REASONABLE PEOPLE know better than to take the “Are men funnier than women?” conversation seriously—to engage the question even to rebut it is to give it more credence than it deserves. One thing that is worth discussing, though, is the visibility of women in the comedy world, both locally and nationally.
“Women are underrepresented in comedy in general,” says Curious Comedy’s Stacey Hallal. “In the industry, women represent from 10-17 percent of the working population.” These numbers inspired Hallal to organize All Jane, No Dick, a weekend-long festival showcasing female comedians. Highlights include festival headliner Jackie Kashian, who’s fast talking, likeable, and nerdy as hell—she’s performing sets on Friday and Saturday, and will be taping her podcast The Dork Forest on Sunday. Also great: side-mulleted lesbian Cameron Esposito; very funny up-and-comer Eliza Skinner, who won me over forever with a joke about how her cat has a special stuffed animal he drags around and humps in various places around her home (MY CAT DOES THAT TOO!); and Bridgetown vet Jena Friedman, a stand-up and writer for The Late Show with David Letterman. All Dick, No Jane isn’t going to prove that women are funny—everyone knows that already. Instead, the fest will showcase the many different ways in which women are funny, and hopefully raise the visibility of women in comedy a notch in the process.