The Queens of Comedy delivered a dark humoured and intensely funny night at The Bedford in Balham on International Women’s Day – with no male hecklers in sight.
And to answer that question from everyone I told I was going to this event – at no point did it feel remotely like a feminist rally.
The brazen stories the comedians told to the packed club room received a great reception to the even mix of men and women in the audience.
Mary Bourke stole the show with her brash and savage rhetoric, although superb comedic talents were displayed by all.
Opening act Tania Edwards certainly set the dark humour tone of the evening.
Walking onto the stage and telling the audience she had just over two weeks until her due date, she said: “It’s hard to tell d**k jokes when you’re pregnant because you’re a walking reminder of how wrong sex can go!”
Her dark and dry humour set the tone of the evening with her wonderful delivery style even for the more controversial one liners: “If this isn’t the time to make an abortion joke, when is?!”
I managed to grab a quick chat with Tania backstage as she sank into the sofa following her act.
She said: “I’m pleased to be here celebrating for international women’s day, but I hate being called a female comedian.”
She’s a regular performer at banana cabaret, the comedy show hosting the event, and said how much she loves the atmosphere at The Bedford.
Following her was big name of the night Mary Bourke, pictured above, and those on the front row seemed to immediately regret their seat choice.
One man was told he had the laugh of a landlord ripping off tenants.
She continued along the dark humoured tone set by Tania and had the famous club room roaring with laughter.
Her execution and audience interaction was superb. Tania’s confidence and timing rounded off the first act in a perfect pace.
After a short break, Jessica Fostekew brought everyone back to the comedy mood with her perky and upbeat energy as she described how she felt out of place in ‘fashionable’ Balham in her £8 Asda shirt.
She went on to discuss the antics of her 3-year-old, including his rebrand of his breakfast cereal Weetabix to ‘pick a bitch’, something she found too funny to correct despite her feminist morals.
Rounding off the evening’s entertainment was Joanne McNally who brought her experience of living in her mother’s attic in Ireland describing with excruciating pain, but to the audience’s pleasure, the experience of explaining a gang bang to her mother.
As Tania Edwards later explained: “I hate being called a female comedian.”
These comics are funny in their own right and it’s time people got their heads around that.
The evening inspired my hope that some day in the near future when I turn on the telly and watch a panel show, it will no longer include one token woman to bring the diversity to the episode.
