Today we’d like to introduce you to Mary Becquet, Annegret Steioff and Suwon Weaver.
Mary, Annegret, and Suwon, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
Hot Medusa Comedy is a monthly all-female lineup comedy show at the LA Connection Theatre, produced by Mary Becquet, Annegret Steioff and Suwon Weaver.
Annegret Stieoff, a comedian and actress who moved here from Germany with her BA in acting to pursue her dreams; Suwon Weaver, a comedian and actress who grew up in LA; and Mary Becquet, a former CPA who got started in stand-up by writing jokes about her boss in the margins of her accounting work papers.
The three of us come from very different backgrounds, but we’re all women doing stand-up, so we’re members of the same weird sorority. We met here in Los Angeles, out at open mics, working on our jokes. All of us have experienced first hand how tough it is for women in comedy – from being the only female in a room of male comics (cue masturbation and rape jokes) to knowing that only 8% of comedy club headliners across America are women.
We got along really well, so we formed a writing group and as a first step, created our own workshop for the Artist’s Way. That’s when we had the idea for Hot Medusa – a comedy show focused on creating opportunities for women comics, especially women of color and those in the LGBTQ community. The name Hot Medusa comes from the fact that there are three of us and there were three Gorgon sisters in mythology. We just added the “hot” part as body positivity!
Has it been a smooth road?
While Hot Medusa Comedy is not the first to create stage time opportunities just for women in Los Angeles (Shout out to Bobbie Oliver at Tao Comedy Studio who does many things to support women and marginalized comedic voices in LA, Jen O’Donnell, producer of Ladies Room Comedy, a monthly show at the Westside Comedy Theater, and Marcella Arguello, producer of Women Crush Wednesdays at the Hollywood Improv), but we want to add energy and momentum to the scene and create more opportunities. We’ve had a great response and have some amazing headliners coming up.
People ask why it’s important to give stage time to women, and we haven’t found a better explanation than in Laurie Kilmartin’s New York Times Op Ed piece, “Being a Female Comic in Louis CK’s World.” Here’s a link. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/10/opinion/sunday/louis-ck-harassment.html A two sentence recap goes like this. Comedy happens in dark bars and places where people drink. We don’t have HR departments. Sometimes our male comic co-workers misbehave. Every woman in comedy has a story to share about unwelcome attention. We have to keep ourselves safe and get stage time to get really good – and that is not always easy!
So, as you know, we’re impressed with Hot Medusa Comedy Show – tell our readers more, for example what you’re most proud of and what sets you apart from others.
At Hot Medusa we not only give stage time, we create a networking environment at the show, in the green room, where the comics can talk; we book women from out of town so people will know one another on the road, and we focus on booking diverse lineups. Our mission is to help women meet each other so they can grow their own power to create what they want for themselves! We try to model that with the show in everything we do. That said, we have a lot of male supporters too! We run an open mic before each show, for men and women, and everyone who pays $5 to attend the mic gets into the show for free. We are humbled and grateful for the support we are receiving from across the whole comedy community in LA.
We find that co-producing enables us to collaborate and form a high-performing team, too. We each have aspects of the business that we do best. No one gets worn out with all the work, and we all have a chance to learn new stuff.
Let’s touch on your thoughts about our city – what do you like the most and least?
Los Angeles is an extremely active comedy community and there are so many women comics here, our show is booked for the next six months! The richness and variety in comedic voices is amazing.
As producers, we do have a goal to produce and sponsor Hot Medusa shows around the country – in fact the Hot Medusa producers are going on tour and taking our all-female lineup to Texas August 14-17! We will be appearing in McAllen, San Antonio, and Midland, Texas – where we are booking other women to appear with us, and creating more opportunities as we go. We have long-range plans for content production by women, comedy specials by – you guessed it, women; and a sketch show based on original characters from our comedy. We love being based in LA for all the great talent and the open access to high-quality talent here. We hope this never changes.
Pricing:
- Tickets are $10 in advance and $15 at the door!
Contact Info:
- Address: Hot Medusa is currently based at the LA Connection Comedy Theatre, 3435 W. Magnolia Blvd., Burbank, CA 91505
- Phone: 210-606-5403
- Email: hotmedusabooking@gmail.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hotmedusacomedyshow
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hotmedusacomedyshow
Image Credit:
Mary Becquet, Suwon Weaver, Annegret Steioff
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