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'A Woman Trapped in a Woman's Body'
Why don't we worship funny women?
Weedman: women use comedy in different ways.
- A Woman Trapped in a Woman's Body
- Sasquatch Books (2007)
Lauren Weedman is beautiful. And funny. It says so right in the blurbs on the cover of her new book, A Woman Trapped in A Woman's Body (Tales From A Life of Cringe). Funny and pretty and beautiful and hilarious. Open up the book and have a read and you'll see how and why more than anything, she's worked hard to be those two things. A memoir that begins with a tale of how she was fired from her job as a correspondent on the wildly popular Daily Show with Jon Stewart, and then works backwards, detailing in short story form Weedman's pathological need for acceptance and approval. A Woman Trapped In a Woman's Body reveals plenty of painful truths about Weedman's life, but also illustrates a larger, more pitiful truth about society as a whole. Why the hell don't we worship funny women? Why isn't funny as sexy as a great rack or a painful high heel?
Over the phone from her home in L.A., the actress/writer/comedian is in the perfect mood to discuss this. Despite warnings from her book-writing friends and her management, Weedman has been indulging in the crack-cocaine of published authors: checking her Amazon.com ratings. Worse still, she's gotten her first bad review.
"Where are the funny female comedians?" writes "ginsu," an amateur Amazon reviewer "I just read an excerpt from Lauren Weedman's new book about working on the daily show. I didn't laugh once, and cringed through the entire thing"
"I'm not gonna check it anymore!" says Weedman, clearly sounding distraught. "I'm not even going to work on a computer anymore. I'm just gonna write longhand and use a typewriter. Between seeing horrific pornography and reviews, I don't think I can handle it. I don't think I'm gonna check. But of course, by 9 o'clock tonight I will have cancelled all plans to not look at the computer."
YouTube vitriol
As distressed as the first-time author is, she's used to criticism. Her award-winning one-woman shows have endured similar vitriol at the hands of that infamous pack on Internet jackals: YouTube commenters. Which hits on the other, not entirely unrelated theme of A Woman Trapped In a Woman's Body: a pathological need for approval. Whether it's a painful tale of trying to find her birth mother (Weedman is adopted) or a great story about going overseas to find herself, only to come home anxious to prove how much she's grown, Weedman's compulsive need for affirmation could almost undermine her comic voice, if it weren't for the fact that her self-doubt is entirely hilarious.
"I went on Amazon the other day, and I saw that for humour books, I was number 64. And I was all pleased, because number 64, that's really good, right? And I told my friend, and he said, 'Well, let's see who's bookending you.' And so we looked it up, and right above me was like Uncle John's Poopy Bathroom Humor, and right below me was Uncle John's Poopy Bathroom Humor II. So I guess that really puts everything into perspective." Her other saving grace.
"It just doesn't matter."
Lauren Weedman will be appearing at Word on the Street in Vancouver on September 30.
![[Tyee]](http://thetyee.cachefly.net/ui/img/ico_fishie.png){kind=small}
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16
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nightbloom
4 years ago
I don't get it - every
I don't get it - every single stand-up comedian in my dvd collection and on my YouTube account is a woman. Kathy Griffin, Sandra Bernhard, Margaret Cho, Joan Rivers, Sandra Shamas, Nicki French, Jennifer Saunders, Roseanne, Carol Bernette, Lucille Ball...the list goes on. Comediennes have had long and successful careers in a multiplicity of formats aimed at a multiplicity of target audiences. And they can almost invariably count on a huge gay male following if they throw in a bit of sex, raunch and self-deprecation into the routine. So let's get off the proverbial cross please, girls. How can you expect to be funny if you make yourself to be a gaping wound all the time, anyways?
Why does every moment of "public introspection" with either a female professional or female entertainer have to turn into a Pity Party? And why does The Tyee keep serving up the same dish?
nightbloom
4 years ago
Chistopher Hitchens on the
Chistopher Hitchens on the "humour gap" in Vanity Fair, just to inject a little value-add sugar-'n-spice:
http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/features/2007/01/hitchens200701
Fogotwillingate
4 years ago
funny girls
Lisa Lampanelli and Sarah Silverman are very hot now. Lampanelli is #15 on the list of the top 30 acts in the US.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ccEo55Llz8
James Burns
4 years ago
Not funny?
It could just be that Weedman isn't that funny. I took a look at a few of her YouTube clips, and I didn't find myself laughing at any of them. None of it made me cringe, and I personally wasn't offended by any of her humor. Her clips were just kind of blah. Her delivery is wooden. Then again it could be that the clips I watched were far from her best work.
I suppose some men might be offended by Weedman, because her niche seems to be trying to make fun of male sexism (along with women's complacency or even participation in it). If that's an obsession of hers, it could explain why she's ready blame her firing from the Daily Show on it being and old boys club.
On the other hand, if you want to see a funny woman on the Daily Show watch some of Samantha B's clips. Her delivery is usually excellent, and she doesn't focus exclusively on one theme.
alive
4 years ago
Really, is this the best?
This is the lead story that has to carry Tyee through a weekend?
How about saving stories that may cause some discussion, for the days when the editors take off?
So this female is not funny, and figures it is because she is a woman?
Was a time when it was a good excuse to be black or hispanic!
Hey, if you cannot make a living, try something else!
nightbloom
4 years ago
I agree... Say, is it just
I agree...
Say, is it just me, or is the liberal-left press totally ignoring the Monks' pro-democracy uprising & suppression in Burma...? The silence is deafening. Not a single supportive march, protest or statement on any campus in the country. Are we just asleep at the wheel or what?
G West
4 years ago
Just you nightbloom
The networks I belong to are working overtime on it.
Letters, calls, emails etc. So it the UN.
The media doesn't pay attention to anything that doesn't come out of the middle east these days.
"Every one of us can do something to protect and care for our planet. We have to live in such a way that a future will be possible for our children and our grandchildren and our own life has to be our message."
Thich Nhat Hanh
lynn
4 years ago
Canadian demonstrations in support of Burma
Article on Ottawa demo on Sept. 29, 2007
http://en.epochtimes.com/news/7-9-30/60252.html
Article on Edmonton demo on Sept. 28, 2007
http://www.edmontonsun.com/News/Alberta/2007/09/29/4535739-sun.html
Article on Toronto demo on Sept. 27, 2007
http://www.thestar.com/News/World/article/261478
Article on Regina demo on Sept. 27, 2007
http://www.canada.com/reginaleaderpost/news/story.html?id=d9c670b4-5fd0-4fae-a3b6-4b6e2d856c80
There have been a number of demos taking place in other citie as well including Vancouver, Calgary, Kitchener and East Kootenay. Demos in those cities were partially covered in some articles and talicasted by news segaments of CBC and CTV.
Currently, more gatherings are underway in Canada. Candlelight vigil at Parliament Hill in Ottawa has been continousely taking place since last Tuesday. It starts 7p.m and ends 9p.m every day.
Canadian Friends of Burma (CFOB)
145 Spruce St. Suite 206
Ottawa, ON K1R 6P1
Tel: 613.237.8056
Fax: 613.563.0017
Email:
Website: http://www.cfob.org
nightbloom
4 years ago
That's reassuring - and
That's reassuring - and thanks for the links Lynn. I wasn't aware of the Parliament Hill vigils. We'll make our way there, if they continue this week.
nightbloom
4 years ago
Wow - this is bad
Burma: Thousands dead in massacre of the monks dumped in the jungle
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/worldnews.html?in_article_id=484903
G West
4 years ago
Yeh! Very bad
I saw that too nightbloom.
Did you see this:
The Canadian Friends of Burma (CFOB) is gravely concerned by the
inclusion of Ivanhoe Mines founder and Executive Chairman Robert
Friedland as a featured speaker at the Inaugural Asia Pacific Forum
on Mining and Minerals in Vancouver BC on Oct 1st 2007. A forum
whose "founding partner" is the BC government.
In the press release announcing Mr. Friedland's luncheon speech he is
heralded as an individual who is "in the vanguard of North American
natural-resource sector leaders who have pioneered business links in
Greater China and the Asia Pacific region during the past 20 years."
The press release neglected to mention that Friedland's business
links included a 50/50 partnership with Burma's military
dictatorship. The very same group of generals presently massacring
peaceful demonstrators in Rangoon and across Burma.
As monks, journalists and students are gunned down at point blank
range Ivanhoe continues to profit from a copper mine located in
Monywa, Sagaing Division operated in a fifty-fifty partnership with
the Burmese military junta.
Since February this year, Ivanhoe has claimed that it is in the
process of relieving its self of its 50 percent stake in Monywa. At
present they have yet to find a buyer for their share of the mine.
In preparation for an eventual sale the firm has sold its stake to
an "Independent Trust" in return for a guarantee that when
the "Independent Trust" sells the stake Ivanhoe will then be paid.
While this agreement may give the impression that Ivanhoe is no
longer in Burma, the firm continues to accrue profits from the mine
and will do so until the "Independent Trust" sells their stake.
Ivanhoe refuses to say who operates the "Independent Trust" but
asserts that the operators are independent of Ivanhoe.
(continued below)
G West
4 years ago
conclusion
Reports from the Monywa area are that the mine has caused a great
deal of environmental problems and has severely affected nearby
farmers. An independent environmental study commissioned by Ivanhoe
reveals a considerable portion of the land used by the operation is
severely contaminated. Yet Ivanhoe's cleanup plan is vague and
relies heavily on the involvement of their joint venture partner, a
state owned enterprise of the Burmese Junta.
Burma's mining and environmental regulations are some the weakest in
the entire world. Furthermore Burma's extremely repressive
dictatorship does not allow for the kind of climate where those
living near the mine can openly state their concerns about its
operation or its cleanup. It is our believe that long after Ivanhoe
has left Burma, the environmental problems caused by the Monywa mine
will remain.
The Canadian Friends of Burma and other organizations that are
concerned with the plight of Burma's people voiced their opposition
to the Monywa mine when Mr. Friedland's firm first announced their
interest in the area. Little that Ivanhoe has done in the ensuing
years has reassured us.
Mr. Friedland often stated that Ivanhoe's operations in Burma would
do good for the country, : "I am firmly convinced that Canadian
companies going to a country like Myanmar [Burma] to engage in
business will help the average person
there. I will tell you there is no country in Asia that is a perfect
democracy....... And I have no doubt that the true situation in
Myanmar is improving and we can go and engage in business there,
subject to following our own code of conduct."
In reality Ivanhoe's involvement in Burma only served to enrich a
brutal regime and give it more money to buy weapons to use against
Burma's population. Those risking their lives in Rangoon's blood
soaked streets would certainly prefer that Mr. Friedland had
pioneered somewhere else.
TheRiverfrontTimes
4 years ago
Morons! All of you! Weedman rules!
I liken your disappointment in Weedman's stand-up to that of a Sedaris fan attending one of his readings; if you're going to his readings, you just don't get it, and you probably haven't read the book.
I haven't laughed this hard at a memoir since "Me Talk Pretty;" Like Sedaris, Weedman's chapters are vignettes of frenzied self-consciousness and acute perception bordering on Aspbergers. And it works because it's true: who couldn't reflect on some tales "from a life of cringe"? But Weedman has the balls to say it out loud; this is a woman who leaves a reader snickering behind Jon Stewart's back. A comedian without the sense to be self-depreciative? Now (italics) that's funny. Hey Stewart! I'm open!
You're making controversy where there is none- certainly not in the book. The reader cheers for Weedman; we want her to connect, and she doesn't disappoint us- she wouldn't, because she has that kind of comedic grace. She lets us in on her jokes, on the clown midgets in her basement, and if you can read this and not fall madly in love with her, you have no soul.
G West
4 years ago
TheRiverfrontTimes
Haven't read the book - I think maybe now I will - Thanks!
But can I continue to like Jon Leibowitz too?
TheRiverfrontTimes
4 years ago
G West
You can continue to like Job Leibowitz if you're not wasting literary space in a spot implicitly reserved for commentary on our generation's Lily Tomlin.
I studied under Thich Nhat Hanh in Plum Village during the Three Month's Rain retreat; I left more than a little cynical about his hermitage, and wary of his infusion of politics and religion. Weedman is just plain hilarious; I could have used this book when I was eating gruel and freezing my ass off in a bunker in France.
G West
4 years ago
Interesting observation about Thich Nhat Hanh
I'd be interested to hear more...he certainly has a large following and it would be surprising if some of the hangers on weren't in it for something other than enlightenment.
I'd heard he has pretty much retired from public appearances - a friend of mine was considering a trip to Plum Village later this fall - I'll have to tell her to be a little careful about that decision - maybe she'll head for Green Gulch instead.
You'll notice I didn't offer an opinion about Weedman - and won't - until I can form one of my own.
Never been one for gruel and freezing my ass off either.
That said, Zen Buddhism is less unattractive than a lot of the alternatives and the Vietnamese tradition certainly did play an important role in political affairs for a period in the middle years of the 20th century.