Trans
Women
of Comedy
Jordan Gray
Trans Women of Comedy
Jordan Gray
On April 1st, 2017, recording artist and TV personality Jordan Gray (The Voice UK) announced a sudden jump from pop music to stand-up comedy. How has she faired and does the Transgender phenomenon begs new questions about what it means to be a “funny woman”?
Scouring Youtube in preparation for this article, I’m not especially startled by the absence of established Transgender comedians. Nor, on the flip side, am I surprised by the abundance of Transgender material playing itself out on the circuit.
Two years since Caitlyn Jenner’s Vanity Fair cover-reveal, Trans material has become a mainstay of mainstream comedy. But only a truly progressive comic understands that it’s ok to be divisive without being derisive. So who’s doing it right and who’s doing it wrong?
Doing it Right: Jim Norton, Louis CK.
In his latest special ‘2017’, Louis CK’s anecdotal account of a school friend’s transition in later life feels playful without pulling any punches. As he always does, Louis deftly severs the social weight from his subject matter – taking ‘it’ and ‘us’ to a personal place and dealing with it there.
Jim Norton’s most recent Netflix Special ‘A Mouthful of Shame’ chronicles his personal and longstanding infatuation with Trans women – with dirty humour and a heart of gold. Throughout, Norton never once extracts comedy at the expense of Trans women nor at his own expense for being interested in us. Gold star for Jim!
Doing it Wrong: Dave Chappelle.
In an otherwise remarkable return to form with the simultaneously-released specials ‘Age of Spin’ and ‘Deep In The Heart Of Texas’, Chappelle’s Trans material falls awkwardly flat – leaving a divided audience disenchanted by a true comedy legend.
“Where are the witty anarchists? Where is our Trans-female Russell Brand? ‘cough cough‘”
But what of Transgender comedians themselves, deconstructing the phenomenon with genuine warmth and personal insight? Where are the witty anarchists? Where is our Trans-female Russell Brand? ‘cough cough’. As far as a war of the sexes, Trans men have been quietly dominating the comedy circuit for some time. The question is: Where are all the Trans lady comics?
Perhaps most notable is Australian comic Jordan Raskopoulos – one-third of the musical comedy band Axis Of Awesome. Raskopoulos transitioned during a period of professional success and garnered huge support from pre-existing fans. Oh yeah… and then there’s Sarah Maywalt, Mary Jane French, Laura Monmouth,
Avery Edison, Bethany Black, Julia Scotti (America’s Got Talent), Michelle Royal, Victoria Elizabeth… not to mention the brief saga of ‘Sarah Franken’ (both formerly and currently known as Will Franken). With all the love and respect in the world, honourable mention goes to Eddie Izzard for paving the way. Finally, after 10+years in music, I ‘too’ have decided to invest my creative efforts in the meritocracy of the ‘funny biz’. So the answer is: We are out there, but like the rest of the comedy universe, we’re a mixed bag.
“Post-Brexit, post-Trump sentiment has excavated ‘sacred idiot burial grounds’ across the world”
So what’s it like for an artist, jostling for position in the shockwaves of the great Trans Boom? Post-Brexit, post-Trump sentiment has excavated ‘sacred idiot burial grounds’ across the world; unleashing all manner of ancient curses. Social media puts everything in the hands of everybody, intended or not. By giving credence to the values of every level of intellect, ‘one-world media’ has effectively brought with it the death of irony. In the skilled hands of minority comics, ‘ironic bigotry’ can do wonders for a cause by exposing the absurdity of its dissenters. But how does the ironic bigotry of saying Louis CK or Ricky Gervais stack up in a post-ironic world? The answer is simple algebra: ‘ironic bigotry’, minus ‘irony’ reads purely and simply as ‘bigotry’ with a capital B – misread and misappropriated by the lowest common denominators: hungry Trumpeteers and angry Brexcapologists.
The first rule of comedy: know yourself. Rule 2: write about what you know.
Every minority comic has to, at one time or another, decide whether or not to lean into material about their minority status. For Trans comics, I suppose it depends on how much stock you put into ‘passing’. Of the handful I know, about half make a point of never referencing their previous gender trajectory. Call me a ‘cynical careerist’ but if I’m gonna be a joke then I might as well be ‘in on it’. For Trans, Asian or differently-abled acts, the audience is already primed with a pre-existing personal tension. Simply ‘mention’ your ‘personal deviation’ and you can ride that wave of relief-laughter through the first 30 seconds of any set.
The issue then becomes that of laziness and over-reliance. Of the handful of emerging Trans comediennes I discovered on Youtube, 3-out-of-5 opened with ‘exact same’ tired old bit: ‘Trust me… it takes balls to do this job’. As ‘social minority of the month’, Trans people are in a prime position to innovate, elevate and reinvent the art-form (dick jokes n’all). Walking the line as I do between ‘Transgender Tomboy’ and ‘lesbian lothario’, I’m given comedy license to blur the boundaries of sex, gender, sexuality. What’s more, given the contention around Trans people and public restrooms, a clever Trans comic can even breathe new life into good old fashion toilet humour.
Personally, I’m programmed to turn anything into a positive. So for all the transphobic-misogyny priming the tongue-tips of potential hecklers, there are tiny specks of silver to be mined from the lining of ‘Life as Trans Woman in Comedy’. If the history of comedy has taught us anything, for example, it’s that willies and boobies are the two most hilarious appendages that the human body can produce. As a pre-op Trans woman, fresh out of breast-aug surgery, I’m a shoo-in! Not to mention, as a Trans woman, I can lay into Trump without the slightest fear of reprisal. What’s he gonna do… grab me by the pussy?
“As counter-intuitive as it might seem, the hidden super-power of any Trans comedian is Relatability”
As a comic, it’s said that Likeability is 70% of the battle. In order to hit that percentile, it doesn’t hurt to CONNECT with your audience. As counter-intuitive as it might seem, the hidden super-power of any Trans comedian is Relatability. Everybody wishes they could change. Younger, smarter, thinner, bigger, better, faster, stronger… the Trans narrative is the physical and living embodiment of change. It almost harks to the realms of the supernatural or science-fiction. Indeed, as the proud owner of silicone boobies, I am now roughly 2.6% prosthetic – which does technically qualify me as a cyborg.
Imagine ‘a thing’, transmuted and transmogrified into another. Walking, talking, human alchemy. We represent the possibility of real and lasting change. And what’s not funny about change?