Lisa Faith Phillips, hilarious comedienne and former stripper, tells me about the trials of being a female comedienne, whether women are actually funny, and about her brilliant show 7 1/2 Habits of Highly Effective Mistresses.
I wanted to ask her some questions about women in comedy because of an article I’m working on for Jay’s new zine, ‘Culo’, about the topic. Lisa’s answers were so interesting, I thought I’d put them up on the blog in full. She writes brilliantly, as is apparent from this interview, her blog, and the script to the show, which I can’t post but I assure you is hilarious. Drawing on her colorful experiences, working as a stripper to pay her way through graduate school at the London School of Economics, and her background in stand-up comedy and music, Lisa weaves topical humor and songs into a clever, thought-provoking show that is part comedy, part cabaret and part one-woman theater piece. Here’s hoping she’s performing in Edinburgh next year!
Interview with Dr. Lisa Faith Phillips
How hard has it been for you to get into stand-up comedy?
I always recommend to people who ask me how to get into comedy – Just do it. I’ve been putting on comedy shows since the third grade so now when I do a show in New York or Washington DC or Dublin, I am struck that it hardly feels different from the shows I used to stage in our garage, though my name is up in lights off-Broadway.
Growing up in Findlay, Ohio, comedy and laughter was always my family’s way of communicating. Although my father was a lawyer, he often performed WC Fields and Laurel and Hardy routines to entertain friends and family. In school I wrote and performed funny shows and sketches, winning my high school drama and speech awards. During the summers in college I did summer stock usually musical comedies. Even at graduate school at the London School of Economics, I was one of a group that started a drama society and wrote a humorous panto of Peter Pan where I played Wendy.
When I moved to NYC to the East Village in 1983 with the idea of continuing my writing though not certain where it would take me, comedy clubs and performance art venues were suddenly springing up all over. My first week in town I met a comedian who took me around to a number of comedy clubs. I found the excitement of a room filled with people laughing addictive. I started going to open mike nights and set up performing dates at the downtown performance clubs such as Folk City, CBGB’s Gallery and the Wah-Wah-Hut. It was an exciting time of experimentation and a number of the performers from that period went on to great careers. The Wah-Wah Hut was at that time an unmarked building so you had to be in-the-know to find it on Thompson Sq Park. There I was on a bill with comedy duo Steve and Mark – Steve went on to the successful career, the actor Steve Buscemi. I met The Blue Men when there were just trying out their ideas at PS 122. I rubbed shoulders with Spaulding Gray, Penny Arcade, Reno and Eric Bogosian. I auditioned at The Comic Strip the same night as Chris Rock, though he was introduced as a good friend of Eddie Murphy’s.
When I quit my day job at a law firm to pursue comedy full-time, I was invited to join Manhattan Punchline, a theater on West 42nd Street that specialized in comedy. Tamara Jenkins, who later went on to write and direct Slums of Beverly Hills and The Savages, was in the comedy troupe, and I took her with me to try stand-up.
Do you think it is a male-dominated sphere?
Yes, it is male dominated. In part I think the life in the comedy club circuit appeals is a very clubby, aggressive world that appeals more to men who enjoy hanging in groups and one-upping each other. I have found many of the funny women I know move on to writing books, plays or films, which allows them to work at home and they often develop a more observational humour about life rather than the more common put-down humour found in the clubs.
Also men do still control most of the comedy outlets and that can be a barrier for women comedians. The male-dominated atmosphere also makes it harder for women who want to join in to be accepted. My own experiences are typical. My audition at The Comic Strip, a hot Manhattan comedy club where Seinfeld got his first break, went very well even though I had been warned the man who passed the talent did not like women comedians.
It was considered an honour to be mentored by this man and after my set, he asked me to sit with him. He started by telling me that since I was attractive, when I came out on stage the men in the audience desired me and the woman were jealous and resented me so I was already at a disadvantage as I would have to struggle to win both groups back to thinking of me as funny. He then said it “I do not find women funny.”
He went on to add that it had to be hard to be a woman comedian as most of the producers and talent agents were men and they did not find woman funny!! Although he did like my comedy since I commented on the latest news events and not PMS and dating. He kept me there talking while the audience left and the club closed up. Then when we were alone, he said that his wife didn’t understand him and he was suffering from blue balls! I declined the offer to relieve him. He did say I could come back and try out material during week nights after 11. But I did not feel comfortable.
Something tells me Chris Rock and Jerry Seinfeld were not expected to blow him after their sets….
On another occasion I was invited by an executive of Club Med to dinner to discuss a job creating a comedy program for the North American Club Meds. He seemed to think I was the main course and I had to fight him off as he pawed me and tried to shove his tongue down my throat. Not the job interview I was expecting. And since he looked like a fat toad not an invitation I was interested in reciprocating.
Do you prefer male comedians to female comedians?
I like both male and female comedians. It is the kind of humour that appeals to me. I like thoughtful political social observation humour so I don’t enjoy for example put-down humour as David Letterman loves to do, making fun of people on the street. Or dumbed-down humour like comedians such as Larry the Cable Guy.
Some of the funniest best shows I’ve ever seen have been by women: Whoopi Goldberg’s first one-woman show, Lilly Tomlin’s one-women shows, The Kathy and Mo Shows.
Why is it that men are considered funnier? Are men better at laughing at themselves, particularly physically?
I was struck by a book that came out in 1986 Comedy Writing Secrets by Melvin Helitzer, in it he proposes that the two most important elements of why we laugh are superiority and surprise, with the desire to feel superior the most important.
He writes: “There is a strong and constant need for us to feel superior…What we are often doing with humour is comparing ourselves with others we consider inferior by ridiculing their intelligence, their social standing and their physical infirmities.”
It seems easier for men to pursue this sort of comedy as they have been used to being in the power position for centuries. It is harder for women, though it has thankfully been changing, to come at the audience from a power position as for centuries we have been relegated to the position of helpmate, nurturing and supportive. So women have to break the mold of how society has viewed them for centuries to follow their male counterparts.
Looking back over what comediennes were successful on television, there does seem to be only the “allowed” roles for women by the male controlled early movies and television. Gracie Allen – ding-a-ling housewife, Lucille Ball – ding-a-ling housewife, Phyllis Diller – lazy, sloppy housewife, Rosanne Barr – fat, lazy sloppy housewife. There was also the Mae West’s and Sophie Tucker’s brand of bad girl humour which didn’t thrive as well on TV though it has had a life in the comedy and cabaret clubs.
It’s striking that many of the women comedians today who are the most successful are lesbians: Ellen Degeneres, Paula Poundstone, Rosie O’Donnell, Wanda Sykes, which ties into the aggressive outsider role that women comedians often are placed.
I am excited to see how comedy will change now that women are becoming a more accepted part of the comedy scene.
Are women funny? Obviously they are funny women, but what do you make of claims, such as a journalist in Vanity Fair who claimed that women have to be beautiful/ sexy to be funny now…do you agree?
I laugh so much when I am with my girlfriends, I often think how can I laugh so much if we are not funny?
As far as beauty I think television in the States emphasizes youth and pretty for all their shows. (I’ve never seen detectives as beautiful as all of the TV female detectives on American television). But as we’ve read Tina Fey lost 30 lbs in hopes of being on air and people still advised Lorne Michael from putting her on camera for she was not pretty enough. Most television shows are controlled by men. Bright less pretty comediennes don’t tend to get invited on TV though there comediennes like Reno or Penny Arcade who do hysterical comedy. The men doing comedy on TV just have to funny while the women on SNL have to be funny and beautiful.
I have been struck that now men tell me they think Amy Poehler is so funny, the best performer on Saturday Night Live. That is an exciting change for women in comedy especially as SNL was famous for their testosterone fueled-sophomoric humour and driving woman comics away since they were given so little airtime.
Do you have any favorite female comediennes at the minute?
Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Kathy Griffin, Whoopie Goldberg, Ellen Degeneres, Wanda Sykes, Downtown comics: Penny Arcade, Reno.
What male responses have you received from your shows? Have men openly declared they find you funny?
Men are often my biggest fans, coming to all of my shows and comic plays. I try to appeal to both men and women in the audience but my shows often deal with women’s position in society. I’m very aware that there is a great underserved universe of smart, educated women who love to come out and laugh. Media outlets, targeting 18-30 year-old men, ignores this group so I’m trying to make more comedy for them.
You have one song in your show called ‘The Fellatio Tango’. It sounds hilarious. Can you tell me more about this?
As I developed my show 7 ½ Habits of Highly Effective Mistresses, a parody self-help lecture, inspired by my years in publishing watching people take a simple idea and make a 300-page advice book, seminars and advice shows, Ellen Mandel, the gifted pianist and composer I was working with, and I began to look through her original songs as well as write our own for the show. After we had written the original “How To Be a Bad Girl”, she pulled out a tango she had written which didn’t have any lyrics. I took it home with me and when I returned to see her I was keen to do it as The Fellatio Tango. Ellen was initially hesitant but when I explained that it would all be framed as if it were an advertisement for investing in my fellatio hedge fund, she agreed to work on it with me. It turned out to be a very fun song to do (with maracas) and has gotten us lots of publicity. Though it was also singled out when I was sued for copyright infringement and dilution of copyright (by tying their copyright to the unseemly) by the FranklinCovey Corp which has taken a variety of trademarks on 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.
What a shame. I take it you’re working on a new show. What’s it going to be about?
A: It will be a comic monologue weaving song, dance movement and puppets together so it should be a lot of fun. The inspiration for the new show was a book that came out last year and has been wildly popular – Eat Pray Love. I read it just before taking off on my travels and kept thinking my version would be Drink, Blaspheme F*. Her book is set up with four months in Italy as Eat, four months in India is Pray and Love is four months in Bali. So at first I thought from my travels Dublin could be drink, China blaspheme and Abu Dhabi F* but the show will be a little broader now that I am writing it. I’ve been working with a voice teacher and studying music theory at Juilliard so I’m planning on weaving how music formed Dr. Faith’s early years in songs. I had collected puppets over the years and had been thinking they would be fun to use in a show and now it feels right.
