'We're just funny': Montreal's Ladyfest puts spotlight on women-centred comedy
CBC
It's a wet and dreary evening in Montreal's Plateau neighbourhood, but inside a tiny, dimly-lit venue, tucked away up a long staircase on the third floor of an old brick building, the mood is anything but dampened.
Dozens of attendees and folks from the city's tight-knit comedy scene, many noticeably comfortable within the walls of the beloved Diving Bell Social Club, are buzzing — some thanks to the fully stocked bar, others in anticipation of curtain time.
It's the third night of Ladyfest, a comedy festival in its seventh iteration that puts female, trans and non-binary comics at centre stage, giving them opportunities they might not otherwise have.
"Guaranteed real humans, no AI-generated comics in the lineups!" reads a promotional post on the festival's Facebook page, poking fun at a Gatineau, Que., bar featured in a CBC/Radio-Canada story last week, which created a fake female comic in response to critics who said the club rarely booked female comedians.
Seated at a table lit with a candle, one of several in the room, Shanthony Exum, a comic herself, is waiting anxiously to see her friends perform their sets.
"A lot of the artists here, I love them," she says, gesturing toward the stage, her dangling, fully playable tick-tack-toe earrings jiggling with each movement.
"Even if it wasn't Ladyfest, I would come to their show."
Exum, however, explains how important the festival is, as it provides a space for women and non-binary people to share their talent with the world.
"It's good because it creates, like, this synergy where we have space to just fully express ourselves and — we're funny! We're just funny."
Tuesday's event, called the Underthunk Cabaret, made its festival debut with several high-profile and up-and-coming artists, including Elspeth Wright, Andrina Learmonth, Belén Arenas, Peach Club Barbie and Petro.
Featuring jokes about breast symmetry, queer relationships, cultural idiosyncrasies, sex work — not to mention a full-scale burlesque performance, complete with music, stripping and a sparkler — it's the kind of scene Zoe Lovett intentionally seeks out.
"I have been to many stand-up comedy shows where it's often majority men, and they're not really talking about things that I can relate to or that I'm interested in," says the visitor from London, England, who is staying in Montreal for the week.
"Whereas you come to like a queer-friendly … more interesting, diverse space and I am finding a lot more subject matter and jokes and comedy that I do relate to."
Sara Meleika, a comedian and the festival's organizer for the past two years, says Ladyfest aims to level the playing field for women and non-binary people in comedy.