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Comedy·STAND-UP

Female comedian described as something other than 'funny and fierce'

After years of bringing her unique brand of stand-up comedy to venues across Canada, comedian Sam Kennedy has unexpectedly broken new ground in the art form today.
Jon Blair · CBC Comedy ·
(Shutterstock / Simikov)

TORONTO, ON—After years of bringing her unique brand of stand-up comedy to venues and events across Canada, comedian Sam Kennedy has unexpectedly broken new ground in the art form today when she became the first female comedian to be mentioned in a press release that did NOT describe her as "funny and fierce."

Like all female comedians, Kennedy is only ever described in press releases and event descriptions as "funny," "fierce," "fiercely funny," "funny and fierce" and even "a fierce, funny, fearless female". To date, her style of comedy has never earned the also-acceptable descriptors "feisty" or "foul-mouthed".

When the promotional copy for an upcoming stand-up night featuring Kennedy (the loosely-conceived "Stand-up Things Episode 8: The Laughs Jedi") described her as "witty and energetic", the event drew interest from many potential attendees who now had no idea what to expect. It also left many worried that the show would be lacking in ferocity, a highly expected trait in women's stand-up sets.

For her part, the veteran comedian says the change is surprising, but welcome.

"I guess I had never really considered myself a particularly fierce person," explained Kennedy. "Actually, I've never really been sure what 'fierce' even means in the context of stand-up comedy. But every show I got booked on, they'd be like 'she's funny and fierce!' And I was like... well, at least they said I was funny?"

While this is the first time that Kennedy — or any female comedian in history — has not received the alliterative praise, she's had close calls in the past. Kennedy informed us that she was once booked on an all-female comedy show that described her as one of a series of "lovely laugh-out-loud ladies," but that also promised that the show itself would be "funny and fierce," thereby applying the descriptor to her by extension.

Reached for comment, show promoter Ben Aikman replied, "Oh, Sam is a woman? Oh, hmm. Okay, sorry, that's my bad." At press time, Aikman is updating the promotional copy for the event to better reflect Kennedy's funny, fierce approach to comedy.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jon Blair

Jon Blair is a writer and sketch comedian best known for his work on This Hour Has 22 Minutes and his 5 year tenure with Toronto sketch comedy mainstay The Sketchersons. He recently won the Stand Up and Pitch pilot competition at Just For Laughs, and the prestigious Bag of Beer award for best newcomer at Montreal Sketchfest.