GOING ALL IN

Vicky Hanlon and Claire Hagan, founders of Melbournebased production company Commit To Your Jokes, have made it their mission to promote the voices in comedy that aren’t always heard. These are their takeaways on the future of the craft NEW PUNCHLINES, NEW PLATFORMS

It still depends on where in the world you are, but there’s a shift happening – people want to hear better, smarter comedy. Different stories and voices instead of the same old narratives. And they’re more easily able to find and connect with the kinds of comedy they want to see, especially via social media. It’s created a bigger audience base to tap into (whether through live comedy, videos on social media or podcasts) and there’s more content all the time.

BE SHARP, NOT “EDGY”

In the live scene, you’ll still see a lot of comedy that’s toeing the line of offensiveness (whether knowingly or not) and it always feels good to be in a room where those jokes fall flat. It pushes people to try harder and write more thoughtful jokes. There are so many more stories to tell and topics to joke about that don’t marginalise groups of people.

COMEDY CAN CREATE CHANGE

There aren’t too many positions in society that get to speak their opinion on stage and have people actually listen to them. The job description is “Be funny” and there’s nothing wrong with the intention of pure entertainment without other messages. That said, comedy can be an incredible vehicle for social messages, an examination of the world and its joys and horrors.

LET’S TALK ABOUT SEX

It’s a persistent double standard that women who play up their sex lives are “slutty” and men who do the same are lauded for it. The value of women talking openly and brazenly about their sexual exploits is that it helps bust the pervasive slut-shaming narrative of mainstream media. Women are just as gross as men and just as dysfunctional in sex and romance and now we can talk about it (and, eventually, one day not get called slutty for doing so).