Saturday, December 21, 2019

Holographic image unavailable
If you followed the QR code on the Anniversary postcard and find yourself here… Welcome!
As the new decade looms, renewed efforts are afoot at building a book, or a movie, or perhaps a holographic experience to further commemorate the blip in the continuum called Femprov. 
Working title: When Women Weren't Funny, And How These Hilarious Gals Laughed at That Notion.
To that end, I have digitized the handful of interviews completed with the lovely Linda Hill, Carol Roberts, Barbara Scott and Pat Daniels. They reside on our YouTube Channel in separate playlists for your viewing pleasure. Carol also contributed some unearthed footage of an early Army Opener and Unemployment Office sketch at Cobb's Pub, along with a Carol and Terry interview from a cable access show. 
Of course, your contributions are extremely welcome, whether it's filling in details on the Timeline, sharing your own ephemera (journals, calendars, career updates, Recollections), or arranging an interview to be added (looking at you Teresa, Susan, Debi, Sandee, Terry, and Jeannene).
Once again… Congratulations on making it to this moment in time with your memories relatively intact.

Friday, December 20, 2019

40th Anniversary • Comediennes Only (No Cover)

And now it's time to say goodbye,
as we leave the Seventies for the unknown Eighties…
Postcard sent to commemorate the beginning
40 years ago on a cold Wednesday evening in late December, 4 women of a freshly-formed improv troupe stormed onto the small stage at the Holy City Zoo as MCs or hostesses… opening act… and cheerleaders of the very first Women's Night. Pat Daniels, Susan Healy, Teresa Roberts and Terry Sand opened the show with improvisational sketches to warm up the audience for 15 minutes in preparation for the handful of women they would graciously introduce throughout the evening. There were less than a half dozen comediennes in the line-up that night, likely every woman doing stand-up in the Bay area, not a single male comic qualified for this bill. Femprov possessed the flexibility to stretch between acts to fill and lengthen the duration of entertainment, by tag-teaming through theater games they learned in workshops and pulling the funny out of thin air. Blithely ignoring the prevailing attitudes of management* all the women that night seized the opportunity for stage time in front of a live audience. Whether it was a ground-breaking magnanimous gesture by the Holy City Zoo or a way to cash in on the novelty of women performers, Femprov claimed Women's Night as their own proving ground.
*In acknowledgment of ERA, women's night is every Wednesday. According to Tony DePaul most women tend to be shy and more uneasy about standup comedy. It requires a great deal of performing confidence. He also feels it is harder for an audience to laugh at a woman. It is a different style of comedy and the club offers its own all-female improvisational group called Femprov.

Thursday, December 19, 2019

In the time of feminists… 40 years later

One day after this video of Pat speaking about Feminism in the 80s was posted onYouTube, a viewer [Interdimentional Wizard Wiz] posted a comment, that gives one pause at the poetic pain he endures… until he replies to his own post with "How sad for humanity.".
Indeed, Interdimentional Wizard Wiz, indeed.
It became illegal to discriminate on the grounds of gender in 1974 in the UK.Well done!Now feminism simply teaches that men have never loved women...and have only ever oppressed them.There is no deeper cut to the soul and heart of man.But it is not for man to advise woman to love.... or to have seen his love.That is for woman to choose.and so, men silently withdraw... and give space for woman to decide if she chooses to keep her mate, her companion since the beginning...... or if this was meaningless to her.Adam has withdrawn to the hills..... with a tent... a motorcycle... a van...or simply video games .....the first decade was hard and lonley...... but now after another decade or so... the sparkles on the water... and the twinkles of the stars are where his love swirls.... in the flowers and the dew.... in the weeping tears... rolling down his cheeks....but women appears to want the world to herself now.... and the love men had for women was not what she wanted.                                                                  perhaps that star over there .......... is where a few friends will come.