Good grief. I attended this show as a punter, and thoroughly enjoyed myself. Lots of the Funny Women were funny and also women. I am inclined to agree with the review, in as much as I feel that Pippa Evans/Loretta Maine was definitely deserving of either a place, or at the very least the sort of special mention afforded Rachel Fairburn, who was plenty entertaining in her own right. I should probably hasten to add I thought that Katherine Ryan was excellent and a deserving winner. Anyway, I never normally write on these sort of things, but I'm thoroughly agog at the sheer level of bovine stupidity on show on this page. The show was great and has now been rather sullied by the unseemly, poorly reasoned, and poorly spelt clucking of these faceless funny women apparatchiks.
Humphrey, June 2008
Extra Extra! man finds blond, middle class southerner more attractive than regional northerners from either the Americas or the UK! Shock! The show was fantastic it's just a shame that all the reviews are about the awful review. ps. Katie, I guess if you're having a competition open to women only you have to make that fact clear. You're right that funny is funny but in a very male-dominated profession it's good to have somebody fighting to get women up there. If this night had been open to men and women, how many women do you think you would have seen on that stage? just have a look under P on the Chorlte comedians page. 2 women only http://www.chortle.co.uk/comics/p/
Jane Doheney, June 2008
Shit happens. Bad losers are everywhere in comedy. Maybe time to re-think funny 'woman'. This implies that it is a special needs group like funny 'alligators'. They have been hoist by their own petard. I hate fucking categories. Funny is funny. So there.
Katie, June 2008
I agree with many of the comments about this reviewer and would add that he clearly has a problem with female comedians in general. However, looking at his other reviews he seems to have a problem with non London based comics and Northeners in particular. How predictable then, his comparison of Rachel Fairburn to Caroline Aherne, when clearly they are not alike apart from both sharing a Manchester accent, Caroline's standup was charecter based and Rachel's is not. I also don't understand his remark about the bibliophile joke Rachel did, it neither confused bibliophile with peadophile nor was is drawn out. Mr Bennet also failed to mention that Rachel got a well deserved 'Special Recommendation' from the Judges. A reviewer has a respnsibility to review what actually happened and far from being hit & miss, Rachel did a strong set with excellent material quite unlike anything else on the night. Mr Bennet then goes on to rubbish Rowena Haley, who was a strong guitar act and just as funny as his favourite, Pippa Evans, but in a different way. Again however, she was gulty of coming from the North All in all, a mean minded/loaded review. Perhaps you should get more people in to share the load as you are clearly not up to the job.
Greta Smeeton, June 2008
Erm..... what.... It's more like a episode of Loose Women than a review. Half of the review is dedicated to what should have happened in the reviewer's mind just tell me about the night, and what happened and review that otherwise we could all be here for a very long time, as we skip through Bennett's mind and his views on the decor of the venue "they should of opted for a dark green paint on the wall with soft up-lighting instead I was disgusted to find they had gone for spot lights and a navy blue theme"
Terry Mynott, June 2008
I'd just like to say that this is an appauling review and i fail to see how it made it onto the website. not only does it spend too much time focusing on a girl who not only didn't win, but dealt with losing very badly as well, it fails to show any genuine respect for any of the funny women who performed. Whilst you accuse others of being 'crude' or 'brash' you hardly show and sense of erudition yourself, it seems in rather poor taste to compare someones performance to a sexually transmitted disease(crabs?). All in all this review appauled me, Katherine Ryan was a clear winner with a virtually unanamous respect from the entire audience. Not to say that Pippa Evans' performance was anything less than entertaining, but i personally believe that the best woman did win and a majority of others believed this too and in my opinion that's what really matters.
Alice, June 2008
What a pity that Mr. Bennett feels that it is right to be derisive about every act reviewed without the proper research to justify his words. You might want to brush up your accents too so you know the difference between Canadian & obviously fake American. The show was quite one-sided with the crowd (and judges) having picked Miss Ryan along with a host of industry. While there were may have been obfuscations of order the top two were undeniable in the eyes of all that were there. Funny how you failed to mention Pippa's refusal to take the stage with the other acts at the final. Such an act of cowardice and selfishness might be rewarded by the petty but admonished by the general public looking for a quality show. May you continue to stifle the dreams of the up and comers Mr. Bennett. Your failure precedes you.
M. Breslin, June 2008
Well done Katherine! I picked you as my favourite. Let's hear it for the North Americans!
