Angie McMahon plans to prove that women are funny, and she’s recruited 55 comics from across the United States to help the cause.
McMahon is the founder and artistic director of the Funny is Female Comedy Festival produced by Oak Park’s Comedy Plex, Oct. 23-26 at two Oak Park venues—Comedy Plex at 1128 Lake St. and Dragon Lounge at Sushi House, 1107 Lake St.
McMahon, who is the director of the Training Center at Comedy Plex, was inspired to start the festival because, “We have an all-female comedy class. We are cultivating all this talent but we don’t have a place for them to go.”
Her original plan was to have a small festival to showcase local comics and some of the Comedy Plex students. One of the club’s owners, Marz Timms, encouraged McMahon to expand it nationwide and bring in national headliners on multiple stages.
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A festival committee was organized to handle the various tasks in producing the festival, such as seeking sponsors.
A committee of three — Timms, McMahon, and Rachel Hall, a young comic — each watched and rated the videos of the 212 comics that applied for the festival.
The 55 comics with the highest cumulative scores were booked. Each comic will have two performances.
McMahon estimates that about half of the comics are coming from out of town.
“I am kind of the forward-facing person with the talent,” McMahon said. “I’m the one who’s giving them their timeslots, making sure they have their posters, and that they know where they are going.”
McMahon is also responsible for grouping the comics together for the various shows. “That was a little painstaking, and quite a headache I’m still dealing with,” she admitted.
The artistic director said the one grouping they were particularly careful with was the Clean Comedy Show, which will be at 5 p.m. Saturday. “The other shows we tried to have a nice balance,” McMahon said. “We tried to make the night feel as even as possible as far as content and type of humor.”
Patti Vasquez was chosen as one of the two headliners. “Patti has worked with us before,” McMahon said, including headlining a show. “She’s a close friend of the club.” Vasquez is host of “The Patti Vasquez Show” on WCPT 820.
Vasquez got her comedy start early while attending a parochial school. “I lacked impulse control,” she admitted. “I would always make comments in class.” Her goal was to make classmates laugh — and she did.
She credits her family for her comic genes. Vasquez noted that her father, who was first generation Irish, “was always trying to make people laugh. My mother, who came to the United States from Mexico, has a very proud way about her that leads to interesting situations.”
Vasquez was a history major in college with a long-term goal of being a lawyer. But when she saw comic Margaret Cho on television, she related.
“She was a woman telling stories I had never heard a comedian tell before,” Vasquez said. “She was talking about being the daughter of immigrants.” That triggered Vasquez’s memories of being treated unkindly because of her family background.
Vasquez said she decided almost instantly, “That’s what I’m supposed to do. I went to an open mic at the end of February in 1994 and I dropped out of school about a month and a half later.”
She has been a successful touring comic ever since.
At the Funny is Female Comedy Festival, audiences will get a taste of why Vasquez has been so successful for over 30 years.
“I have always talked about my personal experiences for the most part,” Vasquez said. “I try to make them universal even though there aren’t that many Mexican-Irish-Americans.”
She will talk about her sons, who are 20 and 22, the younger one of whom is severely disabled.
“I don’t talk about the disability,” she said. “I talk about how people treat him. It’s a little bit of a gentle nudge for people to be mindful.”
The other headliner is Megan Gailey, who has appeared on Comedy Central and the Conan O’Brien show. Because of a family emergency, she wasn’t available for an interview.
Maxi Witrak, a Los Angeles-based comic who has performed with Arsenio Hall and Melissa Villasenor, said she began attending open mics with a guy she had a crush on and realized, “I think I’m funnier than that. That got me going.”
Her first professional appearance was at “a very small, seedy, dive bar show,” she recalled. “I got offered payment for it and, at the time, I thought I was trying to be a team player to the show so I didn’t let him pay me. Looking back, it was so dumb.”
Although Witrak came to Los Angeles with the hope of becoming an actor, stand up comedy became her career path. “It was the most accessible way to get to say what I wanted to say without having to make an entire film or put up a one-woman show,” she explained.
She primarily performs in the Los Angeles area but does perform across the country from time to time and recently was in Limassol, Cyprus, performing at the Cypress Comedy Festival.
At the Funny is Female Comedy Festival, Witrak will be sharing some of her favorite old bits, in preparation for an upcoming one-hour special she will be recording shortly.
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“They’re still relevant,” Witrak declared. “I’m excited to bring them back and see what everyone thinks about feminine stuff.”
The last night of the festival, there will be a “Best of the Fest” performance at 8 p.m. where comics have the chance to be seen by bookers, agents, and casting directors that McMahon has invited to attend.
In addition to the performances, there will be two workshops. One will be a question-and-answer session with casting directors and talent agents. The second will be a panel on social media and branding.
Tickets to the Festival are $25 online and $30 at the door for the headlining shows; $15 online and $20 at the door for the other shows; $75 for an unlimited pass. The workshops cost $10 each. Information is at comedyplex.com/fif-festival.
Myrna Petlicki is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.