All female identifying stand-up comedy group, Women Stand Up, will present a live online show on May 14th to benefit the Actors Fund. Organizer Natalie Gifford shares a story about this initiative which will showcase short stand up sets from women quarantining all over the world.
Women Stand Up is a New York City-based, Canadian-founded group of female identifying stand up comedians. September last year, our group had its first live show. It's an idea which started when I did a comedy class at NYU Tisch School of the Arts.
Together with my friend and co-founder Britanny Raper, we figured we should do comedy together. We decided to get our funniest friends together and do a show. Comedy suffers from a lack of representation and diversity. Women Stand Up's mission is to create a space to empower female-identifying individuals through stand up comedy, having their stories and voice heard for what it is, and to create a supportive community in which female-identifying individuals can get their beginnings in stand up. Prior to the lockdown, we would host monthly shows. We've received a lot of love from communities, and big comedians have headlined our shows and been involved in mentoring and supporting our initiative.
Photo credit: Women Stand Up
This week we will perform a virtual show for the first time, live over Zoom. All proceeds from the show will go to the Actors Fund to financially support artists who have been affected by Covid-19. The show will include sets from women quarantining all over the world.
'I think we could all use an excuse to laugh these days'
I think we could all use an excuse to laugh these days, and beyond that, women are resilient creatures and always have been, so of course we’re going to keep bringing shows to our audience. We hope we’ll be able to make people smile and raise some money for a good cause at the same time.
Tickets are on sale now with a suggested donation price of $10 USD and can be purchased online at womenstandupnyc.com or on the group’s Instagram page, @women.stand.up. Find the Facebook event page here.
This story was shared by Natalie Gifford, a Vancouver resident who is the co-founder Women Stand Up, an all female identifying stand-up comedy group which usually performs in New York.
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