Jenny Jones knows women.
”Don`t call us `Honey,` `Baby,` or `Sweetie,` ” says the musician/
vocalist-turned-stand-up-comedian, ”we want to be treated equally . . . we want support from other women.
”. . . (we) also want pantyhose that fits,” says Jones, who has amassed insight from her ”Girls` Night Out” comedy shows-a melange of stand-up, talk show, pajama party and group therapy-which have sold out across the country.
”There`s no such thing as heckling in my show,” says Jones, who`ll appear at 8 p.m. Monday and Tuesday at Zanies, 1548 N. Wells St.,
1-312-337-4027. ”If somebody has something to say, they can just stand up and say it.”
Unless of course, that someone has a Y chromosome. They can`t be legally barred, but men definitely are unwelcome. Even male bartenders, staff and stage crew are banished. The reason for the separatism, she says, is to ensure comfort for disclosure.
”I think women really open up with each other by nature,” she says. ”I just take it a few steps further by having 200 or 300 women. Women get very personal, and we just get right into it,” she says.
For instance, Jones may prod the audience into sharing their foibles.
”OK, applaud if, when your car makes a noise, you turn up the radio.”
And yes, they`ll swap mate gripes.
Still, ”It`s not a male-bashing show,” says Jones, 43, who had her own band and was a back-up singer for Wayne Newton before turning to comedy.
Her women-only concept has struck a chord. Jones, who grew up in Canada, now has been tapped to host a new Chicago-based daytime talk show. She`ll tape pilot installments Sept. 13 and 14 at Chicago`s WTTW-Ch.11 studios. (Free audience tickets are available by writing the station at 5400 N. St. Louis Ave., Chicago, Ill. 60625.) Chicago`s Bonnie Kaplan is executive producer for the Telepictures Productions project.
Jones won`t reveal much about her television show, but she does allow that ”I`ll tend to have more every day people (guests) than celebrities.”
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And she`s anxious for it to succeed so she can relocate to Chicago:
”It`s a miniature New York, without the attitude.”