I don’t know about you, but I think we could all use a laugh right now. Luckily this reporter was able to get one from the comfort and safety of her own couch by attending a virtual comedy hour.
Last Thursday night the New York-based comedy group Women Stand Up presented a virtual comedy show via Zoom. This all female-identifying group was co-founded by NYU Tisch alumni Natalie Gifford and Brittany Raper. This creative, Canadian duos are both performers and comedians themselves. Their goal in creating the group was to give women a platform to start their careers, in the traditionally boys club world of stand up. Gifford hosted the show, kicking off this evening with a set of her own.
Natalie Gifford performing the show’s opening monologue.
Although Women Stand Up has been hosting live comedy nights since mid-2019, this was the group’s first virtual show. Before the performances started Raper, who was attending as a guest for the evening, hopped on screen to give her fellow audience members of over 90 people a few house rules. “Cameras off, mics on” she instructed. The purpose being that performers didn’t want to be distracted by other’s screens, but they did want to maintain the familiarity of laughing together that has become tradition to in-person comedy shows.
Keeping the mics on did come with some technical challenges. Any side conversations could distractingly be heard by all, luckily the comedians were strategically able to play off the noise in their sets, or just push through and still deliver the laughs.
A few sets like Julia Caine’s and Hannah Cohen’s presented like a typical comedy set. A performer delivering a monologue to an audience as if they were simply standing on a stage. Others used the technology to their advantage. Performer Susan Dorf used her time to create a virtual poetry ‘hour’, Roxy Arecco gave a tour of her childhood bedroom and Rachel Ruecker used a screen sharing feature to give a hilarious PowerPoint presentation assessment of her life during quarantine.
Susan Dorf at a previous Women Stand Up show.
The show concluded with Shanna Iglesias’s set where she desperately attempted to see the ghost that her roommates have been saying haunt their apartment. In the end, the ghost unabashedly shows itself to the audience, however, Shanna had to come to the horrific realization that maybe she just can’t see ghosts.
Shanna Iglesias (left) and Hannah Cohen at a previous Women Stand Up show.
Other talented performers in this evening’s show included Ameila Annen, Paula Leon, Leorah Wood and Sofia Figueroa.
Photos courtesy of Tessa M. Dobrow and Women Stand Up.
