Top Picks for Boston’s 2015 Women in Comedy Festival
Mary Mack appears at the Women in Comedy Festival on April 23. / courtesy photo
Funny women have been kicking all kinds of ass this year: Runaway web-to-cable hit Broad City got picked up for a third season, Tina Fey’s Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt debuted on Netflix to the delight of binge-watchers everywhere, Melissa Rauch’s The Bronze rocked Sundance, and The Toast’s uncanny humor-druid Mallory Ortberg continues to slay us on the regular.
This week, Boston’s Women in Comedy Festival (April 22-26) returns for a triumphant seventh year, bringing with it both up-and-coming talent and the people who paved the way. Here are a few highlights:
Every year, a frightening percentage of the movies Hollywood pumps out utterly fail the Bechdel Test. Not so at the inaugural WICF Film Night—this showcase makes its debut with “14 juried comedy shorts that were written, directed or produced by a women, or contain a strong female protagonist.”
April 22, 8 p.m., Brattle Theatre, 40 Brattle St., Cambridge, 617-876-6838, brattlefilm.org.
Mary Mack’s trademark is deranged comedy wrapped in the disarming candy shell that is her elfin, Midwestern-accented voice. No wonder she got tapped to play gothling Dylan on Fox’s Golan the Insatiable. See her fetching cartoon character act in the flesh this Thursday.
April 23, 8 p.m., Laugh Boston, 425 Summer St., Boston, 617-725-2844, laughboston.com.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=970yJGLpot0
Whether she’s playing a homicidal Cy-Bug slayer (Wreck-It Ralph), a porn actress-turned-folk singer (A Mighty Wind), or a snarling high-alpha cheerleading coach (Glee), Jane Lynch always steals the spotlight—in Sue Sylvester’s case, often by brute force. And now she’s bringing her new one-woman sketch show to the Wilbur for its local premiere.
April 24, 7:30 p.m., Wilbur Theatre, 246 Tremont St., Boston, 617-248-9700, thewilbur.com.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOlwoqH-kSY
It’s been 46 years since Lily Tomlin first got her start on Laugh-In—which means that she’s been doing comedy for longer than most of the WICF standups have been alive. And at 75, she’s still shapeshifting her way through a whirlwind of unforgettably bizarre characters: Most recently, she teamed up with Jane Fonda for Netflix’s Grace and Frankie, which makes its debut May 8.
April 25, 7 p.m., Wilbur Theatre, 246 Tremont St., Boston, 617-248-9700, thewilbur.com.
When ABC picked up Cristela in 2014, Cristela Alonzo became the first Latina to create, produce, write, and star in her own network show. As she recently told comedy news blog Splitsider: “When I started doing standup [in Dallas], I was really one of the only women and I think I was the only Latino, so I was always just considered part of the whole scene. I was never pigeonholed as a female comic; I was never pigeonholed as a Latino comic. I was just a comic.”
April 25, 9:45 p.m., Wilbur Theatre, 246 Tremont St., Boston, 617-248-9700, thewilbur.com.
Dyke Night Showcase hosted by Mary Dolan
With foul-mouthed “geriactress” extraordinaire Mary Dolan—the crusty alter ego of ex-Boston comic Petey Gibson—at the helm of this Dyke Night showcase, you know you’re in for something special.
April 25, 8 p.m., Club Cafe, 209 Columbus Ave., Boston, 617-536-0966, clubcafe.com.
