Ladies Are Funny Festival

LAFF will be on hiatus this year. Check back in fall for further updates! Have a great 2013!

LAFF 2012 comes to a close.

Julie, here.

I’ve been thinking about why we all do this, this comedy/producing/acting/creating thing. It’s a crazy thing to do, after all, but somehow we all keep coming back to it.

For me? It’s the whole put on a show deal, yes? Community.

I was born in 1969, and as such I watched a lot of variety shows growing up.  There wasn’t that much else to watch for a kid, save Sid and Marty Kroft (my mother thought it was too weird for me to watch) or perhaps episodes of MASH.

I’m sure this has influenced my love for comedy, but I also believe it impressed upon me the idea of community on stage and off.  The call to “put on a show” has been a part of my life since I was a child. It looked like such fun all the characters, songs, costumes and performers. They all laughed and danced, performed magic or vaudeville, made jokes that certainly were dirty but seemed so fun, and looked to me like they were having the time of their lives.

I suppose I can’t give that up, that time of the life feeling, the idea that people can make something amazing happen on stage and off. All of us involved with LAFF have seen so many great performers come together, create, learn, connect and evolve their art, their performance. It’s a real blessing.

Now that the festival had now ended, and everyone is off to their lives back at home, I’d like to say thank you for being part of the 6th Ladies Are Funny Festival. Whether you were a performer, a sponsor, a staff person, volunteer or audience member, you made some great things happen this weekend and all of us at LAFF thank you for your support.

It takes more than just hard work and volunteers to pull something like this off. It takes a belief in community, through good times and bad, fights and disagreements, hilarious moments and sad ones. I’ve been lucky to have such great people beside me as we’ve created a space for for all of that to happen.

To close LAFF 2012? The lady herself, a queen of variety hours and comedy, Carol Burnett. I used to wonder, when I was a kid, why she’d close with what seemed like a sad song. But here’s the thing that I understand now, as an adult.

Life is hard. Shit gets real, and things get difficult. If we couldn’t laugh, we’d all cry. And sometimes, after all the jokes and gags, just saying thank you and being grateful for the time we have with each other, earnest as it may be, is exactly what needs to happen.

Last nights’ shows were marvelous! Sold out crowds and lots of laughing!

Jack and Christine Darling captured everyone’s hearts with their magic, There’s Waldo delighted with their piercingly funny on point sketch.  Sarah 7 wowed the crowd with their talents-fast moving, smart and very hilarious.

The standup set rocked the house, lady after lady after gent(!) keeping the audience in stitches.

Reformed Whores? Adorable to the point of madness. Amazing timing, incredible harmonies and vocal performances, whipsmart lyrics. Just go watch their videos or see them live. They are incredible.

Skinny Bitch Jesus Meeting. What can we say? They’ve been with us for 5 years running now and each year their work is more complex, more sharp, more polished and more completely insane. In the best possible way. The Underdeveloped and Overexposed Life and Death of Deena Domino was a full length multi media piece focused on child stars, reality television, and terrible mother daughter relationships. It was brilliant.

All in all, it was a fantastic end to a fantastic festival.

Coincidence?

Sold out shows. Finding true love with a mop. Noir clowns. Musical Improv. Three amazing sets of shows last night. Amazing. From the sketch sets of Mary Jo Pehl, The Right Honourable Nelson Kincade and Mani Pedi, to the physical comedy stylings of It’s Just Reilly and Butt Kapinski, to the musical magic of DA Foundry, Bennets and Girls Girls Girls, it was a rockin’ night.

And a dance party. And so many amazing conversations.

And It’s Just Reilly may not have planned it, but her pink ball gown and Groucho glasses made her look just like our LAFF logo!

Katie Hartman: AHHHHH!!!!!  How did this happen???  We went into a time warp in 2008 and came out in 2012 back in Austin: 5 years older, 27% funnier and 78% poorer.  COMEDY!

Right after LAFF last year we were accepted to the Envision Retreat by Voice and Vision (a predominant NY women’s theater company)  and spent ten days at Bard College furiously writing, drinking cheap wine, and abusing our lovely intern (they gave us an INTERN).  We ended up writing a hugely ambitious and hilarious show called “The Underdeveloped and Overexposed Life and Death of Deena Domino.”  That is an even longer and ridiculous name than “Skinny Bitch Jesus Meeting.”

Leah Rudick: The title of the show is some of our best work in title making.  We’re more proud of that than of anything we’ve ever done.

KH: We’ve been workshopping it at The Peoples Improv Theater since November; performing and rewriting and after LAFF ‘12 we are taking it to the Capital Fringe in Washington DC in July and the New York Fringe in August!

The show is based on Toddlers & Tiaras and then blasts into more absurd reality TV shit.  As we were writing no matter how crazy terrible the reality TV premises we thought up we found that there was almost something exactly like it already in existence.

LR: So it’s more like a docu-drama than a comedy.  We’re like psychic documentary comedy makers, showcasing the terrifying world of reality television before even realizing how actually terrifying it is.  It’s fun!  Bring your kids!

KH: Do not bring your children.

KH: The paparazzi can be hard to deal with late at night outside shows or clubs, but mostly the public are respectful of our private lives.  People usually pretend not to know who we are when we wear sunglasses.  Then I’m sure they tweet they just saw us in line at Chipotle.

LR: I for one have been recognized in many Chipotles.  In fact, Chipotle is the only place I get recognized.  I actually live in Chipotle, inside a burrito.  So the tweets are less like “OMG I just saw that famous girl at Chipotle” and more like “THERE’S A WOMAN INSIDE MY BURRITO!!”

LR: I don’t think I’ve ever had a fight on a toilet except for between me and my butt.  Is that who she gets in a fight with on the show?  Her friend who is also her butt?  Because I could TOTALLY relate to that.  And I consider myself to be a young and educated woman.  So maybe I should watch the show.
KH: haven’t seen the show yet.  so I’m sure the lady police are going to come any moment and strip me of my labia.

OMG CHECK THIS OUT! TICKETS HERE!

But we had two kick ass shows last night!

First set? Stand-ups from all over like – Michelle Biloon, Eliana Horeczo, Kerri Lendo, Nicole Lucas, Caroline Bassett, Kat Ramzinski, Linda Stogner and they were all fantastic! The rainpocalypse started about 8:20 and rained HARD until about….10:30 pm or so.

It looked a little like this.

Except not Tuscaloosa, obvy.

At 10 pm the ladies of Galactic, Band Wreckers and Adventure Squad took the stage, perhaps a bit dewy, but none too worse for the wear. The audience from the earlier show and the audience for the 10 all gathered in the lobby to watch the lightening and heavy downpour. We all drank a little.

The rain calmed down and the shows ended in giddy glee and folks went off for the LAFFter party.  This was running through my head all night so I thought I’d share it with you.

Come on down to Salvage Vanguard Theater to see amazing standups at 8 pm and audacious improv at 10 pm!

Tickets here!