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.

San Francisco's Femprov plays O.T. Price's Sunday night.

Femprov Comedy troupe relies on improvisation 

by Jamie S. Cackler • Santa Cruz Sentinel

"We very seldom let the audience get the best of us," says Jeannene Hansen of Femprov. The six-member, all-female improvisational comedy troupe plays the dangerous improv game of letting the audience call the shots.

They get a skit going then ask the audience to name a situation, an emotion or some unlikely twist for the plot to take. "We ask them to name a position, and there's always some bozo who thinks he's really funny and yells out 'missionary,'" Hansen said. "So one of us will drop down and start praying." 

After nearly seven years, it's probably as much experience as quick thinking that rescues the band of women from such audience-generated jams.
Femprov, which performs at O.T. Price's Comedy Night Sunday, began in 1979 when San Francisco's Holy City Zoo began its "Women's Comedy Night." The threesome of Susan Healy, Teresa Roberts and Terry Sand soon grew to six. After a few personnel changes the group stabilized with six members, now including cofounder Sand, Pat Daniels, Debi Durst, Hansen, Denise Schultz and Barbara Scott a former member of the popular Screaming Memes.

Though all female, "we never intended to be a feminist or separatist —believe me," Scott said.
"It's female humor just because it's females doing it. It's just an image when we walk on stage," said Hansen adding "We thought about adding a token guy, but then we'd have to change our name."

Still Hansen said, members of the audience see what they want to see. "We get women who want us to be right-on sisters. They take that away from the show. They get what they want out of it." On the other hand, she said, "Some guys come to see T&A, see some girls jumpin' around on the stage. Everyone interprets it differently."
Occasionally, Scott said they run into groups of people who make very wrong assumptions. "For instance, at one show there was this group of men who assumed that we were all lesbians, because we were all women working together," Scott said.
"Which is totally incorrect," chimed in Debi Durst, the wife of SF comic Will Durst.
"We asked the audience to name character relationships for a game and the men called out "Two women loving each other," Scott said. "You can always get a laugh out of a dirty joke or sexual reference, but we try to put ourselves beyond that."

Although there are six of them, a typical show includes only four at a time. "It's better that way, because we can accept more gigs, and each member gets more stage time. And every time you see the show it's different," Scott said.
The women claim there is no real leader among the revolving cast. "It's ensemble work —we each think everyone of us is funny," Scott said.
"That's what's so fun about watching us perform. If you get tired of watching one of us, you can just switch channels," Hansen added.

The flow of the show is influenced as much by who's in it as it is by the collective intellectual makeup of the audience and by what mood the performers are in.
"If the audience gives us dorky suggestions, they get a dorky show," Hansen said. "Sometimes, in a place like Santa Cruz, we get a sophisticated audience that wants a lot of political stuff. Others want a real dorky show. We can go either way."

While the nature of the act is flexible, there are some places it doesn't work as well. Television and northern Germany, for instance. 
Hansen said Femprov has appeared on some local television spots, and on a broadcast benefit telethon. Not a raving success, though. "Improv doesn't translate well on television. You can't see what's really going on. It's like magic —that doesn't work well on TV either," Hansen said.

As for Germany, Scott and Hansen toured Europe last year and managed to book a couple of shows in a Northern German town. "Jeannene and I took a couple of chances. It was very interesting, but we had to talk very slowly, it's slowed us down and that's not the nature of improv," Scott said.
And there were problems other than language. "We do this thing called an emo freeze," Hansen said "We freeze in the middle of a scene and ask the audience for an emotion. We found out that the people in northern Germany don't talk about their emotions, and that part of the act got dropped rather quickly."

O.T, Price's Entertainment roster • August 13, 1986

Femprov, an all-woman improvisation group consists of Debbie Durst, Terry Sand (with fish)
Pat Daniels (with fan) and Jeannene Hansen (hat). Denise Schultz is not pictured.

A woman's touch: 
all female improvisational group one-of-a-kind 

by Lynn Carey • Contra Costa Times 

It's pathos, compassion and pity. It's joy, sadness and lust. And it's all experienced within a matter of seconds on any stage you find Femprov.

The only all woman improvisational group in Northern California, Femprov began out of frustration in 1979. Very few females were used in comedy groups at the time, and Susan Healy, Teresa Roberts and Terry Sand who met in an improvisational comedy workshop decided to form Femprov after San Francisco's Holy City Zoo began "women's nights".
"Women's Night" didn't last, but Femprov did. Other members joined, some left, and the group now consists of five women in their early 30s who perform weekly together —without problems.

The name of the group was a problem at first. "We always figured people would think we were castrating bitches, or gay women's comedy," said Jeannene Hansen who is a four year veteran of Femprov. "We thought of changing the name to Broad Humor or something, but now we’ve got some momentum with the name so will keep it."

Other current members of the group our founding member Terry Sand, who also teaches improvisational comedy at the Jewish Community Center (she was also the first miss Haight  Ashbury); Pat Daniels, the only member of the group who has a “real” daytime job, as a cytologist (she used to run a joke writing service with then-husband John Cantu); Denise Schultz, who is also a waitress in the Financial District and a member of Comedy Underground, an improv group that performs at the Punchline; and Debi Durst also a member of Comedy Underground. The wife of Will Durst, who won the 1983 San Francisco international Stand-up Comedy Competition, Debi is the only Femprovette who is currently married. 

Since all the women in the group are attractive, witty and obviously extremely intelligent, it would be assumed that man lineup outside the stage door after a performance.
"Would that it were true," sighed Hansen with a chuckle. "Sometimes the guys that do come backstage try to be funnier than us. It isn't effective and I'm sure they feel like jerks."
Hansen got her first taste of comedy when she attended a workshop with a friend. "I was so frightened of performing onstage, though I had a few drama classes in high school. But I got up and said something, it got a laugh and I was hooked."

Hansen supports her Femprov habit with photography and stand-up comedy (she appears solo at the Other Café the Holy City Zoo and the Punchline) "I want to be a really strong standup comic, but from my point of view it's not as rewarding as improv. There's a real bond in creating something out of nothing. You can look at the person who's performing with you in the eye and signal ‘yes, let's go with it.’ There's a real freedom in that."

Femprov does about 10 sketches based on ideas from the audience. For example, at Cobb's Pub in the Marina a few weeks ago, they were asked to be sisters vacationing in Tahiti, and the audience kept suggesting a new emotion for them to play. During another skit, the two characters onstage kept freezing while the audience yelled out another movie director.

"Femprov is the warmest, most personable improv group in the city."

Flashes and flops: improv lives on 

by Steven Winn • SF Chronicle

A Monday night, several weeks later, 9:30 PM. Femprov, the Bay Area's only all-women improv troupe, is doing a set at Cobb's Pub on Chestnut Street. Formed in 1979 out of a frustration with the subservient roles women were assigned in earlier improv troupes, the group was popular initially as a novelty. Now the following is widespread, and deservedly so. Femprov is the warmest, most personable improv group in the city. 

The connection between the members is evident, in the responsiveness to each other's drift —or grammatical miscues —in a bit.  Ego seems to be nonexistent.

A movie trailer parody for "Nice Girls After Dark," is apt and droll. There's a gooey, loopy love-song number addressed to a male member of the audience, rich in a kind of mad cap hyper-sexuality "What I love is that women are supporting each other," one member drawls satirically in another bit. "Sexist" or "feminist" behavior, by conventional definition, is adopted by the members and shrugged off at the same time. Wit fails at times, but the bond to the audience is strong.

"When I did standup," says member Pat Daniels, "I did jokes about not getting dates. A lot of men, and women for that matter, think you have to compromise your femininity in order to be funny. Improv lets you get away from that. We can do a scene where four other women are actually supporting what you're doing instead of competing with each other —and the audience —to run themselves down."

Adds Terry Sand, "What a lot of actors are doing is 'indicating' emotions. In improv, you don't have time to get set to do that. Whatever comes up, that's what you have to go with."

Susan Healy of Femprov directs Les Cafero, left, Rico Ramos, Sandy Van, Nancy MacLean, 
T.C Nurov, and Janice Heiss in a round-robin of Story Story at Femprov's improvisational workshop 
held every Saturday afternoon at Cobb's Pub in the Marina. 

For $4 you, too, and have them rolling in the aisles 

by Ken Wong  • Examiner staff writer

San Francisco is a mecca for comedians. They come from all over the country to a town where comics drive cabs by day and perform in cabarets by night. All dream of being another Robin Williams.
It's a return to the 1950s when the hungry i was incubating newcomers Woody Allen, Lenny Bruce and Mort Sahl.

And now, for $4, you, too, can learn to be a comedian. Each Saturday afternoon Femprov offers a three-hour improvisational comedy workshop at Cobbs Pub, a saloon at Chestnut and Steiner streets in the Marina.
Femprov is an improvisational comedy group similar to the Screaming Memes and the National Theatre of the Deranged, both entertaining in spots around town. 

To improvise is to invent, compose or recite without preparation. The actors come onstage, ask the audience for suggestions – a profession, situation, emotion, conflict – and wing it from there.

On a recent Saturday, 15 people went through the wringer, in teams of two and three. Two women were to concoct a scene involving a stewardess and tennis. They pantomimed, pretending to bang a wall. They talked the dialogue went nowhere.
Susan Healy, today's leader, signaled them to stop and said "You must be pooped with all that swinging. You really hit the ball that often? And where is the scene? Are you playing tennis inside a plane? You've kept the dialog flowing. But it's not witty and it doesn't develop the characters."
Four other Femprov members also critiqued the neophytes. They told them what they did right and where they went wrong. 

Next, six people trotted onstage to do a spontaneous relay narration, an exercise in which one person picks up where another leaves off. Healy cued the speakers like a choir director.
It was a little like playing push-button on the radio, where by random pushing, you accidentally glue together some funny, incongruous lines.
Such as: "President Reagan said the poor and the hungry should try …" "… compulsive eating and discover alternative ways to nurture yourself and take charge of your life…"

The youngest person at the workshop was Rico Ramos, 21, an usher at Cinema 21. "I've been coming since it started," he said. "It's great. I have a captive audience."
Ramos, who came here from the Philippines when he was three, is all showbiz: "I love to entertain." 
Sometimes he entertains during intermissions at Cinema 21. He was with "Teens in Theater" while in high school and in "California, Can you Beat It?," a Mayor's Youth Program musical.

It was raining that Saturday, but Susan Williams and Diana Aragavritz drove up from Santa Cruz to make a noon workshop. "I've been coming for for four weeks," said Williams. "It's a long drive, but I'm hooked."
Maria Kamiya, 27, a San Francisco State University student, comes to the workshop because "it's fun and it helps to build self-confidence."
Arlene Mellon, 40, a freelance writer, agreed: "I was walking by one Saturday and saw the sign. There must have been a full moon that day. I walked in and found a platform to express myself creatively and humorously."

Of the 15 people attending the workshop, only three were men. Besides Ramos, there were Les Cafero and T. C. Nurov who works with the American Cancer Society.
"Men are welcome … we want more men … we're not just for women … tell them our workshop is a great place to meet women," said various Femprov members.

The group got together in December 1979. "We're just starting our third year," said Terry Sand. "We come from different parts of the country, met in a comedy workshop and it was a magic combination."
They have appeared here, in Los Angeles, at Stanford and in Monterey. 

"Improvisational comedy can be learned," Sand said "There are techniques. It's not that spontaneous."
Like jazz, there's a structure. It's how far out you can stretch before snapping. 
Daniels commented that it would take six months to learn how to be comfortable working together.
The others disagree. "There's no time schedule. It's up to the individuals," said Hansen.
But everyone agreed that it's a coordinated, ensemble effort. "You have to work together as a team," Healy said. "You're all in one boat, pulling together."
If one is stuck the others step in "It's like a rodeo. You fall off and a clown waves to keep the bull away," she added.

Improvisational comedy is risky. When you hit, it's hilarious, but it's a pie in the face if you miss. The measure of quality is longevity. "You don't last if the audiences don't respond," she said. Femprov will be playing at the Great American Music Hall and the Holy City Zoo in April.

"Most women tend to be shy and more uneasy about standup comedy"

In search of Laughter Holy City Zoo

Air Oregon Skies West publication

Excerpt

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.

The Very Beginning

Pat Daniels, Teresa Roberts, Terry Sand and Susan Healy perform at the Holy City Zoo as Femprov.

Sometime in late 1979, John Cantu started booking a Women's Night at the The Holy City Zoo. A Wednesday night that featured the handful of women performing stand-up and those practicing the dark arts of improvisation. In the tradition of finding a need and filling it… Femprov was born. But that's just part of the story…