Tonight Katy Brand hosted the 2019 Funny Women Awards – in association with charity partner The Fawcett Society and we announced the 2019 winners of the Stage Award, Comedy Shorts Award, the Comedy Writing Award, Best Show Award and Best Comedy Web Series.
But there was one more surprise announcement we had in store for the Awards audience, tonight at Bloomsbury Theatre London we introduced, via video, our newly appointed patron, or as she prefers to call herself ‘matron’, Jo Brand!
Jo has kindly agreed to lend her support to Funny Women which she describes as “A brilliant organisation put together to encourage women to go into comedy and support them on their journey. It’s really important because potential women comics really need their own space and help to set the agenda themselves.”
Jo’s first role as Patron is to mentor the winner of this year’s Stage Award as part of an incredible money-can’t-buy prize package! Funny Women founder Lynne Parker said: “Having the support of Jo means the world to us with her wealth of knowledge and experience of the industry. She tops the list of favourite female comedians and will help to bring attention to the work we do to give women a voice, in comedy and beyond.
“As a not for profit community organisation we offer support to women who want to perform, write, make films or produce shows through our outreach events and services. This is reflected in the breadth of our Awards and the hundreds of women who have taken part this year.
“Well done to all our finalists who we expect to be seeing a lot more of in the years to come.”
