Funny Women, the UK's first and only national comedy competition for women was set up six years ago by Lynne Parker in response to the lack of equality on the stand up scene. Since then Funny Women has gone from strength to strength: the main competition has been won by notable names such as Zoe Lyons, Andi Osho and Suzy Bennet. The 2008 Nivea Funny Women Awards final line-up included Pippa Evans and Sara Pascoe as well as winner Katherine Ryan, all of whom were recently named as comedy faces to watch by Time Out.

'When we first started the ratio of women to men on the London stand-up circuit was about 1 in 10' says Lynne Parker. 'Now we're seeing about 2 in 10, which is a 100% growth but there still is an unfounded perception that women just aren't as funny as men.' Working from the mandate of promoting women in comedy, Funny Women have had a presence in Edinburgh almost from the start - running all-female gigs and promoting women in comedy as a whole. In 2007, Funny Women branched out from their national competition - which takes place every year in spring - to run an additional award at the Edinburgh Fringe in order to address the gender imbalance in the mainstream comedy awards.

'There were so many great female and female-oriented shows at this year's Fringe' says Lynne Parker. 'We had a lot of fun watching all the shows and were very proud to be able to name some truly outstanding talents as our winners.' With the Funny Women competition and the growth of all-female gigs like Laughing Cows, it seems there are more opportunities for female comics than ever before. 'There's as much variety in female comedy as there is male comedy' says Lynne Parker says. 'Different people have different approaches, it's nothing to do with gender. The situation has improved over the last six years, but there's still quite a way to go before gender's no longer an issue in stand-up.' It seems that more and more women are trying their hand at comedy, and with the consistent growth of entrants for the Funny Women Awards since their creation, applications for the 2009 Nivea Funny Women Awards are already coming in.

The 2008 Nivea Funny Women Fringe Awards are three-fold, with category prizes given for Best Stand-Up, Best Theatrical and Best Newcomer, and a £1,000 prize awarded to the overall winner. Janey Godley took home the Overall 2008 Nivea Funny Women Fringe Award for her show Domestic Godley. Character act Pippa Evans won the Best Newcomer category for Pippa Evans And Other Lonely People. All-female sketch group Angry Puppy was awarded the Best Theatrical category.

'I really loved winning the award' says Janey Godley, 'I'm not a typical, female girly stand up, so it's nice to be recognised for all my years of hard work. It's great that women are supported in an industry that is predominately indigenous to males. It's lovely to have women support other women.'

(c) Hari Patience 1 September 08

Hari Patience is the media contact for Funny Women at Edinburgh Fringe 2008. Website - www.funnywomen.com

Fringe Report (c) Fringe Report 2002-2012

www.fringereport.com