Trailblazers had to be a lot funnier than the men
In the late 80s and early 90s there were very few women in comedy who managed to make it to the big time.
It has never been easy for women to be a stand-up, and the industry has since been proven as both a man’s world and boy’s club for many years.
In a way, the few that did make it had to be better than men and make sure they were noticed.
There was the wonderful Jo Brand, whose stage name when she appeared at the Gilded Balloon was Sea Monster.
I never quite got why, other than she was large and delivered her jokes in a very monotone style.
Jenny Éclair was also around in the ’80s, starting out as a bit of a punk-poet.
It took a few years and lots of hard work before Jenny became noticed and became the first woman to win the Edinburgh Comedy Award, formerly known as the Perrier Award.
It was in 1995 and that’s when I could see things were beginning to change.
I actually used to put on a show at the Gilded Balloon in the early 90s called Women in Comedy.
For the first few years it featured Caroline Aherne, who made her mark in the comedy world as chat show host Mrs Merton and with her unparallelled, amazing sitcom The Royle Family.
It is very hard to think that she is no longer with us.
In the early 90s there were a lot of “laddish” women comedians, trying to be the same as guys.
Thankfully that passed and now I think women are being true to themselves.
The Gilded Balloon has run a competition called So You Think You’re Funny? for 30 years and the women who have been finalists and winners in the competition – including Rhona Cameron, Sarah Millican, Sara Pascoe and many, others – prove just how great women are.