By Rebecca Spence, Staff Contributor
Evany Rosen and Cheryl Hann serve as living proof that women can be smart, beautiful and funny. They have it all, and it’s hard not to be jealous of their success. Those bitches.
But in all seriousness, we’re talking about a pair of hilarious ladies. They act, they write, they do stand-up, and they balance schedules that include at least two performances a week with full-time university classes. Between sketches with their eight-person improv group Picnicface at Yuk Yuk’s on Tuesdays, and Joker’s on Sundays, there is little time to spend writing philosophy papers and studying for English exams.
But the balancing act is worth the effort.
“There’s nothing else like making a whole group of people laugh,” says Hann, 23, who is working toward a double major in English and philosophy. “It’s just the best.”
These wonder women are inspirational. They represent a new wave in female comedy that constantly strives to shatter stereotypes and break boundaries. Both Hann and Rosen acknowledge the long-lasting struggle that women have endured within the arts, and try to thoughtfully explain the foolish yet common attitude that “women can’t be funny” or that “women are not as funny as men.”
“Comedy is a younger art form in general, and women always get let into any art form later – whether it takes decades or centuries,” says Rosen, 22, who moved from Toronto to Halifax for the King’s Foundation Year Program. “There’s going to be a whole lot of skepticism about whether or not women will succeed at it, which I assume they will, as they have in every other attempt they’ve tried in the last 2,000 years. But we’ll see what happens.”
Hann calls that type of close-minded attitude “nonsense”.
“All of the people that I’ve always found funniest have been women,” she says. “All of the reasons I wanted to get into comedy were all female.”
For Hann and Rosen, these reasons range from Lisa Kudrow and Mira Sorvino in Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion to Jane Lynch and Jennifer Coolidge in Best in Show to “Saturday Night Live” cast members such as Molly Shannon, Ana Gasteyer, Maya Rudolph, Rachel Dratch and Kristen Wiig. And then, of course, there’s Tina Fey.
“To me, Tina Fey opened doors that didn’t really exist for women,” says Rosen. “In creating 30 Rock she created the first comedic item developed by a woman that isn’t for women. It’s not a sketch for women, it’s not a show for women, it’s not an idea for women, it’s not about women. It’s just funny and a woman did it. That’s a game changer in a huge way.”
Hann and Rosen are also thankful to Sarah Silverman for doing the same thing for stand-up that Tina Fey did for television.
“The first time I saw her do stand-up, it changed something for me,” says Rosen. “I would say she inspired me, even if I don’t love her jokes.”
Hann, although not a fan of Silverman, grants that she is an important and influential personality.
Hann and Rosen are also heavily influenced by each other’s wits.
“I think Evan is so funny,” says Hann.
“I think Cheryl is so funny,” says Rosen.
Fortunately, both Hann and Rosen have never felt they had to work harder than the guys in Picnicface to feel appreciated. They feel as though opportunities are always made available to them.
“Especially because the comedy scene in Halifax is so small to begin with. It would be silly if it were a boys’ club,” says Hann. “It would be, like, a five-person club.”
Even within their own comedy troupe, Hann and Rosen are able to play around with gender roles.
“You would think that Evany and I would have to take on all the female roles in the sketches,” says Hann. “But more often than not you see Bill (Wood) in a wig and me in a mustache, which is good, because I really enjoy wearing a mustache.”
The pair even performed a show at The Paragon while wearing as much facial hair as they could, covering their faces and bodies in mustaches.
“It was a feminist statement,” jokes Hann.
But it’s not all sunshine and rainbows for these two. Both Hann and Rosen claim to have bombed on occasion in front of a crowd. Hann recalls a show in front of a group of 50-year-old women in Amherst, Nova Scotia.
“I told a joke about transformers and they were like, what is a robot?” says Hann. “It was painful, but expected.”
Rosen brings up a show in Somserset, P.E.I., as being “the worst show I’ve ever done.”
“My opener at the time was about Jewish,” she says. “They were like, what are you doing? Get off the stage!”
Halifax, on the other hand, has always had a “wonderful audience.”
“We’ve always been very lucky here,” says Rosen.
Looking toward the future, both are somewhat unsure about what place comedy and acting will have in their lives. Although Rosen loves performing, she hopes to move more towards writing, and hopes she and Hann will be able to get to work together more on their own.
Hann, who wants to go to grad school, and ultimately become a professor, believes that performing stand-up is training her to speak in front of hundreds of university-aged students.
“They’ll think I’m hip,” she jokes. “They’ll think I’m with it.”
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