Mandy Muden, with her fabulously deceptive “bad” magic (“I love magic. And tits. Old lady tits”) that really brought the house down. Be sure to see Mandy if she pops up near you – unless you’re a nervous teenage boy, in which case, good luck and god bless.

Shame about the gang of cackling TOOLS a few rows in front who kept interrupting the proceedings (there is an etiquette to the laughing and it is NOT cool to laugh before the punch-line…or significantly after), but all in all Funny Women’s latest venture proved a resounding success. Keep an eye on their website (http://www.funnywomen.com) for details of this years Funny Women Awards, the annual search for the UK’s next top female stand up that gets under way next month. And if you need further convincing – Zoë Lyons won in 2004. SWOON.

.