To the readers who are wondering how Northwestern University’s first all-women standup show went, I have good news and bad news for you. The good news is, as promised by the cast of The Lipstick Theatre, the sets are full of self-deprecating, explicit vagina jokes. But the bad news is, the sets are almost entirely filled with self-deprecating, explicit vagina jokes.
The Lipstick Theatre is the university’s premiere theatre group dedicated to voicing women’s issues through performance. The one time only Women’s Standup Comedy Night at 6 p.m. on Feb. 16 was their first ever event and drew around 75 people (mostly women) to Fisk Hall for an evening of awkward humor.
Ablaze in a shimmering purple blouse, Laura McGehee kicks off the night with the first vagina joke on being born with a shallow vagina. Her discomfort with public speaking is made apparent with erratic pacing and flicking of the microphone wire, but at least she is well aware of her inexperience, quipping, “I’ve been doing standup long enough to know I shouldn’t be doing stand up.”
But McGehee is not the only uncomfortable person in the room. When Meghan McCarter whips out a mini diaphragm and compares it to an “inhaled lettuce stuck over your windpipe,” the crowd can only muster a few horrified chuckles to tie her over to the next joke. Her graphic gags and sound effects on walking when one has inserted too much lube are hard to handle at times, but the honest, confessions make the performance endearing overall.
Perhaps the funniest act, however, comes in the form of music. When Taylor Bostwick, a songwriter on campus, sings her first number on Peter Pan struggling with his sexual orientation, belching, “I don’t know if I like tacos or hotdogs,” amused grins spread through the audience. With her child-like voice and Disney tunes, her performance creates severe cognitive dissonance as I register the profane lyrics, but it is this dissonance that sets her apart from the straightforward vulgarity in other acts.
Despite many desperate attempts to draw laughter from the crowd, the casual performances from six brave, young ladies did have a few redeeming nuggets to salvage the night, and for a $3 ticket, it was well worth the price.