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| Shazia Mirza (Photographer: Sarah Jeynes) |
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| WTF! Audience at Colston Hall |
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| Lucy Porter |
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| Dana Alexander (Photographer: Rouben Freeman) |
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| Kate Smurthwaite |
Hello and welcome to Feminist Create's interview with Jane Duffus, Founder of Bristol's very own What The Frock! Comedy Events.
Can you tell me how long you've been doing What The Frock! and about your role?
I’m the founder and executive producer of What The Frock! Comedy. I formed What The Frock! in January 2012 after waking up to the fact that although I knew of lots of incredibly funny women, there were very few women being booked by comedy clubs in the UK, or on TV and radio shows… and I just saw red. It became a case of putting my money where my mouth was and doing something about it myself. It’s very easy to sit about and complain about things, but sadly few people get off their bums and do something about whatever it is that annoys them!
Have you always been in Bristol and what makes it a special place for you?
I grew up in the South West, about an hour outside Bristol, so I knew Bristol pretty well – it was the nearest big city to come to if we wanted to go to gigs or decent shops when I was a teenager, and as soon as I could drive I used to come up here all the time. But then I moved away to Nottingham to university, and then gravitated to London for most of my 20s, and returned to Bristol five years ago. I can’t imagine living anywhere else now… I’ve met my husband here, bought a house here, started my business here, and built a life that I really love here.
Tell us a bit about your relationship with feminism and more about comedy and women?
I’ve always been a feminist, I just didn’t realise that was the label for it until about six or seven years ago. My lightbulb moment was while I was studying for an MA at Birkbeck College in London, and Lynne Segal was one of my professors. For those who don’t know, Lynne is an Australian woman who came over to London during the 1970s at a similar time to Germaine Greer – although I wouldn’t exactly call them colleagues! Lynne experienced life as a single parent, she lived in a communal home in Highbury and she was influential in bringing feminism to the public consciousness in the 1970s and 1980s. She still works tirelessly now. At the time I met Lynne, she had just published her autobiography Making Trouble, and she was talking about some of the experiences that had inspired her book, which I promptly read… and then I read all her other books. And although I didn’t agree with everything she said, her books led me to books by different women, and there led the snowball effect. I’m very proud of my feminist library now… it takes up the bulk of our living room shelves!
My feminism now has moved away from academic books, which are rather undigestible in my opinion, and onto more practical things – like promoting women in the arts, promoting women in business, campaigning against everyday sexism in Bristol (lap dancing clubs, breast themed restaurants) and addressing casual sexism in general.
Are you a funny woman?
That’s not for me to say! It’s one thing to make your friends laugh informally, but quite another to get up on stage with the presumption that you’re going to be funny for 20 minutes solid.
I have no desire to do that… and I think that’s one of the reasons why What The Frock! works. A lot of comedians start hosting their own nights to create a platform for themselves to perform. But because I don’t have that desire myself, I’m freeing up mental energy to concentrate on promoting the acts, the night and the reason why I’m doing it. That said, we have a comedy workshop in Bristol on March 16, which Kate Smurthwaite is leading, and I’m going to take part… I thought I should have a little taste of what life is like on the other side of the microphone.
Which funny people have inspired you?
Ooh, so many. French & Saunders are my absolute favourite funny women, although maybe that’s a bit too obvious. I briefly met Jennifer Saunders last October and thought I was going to explode with excitement.
I also love people like Jayde Adams, who is our resident compere. Jayde is Bristolian born and bred, and she’s moved from being a fishmonger at Asda to an opera singing, beat boxing, rapping, dancing comedian. Just looking at Jayde makes me laugh, in a kind way! My favourite thing when we have Jayde on the What The Frock! bill is to watch the faces of people who haven’t seen her before… and count how many seconds it is until they convulse in laughter. It’s always less than 10!
One of the things I’m working on at the moment is a book about fabulously funny women, which is coming out later this year. I’ve been working on it since August 2012, and it’s a huge collaboration project between myself, Bristol publishers Tangent, and about 30 different contributors – including Lucy Porter, Kate Smurthwaite, Viv Groskop and many more, celebrating brilliantly funny women through the decades. Shockingly, there has never been such a book before in the UK.
What are you most proud of with What The Frock!?
So many things! That sounds bumptious, doesn’t it? But so many things. Our sixth ever show was at the Southbank Centre in London, with about 700 people in the audience, and was part of the international Women of the World Festival – to pull that off, and so early in the Frock! history, was quite something.
What else? I’m proud that it’s grown so big and so fast. I’m now putting on shows in four UK cities, running the workshops, hosting solo touring shows, hosting comedy improv plays, running one of only two all-female comedy competitions in the UK, and we have the book coming out. Plus I’m currently in the finals for three businesswomen awards.
In just over two years, I’ve put on around 30 events, raised about £1,000 for women’s charities, racked up so much national and local press and publicity to promote women in comedy, and worked with more than 100 extremely talented women. And that’s just for starters… What The Frock! is currently a one-woman business, so there are limitations on how much I can do, but when you put it in blunt facts like that, it doesn’t look too shabby. Which seems very immodest. But women should blow their own trumpets more often. Women are very bad at hiding their talents and being bashful – that’s not going to help us get ahead.
Can you say more about how you went about setting up WTF!?
At the very beginning, it was a complete learning process - I had no idea how to run a comedy event! But luckily there were a lot of very helpful people on hand, like Kate Smurthwaite who we've continued to work with regularly, to steer me in the right direction. I never knew that so much work went into putting on an event - everything from picking an event name, to setting up and managing an online presence, to booking a venue and programming acts, to budgeting and keeping an eye on ticket sales... never mind all the potential hiccups along the way (acts who drop out at the last minute, making sure venues are accessible, responding to somebody who's not happy about something and so on). But it's all good. If it wasn't, I wouldn't still be doing it!
Do you think the model of WTF! could be expanded to other creative areas?
I'm sure it could. In Bristol, there is already an all-female theatre group called Hecate, who have been going for quite some time and seem to be doing very well indeed. And there are a lot of other successful all-female initiatives in Bristol - whether in the performing arts or elsewhere, we're very lucky here.
And what's coming up in the near future for WTF!?
On March 14, we have our next Bristol comedy club at The Mauretania (9 Park Street). Alongside our regular MC Cerys Nelmes, we will have sets from Jessica Fosteskew, Alice Frick and Tash Bartlett (Tickets here - http://www.wegottickets.com/
On March 16, during the day, we are running a comedy skills workshop at Halo on Gloucester Road, which is led by Kate Smurthwaite. It's an all-female workshop, and it's a rare opportunity to attend a comedy workshop outside of London. In the evening, there will be a low-key comedy showcase for all the course participants to try out their new skills infront of a warm and friendly audience. (Tickets here - http://www.wegottickets.com/
On April 4, we're putting on a comedy showcase at The Bell Inn in Bath as part of the Bath Comedy Festival. We have Cerys Nelmes as MC, and we also have seven hugely talented rising comedy stars on the bill, including Bethan Roberts, Annabel O'Connell and Helen Thorn, who were placed in the top three of the What The Frock! Newcomer Award in 2013. (Tickets here - http://www.wegottickets.com/
On April 11, it is the award night for the What The Frock! Newcomer Award 2014, at the Mauretania (9 Park Street, Bristol). Cerys Nelmes is again our MC, and she's also a judge, alongside myself, Alex Lovell (BBC TV) and Laura Rawlings (BBC Radio). We were inundated with entries from all around the world, as this is one of only two all-female comedy competitions in the UK. (Audience tickets here - http://www.wegottickets.com/
Then on May 16, we will be throwing our second birthday party, again at the Mauretania (9 Park Street, Bristol). Cerys Nelmes returns as MC, and we will also welcome Ada Campe, Hatty Ashdown and the return of our beloved Jayde Adams - who has amassed an enormous local following since we started working with her early last year. Tickets are not yet on sale, but will be on this link - http://www.wegottickets.com/
And then in the autumn, we're currently booking in more shows at The Lantern, at Colston Hall, Bristol - after a fabulous sold-out event there last autumn, which Lucy Porter headlined for us. Oh, and we've a book coming out! There's a lot going on.
Website - http://www.
