WOMEN, FRONT AND CENTER AT ALL JANE COMEDY FEST

Female-friendly showcase draws name talent, varied voices

The All Jane Comedy Festival marks its fifth year in Portland next week, running from Wednesday, Oct. 5, to Sunday, Oct. 9.

The all-female comedy event takes place primarily at Curious Comedy Theater, 5225 N.E. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. Shows are all ages, and alcohol will be sold.

Forty comics from across the nation and Canada are expected to draw as many as 2,000 folks to shows, notes Stacey Hallal, the festival’s founder and artistic director.

“Every single person is different,” Hallal says. “Every person is hilarious.” She has organized the fest so fans can catch all the performers if they go all five nights.

“I want everyone to see everyone,” she adds.

Festival highlights include a “Best of Portland Showcase” from 7:30-9:30 p.m. Oct. 5, featuring host Amanda Arnold along with Susan Rice, Becky Braunstein, Dinah Foley, Lucia Fasano, Wendy Weiss, Jenna Zine, Ali Reingold and Julia Ramos.

Meanwhile, Maria Bamford headlines a 7:30 p.m. Oct. 9 all-ages show at Revolution Hall, 1300 S.E. Stark St. Bamford stars in the Netflix TV Series “Lady Dynamite” and won the 2014 American Comedy Award for Best Club Comic.

Ticket prices vary. For more info, visit www.alljanecomedy.org.

Main streams

Portland comic Andie Main hosts Curious Comedy’s weekly open mic as well as the Doug Fir Lounge summer series “The Cool Kids Patio Show.” She also organizes the Revolution Comedy series, which organizes fundraisers for various progressive causes.

Main will host a 7:30 p.m. Oct. 8 show at Curious, featuring Jackie Kashian, Clare O’Kane, Lisa Best, Georgia Barnes, Luz Pazos, Irene Tu, Melody Kamali and Bobbie Oliver. Like the other comics who spoke about All Jane, Main says the festival has been a boon to funny females.

“All Jane was the first festival that ever booked me,” Main says. “Once you get your first festival credit you’re more viable to get booked at other festivals. For me it’s great because it highlights women’s voices in ways that are not exploitative.”

Women face a variety of challenges in standup that men don’t, she says, including thinking much more than men might about what to wear on stage so they’re taken seriously while not being serious.

“A guy just has to put on jeans and a hoodie and people are like, ‘Oh you’re a comedian,’” she says. “But a woman has to dress more to the job.”

Canadian comic

Toronto’s Debra DiGiovanni was named Canada’s Best Female Comic three years in a row, and will be part of shows Oct. 6 and 8. DiGiovanni say she’s looking forward to performing in the city of the bearded hipster.

“I have a whole thing with guys who look like Jesus,” she says with a chuckle.

Like the other comics, DiGiovanni says she’s run into sexism, though in her case it’s been mostly on the Web.

“Most of the sexism I come across is through anonymous means,” she says, noting she has mixed feelings about how women should deal with sexism in comedy.

“It’s like entering into a sport that’s been male dominated,” she says. “There’s no excuse for sexist behavior or racist behavior. At the same time if you do enter a boys’ game you should be ready to play.”

She dislikes crude, body-based heckling, she says, but she also doesn’t police how male comics talk around her.

“I’m not going to leave a room because of the way men are speaking,” she says. “I’m a comedian. If I wasn’t strong in who I am I wouldn’t get on a stage.”

Founder’s insights

Stacey Hallal, All Jane’s founder and artistic director, notes for decades the comedy world’s primarily male gatekeepers, like booking agents, limited the number of female comics folks saw at festivals, clubs or on TV. Hallal chuckles when asked if she is now a gatekeeper.

“The goal is not to gate-keep but to kick it open,” she says, adding one of the reasons she founded the festival five years ago was because comics need festival appearances to get better-paying gigs and there were not enough opportunities for women.

For example, she says, she’s done a number of improv and standup shows that feature only one or two women on stage with several male comics.

Various reasons have held female comics back, she says, from outright sexism to the demands of motherhood and the pressure women can feel in a still mostly male world.

“If you’re a ‘good comic’ or a ‘bad comic,’ it has a lot to do with subjective opinion,” she says, noting the pressure can discourage women as well as minorities of both genders from pursuing a comedy career.

“Pressure can undermine people’s performances,” she says. “You’re under this extra added pressure as a woman or minority, and people see it on stage.”

When women are given a fair chance, they can compete just fine with male comics, and All Jane will present some of the best comics working in the business right now, regardless of gender, Hallal notes.

“They just have a totally fresh and different perspective than what we’ve heard over and over again.”