6 Comments

Thanks again, Katrina, it was a good chat and yes my play on 'trans' with this title is probably too risky and 'triggering' for the admin running the Melbourne Comedy Festival - and the NZ Comedy Festival, and the Edinburgh Fringe festival admis, etc., etc., - who screen all applications and decide who passes muster. Evey communication I have had with these festivals, on both sides of the ditch, has been from people who sign their letters with their declared pronouns that hedge their bets as 'they/he' or 'they/she'. It's not hopeful for a sex-realist and Terf. But I've decided it's better to try and fail than to self-exclude in capitulation to the T takeover. We shall see...

Expand full comment

I can’t help having the feeling that those in the comedy industry should be the very ones who reject conforming to the status quo. I realise I know nothing about the industry, apart from what I hear from others, but it still seems like the very one which should be flipping the finger at pronouns, and upsetting the pronoun conformists to hell and back.

Expand full comment

You are absolutely right. Art in general has always performed this social criticism function by showing us the world at a slightly different tilt to challenge our kneejerk and stereotypical assumptions about ourselves and others. And stand-up comedy is the most direct way to present this challenge to accepted norms, being so open and simple in form. But... older businessmen and a few young idealists captured by the latest cool thing (trans) are gatekeeping the industry, and in my experience they don't value this vital role that art plays and comedy especially, not being artists or comedians themselves. The MCF even cancelled Barry Humphries, who helped found it, because he didn't buy into Trans, despite him making his mark in the comedy world as a crossdresser. But we have to push against this corruption and capture, as we Terfs are. :-)

Expand full comment

I remember that shameful cancellation of Barry Humphries by the prissy little prats who are trying to impose a new morality on us.

Expand full comment

Sorry I missed this, I've been head down getting my pitch into the MCF - a festival Humphries, a true comic genius, helped found but was not honoured by their new leaders when he died. I fear those same prissy prats will not just reject my 'TransTasmanian' show pitch but do something to expose by 'bigotry' in the industry. Not much to lose at this point, though. Humphries described these prats as 'a powerful foe' to Graham Linehan in a letter of support written shortly before he died. It's amazing how few people have the insight and courage to see the truth and speak up for it.

Expand full comment

Good luck...I hope you can screw/ squeeze some tadpoles of possibility from your routine. I have met Linehan he reckons Gervais gets not cancelled cos he is rich...I think too it may be because he is a trained philosopher and contemptuous of/ towards fakery and cruelty. We need to undermine fakery with fckery!

Expand full comment