▼ Culture UNTIL THEY CRY LAUGH For female comedians who endured harrassment, Dallas comedy’s boys club is no joke. BY DESIREE GUTIERREZ H annah Vaughan shouldn’t have been driving on July 1, 2021. She had run to her car crying inconsolably, and her brother pleaded with her to pull over. It was a miracle she didn’t wreck the car. Luck kept her safe that night when emo- tion overcame her. She had just walked away from her passion. She had finally quit comedy. “I never felt more like myself than when I was on stage, and I hope I can get that feel- ing back somehow,” Vaughan says. “If it’s not in comedy, then somehow.” For Vaughan and many other female co- medians, Dallas comedy is no laughing mat- ter. They describe Dallas comedy’s culture as riddled with sexism, misogyny and intim- idation, where “paying your dues” means being on the end of endless microaggres- sions that can escalate quickly. To succeed, some women say, they must be submissive, and those who dare speak out are often mocked, ridiculed and pushed out. Vaughan’s comedy career began Decem- ber 2016, when her father gifted her with a comedy class at the former Dallas Comedy House. Within a year and a half, she was teaching comedy, performing nightly and starting to produce her own shows. “When I started doing stand-up, it was this feeling like I’m being heard for the first time, like I just learned to speak for the first time, and I’m finally speaking the language and the art that I was meant to speak,” Vaughan says. “It felt really good to find a creative outlet.” In February 2020, her enthusiasm landed her a weekend date opening for Saturday Night Live’s Melissa Villaseñor at the Addi- son Improv, but her euphoria was short- lived. The pandemic forced comedy clubs to close temporarily, and when shows re- turned, so did sexism. This time around, it was unbearable. “I found that what was waiting for me in the comedy world was worse than what ex- isted before,” Vaughan says. Throughout her comedy career, Vaughan 12 12 had endured countless uncomfortable mo- ments, like the time she sat through a set where a male peer sexualized female comedi- ans in the lineup. The show’s booker laughed. She once overheard male comedians and a booker casually “talking about not raping a drunk girl the night before.” She listened as co- medians offstage expressed sympathy for comics Louis C.K. and Bill Cosby, both of whom have histories of sexual misconduct. “Things like that would raise a red flag to me and say, ‘Hey this person is not safe to be around alone because they don’t think that sexual, predatory sexual behavior is a bad thing,’” she says. For Vaughan, these behaviors were instant confirmation that a person belonged on her “not-safe list.” This wasn’t a list of people she would never work with, but people with whom she would never be alone. If another fe- male comic were to ask her about these peo- ple, she’d let them know she didn’t trust them. That July night in 2021, Vaughan saw a glimmer of hope. A comedy club owner was taken aback when she brought up these is- sues and discussed them with her at length. Afterward, though, her male peers extin- guished all hope. “They started saying, “Hey, if you feel this way then you shouldn’t be doing comedy be- cause it means that you’re not funny enough. You should be funny enough that that stuff doesn’t matter,’” Vaughan says. It mattered. Vaughan knew the dark side of comedy. She’d been cornered and sexually harassed by an audience member. When she told her peers, they questioned whether it was “really harassment.” “‘If you’re not tough enough to handle an audience member doing that, then maybe you shouldn’t be doing stand-up, because I’m willing to do stand-up for anyone. That means I’m good enough to hang in there,’” she says they told her. That night Vaughan quit comedy for good. “It’s so sick because you’re gonna make $100 a weekend and then let people treat you like this, but that’s what everyone’s fighting for here,” says stand-up comedian Lauren Davis. Davis, whose TV credentials include ap- pearances on Fox, Hulu, Viceland and Fu- seTV, has navigated the profession since 2012. She’s lived and worked as a comedian in Dallas, Los Angeles and New York. While she’s found no city’s comedy scene to be flawless, she believes Dallas’ is the most op- pressive. Others’ opinions differ. “[The Dallas comedy scene] is the best in the state,” says local comedian and booker Ryan Perrio. “I would put the city against any city that’s not New York or L.A. There’s a huge talent base here, and we’re extremely talented comics for the most part.” Perrio’s experience as a comedian dates to 2006. His website states 2010, but Perrio says the four-year difference is time invested in making a name for himself. His role as a booker takes him to venues all over Dallas to scout talent. Dallas’ comedy scene is small, with com- ics competing for slots at just a handful of venues. That leaves female comedians with few options in a scene dominated by men. “If you do want a career in comedy, as a female, you have to put up with this because you only have about three options to get booked,” Davis says. “If you burn those bridges by standing up for yourself, or stand- ing up against the misogyny or advocating for yourself, then you’re pretty much black- listed, which has happened to many people already.” Some women in the Dallas comedy scene say rampant sexual harrassment goes unchecked. Getty Images Locally, the Dallas Comedy Club, Hyena’s Comedy Nightclub and the Addison Improv are the most notable comedy stages. A head- lining weekend at these clubs is the ultimate achievement. Comics spend years attending open mics, building rapport with bookers and “looking the other way” while vying for the opportunity, Davis says. For women, the opportunity may never come. “If you’re looking at 12 months of the year, you look at month after month, you’ll see the majority of the headliners are men, and then the few women you see are huge, like hugely famous,” says Arlington native and stand-up comedian Jasmine Ellis. “That’s a hurdle. Very few people want to take a chance on a woman if she doesn’t come with a huge following already.” Now living in Los Angeles, Ellis has built her following from the ground up. She in- corporates storytelling into her comedy, with mixed reviews. “Some of the complaints I’ve gotten, that I just kind of laugh at, are like, ‘Where’s the funny? I don’t want to hear some lady talk- ing about her life,’” Ellis says. “[My response is] if you want one-liners and getting straight to the point, please go watch Mitch Hedberg from 20 years ago.” Despite the criticism, Ellis’ comedic de- livery has resonated with audiences. Her comedy album Trashbaby shot to No. 1 on iTunes. NPR’s Bullseye With Jesse Thorn named Ellis’ comedy special Nobody’s Queen the 2021 Comedy Album of the Year. Yet, she continues to face the same hurdles that keep women from headlining slots. Hyena’s Dallas and Fort Worth locations will headline only three women between now and April 2023, according to their on- line events calendar. The headliners >> p14 MONTH XX–MONTH XX, 2014 NOVEMBER 10–16, 2022 DALLAS OBSERVER DALLAS OBSERVER | CLASSIFIED | MUSIC | DISH | MOVIES | CULTURE | NIGHT+DAY | FEATURE | SCHUTZE | UNFAIR PARK | CONTENTS | CLASSIFIED | MUSIC | DISH | CULTURE | UNFAIR PARK | CONTENTS dallasobserver.comdallasobserver.com
