It couldn’t be a better time for women to stand up in comedy, given the recent success of funny female writers like Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Sharon Horgan, so it’s no wonder that Funny Women put on its second HERlarious event last month to inspire more females to rise through the creative industry ranks.
Held at Twitter’s London HQ, the event focused on enabling female creatives to act more confidently and employ humour in the workplace, providing an evening of workshops and panel discussions to help more women develop their material, followed by a concluding stand-up comedy show featuring an array of female comedians.
Workshops included self-esteem boosting, Stand Up to Stand Out, led by Funny Women founder and CEO, Lynne Parker; Improvise to Succeed, where participants joined in in a series of games aimed at igniting imaginations; Write Your Own Comedy Script, which provided the tools for mastering comedic scripts; and Produce, Direct and Cast Funny People – where two producers revealed the reality of picking talent for comedy.
The subsequent panel discussion saw creatives gather to debate the role that women should play around changing the narrative in advertising and comedy. Attended by Univisibility Project founder Jane Evans, event coordinator/creative Cookie Tabinor, Kantar’s Kristanne Roberts, Airbnb’s Lauren Allpress and comedian Sajeela Kershi, conversation topics included the importance of listening to older women in advertising, a glimpse at ads that have successfully empowered women – such as AMV BBDO’s Viva La Vulva ad for Libresse – to deduce that there’s still a bit to go for equal gender representation in advertising.
To round off the evening, six female comedians took to the mic to share their worlds with the audience. Hosted by 2017 Funny Women Awards winner, Thanyia Moore with various Funny Women Awards nominees and finalists, there were many laughs at relatable anecdotes bringing the event to a close.
Follow the Twitter hashtag #HERlarious to find out more from other women who attended the evening, otherwise keep an eye out on Funny Women for more information about upcoming events in 2019.
