1. Stephanie McRae: “Black women are funny, smart & charismatic!
“The toughest part about doing comedy as a Black woman is doing comedy as a Black woman. There’s been plenty of times I was bumped from major shows that I was scheduled to be on because a more seasoned male comic just showed up. ” McRae says. “Being a woman does play a big part […]
2. Nichelle Stephens: “Women in comedy often don’t get the big paying hosting gigs or even more important, the writing jobs.”
“Black comics are often underestimated for their writing skills when it comes to tv and screenwriting.” Nichelle says there’s “only one in a line-up–either one woman or one African-American for a mainstream show.” Which is why she created her weekly stand-up show, Chicks & Giggles.
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3. Hadiyah Robinson: “There’s a stereotype of the Black women voice in comedy, but our voice is as vast & varied as our shades.”
“Sometimes clubs want to relegate you to a certain nights or shows because they think your comedy won’t translate to everyone. There’s the shows that don’t want to have more than one woman on the bill,” Hadiyah mentions, but that doesn’t get her down. “But Black girls aren’t just sitting back waiting. We’re coming together […]
4. Maryssa Smith: ‘Many popular female comics are hypersexuallized. I don’t think we have to sling tits and ass or the fantasy of having sex with us to be funny.”
“Male comics are never expected to be sexy, they are just expected to be funny,” she says. “The typical female comedic archetype is the ‘dumb slut.’ My voice is not sexual. I joke about sex, but I have no interest in writing jokes to just end up being in some guy’s spank bank. I’m not […]
5. Phoebe Robinson: “My number one goal is funny first, and then you can have a lesson or a message that you want to get across.”
“Being a woman of color in comedy has been an issue, but I just roll with it and know that my career is going to make it just a skosh easier for the next W.O.C. that comes along. W.O.C. should be represented more and that will require more people of color to be in positions […]
6. Yamaneika Saunders: “Comedy helps me to connect with the inner child in me that was always overlooked and dismissed.”
There’s a “sense of responsibility we feel as people of color to be a representation for our ENTIRE race. Being a Black woman [in comedy] is an issue because you’re Black women are often pitted against each other which breeds resentment & disdain, I’m praying that with more opportunities that dynamic will change. I would […]
7. Chloe Hilliard: ‘I am Black & I am a woman. I don’t play either of them up or down for laughs.”
“Men don’t see us as being relatable. They don’t want to hear about what it’s like to be a woman so that means you have to work that much harder to be undeniably funny so they see past your ovaries,” Chloe admits. “Comedy is dominated by misfits. It’s hard to be racist when we’re all […]
8. Akilah Hughes: “Comedy is inherently about finding something funny in adversity, so I think Black women make great natural comedians.”
She’s the mastermind behind, “Meet Your New Black Girlfriend” on YouTube and her favorite thing about comedy is that it’s changing. Established comedic career paths are overwhelmingly White male, so you have to have really thick skin to be able to handle the onslaught of hacky rape and racist jokes. It gets old. I do […]
9. Loni Love: “People like women to be pretty. If women aren’t pretty, there needs to be something (audience members) can look at or joke about.”
Women may be featured, but I can’t count how many times guys walk up and say, “I’ve never seen a woman close the show,” Loni says. “Everybody thinks my audiences are going to be Black. I do so many mainstream shows. Once the club owner sees that, he’s like, ‘Oh, she’s not only drawing from […]
10. Del Harrison: “My voice is very honest and even a little racist.”
“That’s the advantage we have as Black women: we can speak our racist thoughts aloud and if there’s enough Black people in the audience, it’s funny,” Del said. Ever heard of Black privilege? Well, Del gets it. And she doesn’t think that being a woman or being Black hinders her. “Being Black or a woman […]
