To empower and encourage women and draw laughs is the goal of Interrobang!?: A Women’s Comedy Show.
It’s the fourth Women’s Show, which includes stand-up, live and video sketches and poetry entirely written by the all-female cast. It is a tradition started by Eudora Peterson and Carolyn Williamson. However, this time around producers of last year’s show, Eat While Swimming, Hannah Ticoras and Rachel Lewis, are organizing the comedy show.
An interrobang is the name for the combination of the punctuation marks exclamation mark and question mark.
“Since our collective comedy style is pretty eclectic, I hope the audience leaves the show thinking ‘!?,’ ” Ticoras said.
A donation of $3 is suggested which will benefit My Sister’s Place, a domestic violence shelter, in order to spread the message outside of Baker Theater, Ticoras said.
The show will feature women from Blue Pencil and OU Improv as well as performers from AVW Newstime and Fridays Live.
“Although we have a 20-plus person cast, females are still highly underrepresented in the Athens comedy scene and the situation outside of Athens is even worse,” said Ticoras, who is also president of OU Improv.
“Because there are so few of us, it’s easy to fall into the icy grips of competition but Interrobang is a testament to how much better things are when we all work as a team.”
This competition could be an unhealthy one, Ticoras added, and the show Interobang is proof that working together provides stronger outcomes for women in comedy.
“Athens harbors so many talented females and this show showcases that,” Ticoras said.
Lewis said she hoped to portray the show’s intention: to empower women to be funny and show it by performing with a show that “has a little bit of everything.”
“The comedy community at OU is something I’ve been in or around since the first week of my freshmen year,” Lewis said. “As much as I love it and all the people in it, it is an upsetting trend that women are underrepresented.”
Chrissy Hallaman, a freshman who performs stand-up, said the show was an opportunity for her to step out of her comfort zone and perform a set she never would have normally.
“I really wanted to challenge myself; I've never performed for this large of an audience and the set I'm doing is incredibly personal, and if this group of people had never come together for this show I don't think I would have ever written or performed it,” Hallaman said. “However, because this particular group of people is so empathetic and encouraging, I feel comfortable going up on stage and doing it.”
If you go:
What: Interrobang!?: A Women’s Comedy Show
When: 8 p.m., Saturday
Where: Baker Center Theater
Admission: Free, but $3 donation recommended for My Sister’s Place
This article originally appeared in print under the headline "Show to feature women’s comedy"
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