The Horror ... the Horror ... Can Be Really Funny

Several years ago, the great feminist author Eileen Myles described some artfully ugly local performance-art comediennes as “really capturing the horror of being female.” Gal comedians tend to be intimately acquainted with this horror, whether by getting into it, rejecting it, or creating farce out of it. Comedy is still a big guffawing sausage party, and no matter how many women have added their voices to the roar, there are still magazine articles lamenting and questioning their role in comedy — published with a straight face. Happily, there are tons of talented women working comedy clubs and television gigs (film remains woefully undercast with comedy roles for women), and Natasha Leggero is turning in consistently hilarious performances commenting on Chelsea Lately as well as in her own stand-up special on Comedy Central and various spots on late-night television. If, as Sarah Silverman recently tweeted, “Being a woman is like being in the slowest horror movie ever,” then we’ve found our Final Girl.

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More About

• Eileen Myles
• Vladimir Khlynin
• Matt Champagne
• Stand-up Comedy
• Arts, Entertainment, and Media

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Matt Champagne and Vladimir Khlynin open.
May 11-14, 8 p.m., 2011