Courtney Schafer looks up to the quiet and nerdy comedy of Tina Fey.
The “comedy icon” taught her “anyone, maybe even someone as boring as me, could be funny,” Schaefer, a junior studying media arts and studies with an emphasis in screenwriting and producing, said. Schaefer was able to connect with Fey’s comedy, along with the similar style of Ellen DeGeneres.
“They made me feel a little bit understood when they told jokes. … They made me feel heard, like I wasn’t alone,” Schaefer said. “For me, when I try to write, … it’s to make people feel a little less crazy.”
Though Schaefer has seen an emergence of women comedians in the past few years, she said it is still a “male-dominated field.” As more female comedians open up about their lives as women, it allows for a different perspective on what is funny and relatable. Where the industry lacks is behind the scenes.
“Even though we may have a female frontrunner like an Amy Schumer making her own movie and starring in it and writing it, we’re not seeing enough women behind the scenes as far as female directors or female producers — that definitely matters,” Schaefer, who is interning at Apatow Productions in Los Angeles, said. “Even though they’re maybe not the comedy people, they’re creating this piece, and if it’s still under more of a male eye, we’re not getting that female vision.”
In Forbes’ list of the World’s Highest-Paid Comedians of 2016, Schumer is the only female in the top ten, ranking fourth and earning $17 million. No. 1 on the list is Kevin Hart, who earned $87.5 million, more than five times what Schumer earned.
Though Schaefer knows male and female comics experience some of the same pressures, there are certain aspects to performing that men do not have to worry too much about, she said. For example, men do not have to worry a lot about how they look on stage or how they come off as a person.
“A lot of comedy is commenting on life and complaining,” Schaefer said. “I think when women do it we worry, ‘OK, are we coming off as nagging, or complaining or bitchy, and that’s something I don’t really (think) has to cross a male comic’s mind.”
Ava Willford, the director of Fridays Live, does not see major differences between the sets of male and female comedians, she said. When people put on comedy shows, she said the jokes differ because everyone has different life experiences — not necessarily due to gender.
Willford has noticed a stereotype that women are not funny because it is perceived that “men are better than women at everything,” she said.
In an email, Schaefer outlined all of the executive positions held by women in OU’s comedy clubs, including AVW Newstime, Fridays Live, Black Sheep Improv and Blue Pencil Comedy Club. Of the 16 executive positions, 10 are held by women. In October 2016, Schaefer wrote a letter to the editor regarding the absence of OU women comedians in a previous Post article about politics and comedy.
“I think that that’s awesome that right now so many of the big comedy things on campus are run by women,” Willford, a junior studying integrated media, said. “Just being around that many inspiring women who love what they do makes me want to do more.”
Every year, female comedians on campus band together and put on a women’s comedy show for OU Moms Weekend. This year, the variety show titled “Don’t Tell Dad” will take place March 31 at 7 p.m. The show includes videos, improv, live sketches and music, and it features an all-female lineup. The event is the largest student-run comedy show on campus, Marissa Donovan, a co-producer for the show, said.
The women’s comedy show, which is in its seventh year, “gives (women) a platform” to tell jokes, Donovan said.
“The women get to be part of something special,” Donovan, a senior studying screenwriting and producing, said.
Schaefer recalled writing a set about salons, but she had nowhere to perform it until she saw the opportunity at the women’s comedy show.
“I remember writing the set and thinking it was the funniest one I had ever written, but I was like, ‘I can’t tell this anywhere because it’s so girly,’” she said. “I don’t not talk about being a woman, but I feel like I feel that pressure when I’m performing for men and women to kind of have universal jokes that everyone understands references to or can relate to. … I would say I almost shy away from it sometimes if I’m trying to make everybody laugh. ”
