We, the women of Los Angeles–based comedy troupe Cake Batter, were looking for more opportunities to get on stage. After doing some research, we realized there wasn’t an all-female comedy festival in Los Angeles and decided to throw one. In five weeks, we put together the Funny Women Festival, which was staged at iO (Improv Olympic) West in early December. The idea behind this festival was to make it a celebration, build community, and have fun. We learned a lot while putting together a three-day event with close to 300 performers. For those considering launching their own festival, here’s what we learned.
Find A Home
Step one for us was just having the idea, step two was finding a venue. The fact that we already had a relationship with iO West, where we do our sketch show, was fantastic. It has three stages and a bar in one building, which makes it perfect. When seeking out a venue, remember to consider rental and insurance costs.
Line Up Sponsors
We partnered with the Downtown Women’s Center, which received some of the proceeds from ticket sales. We also got a lot of great local businesses involved, including Angel City Brewery, headshot printer Reproductions LA, The Greyhound LA, and the Bon Vivant Market & Cafe. Media partnerships are also helpful for new festivals so we teamed with the online magazine DirtyandThirty.com and WifeyTV. We also partnered with LOCA (Ladies of Comedy Association) and Comedy Gives Back. And in addition to Angel City Brewery: Reproductions LA, The Greyhound LA, and Bon Vivant Market & Cafe all donated amazing products which made the experience for participants really awesome.
Everything you should know about improv.
Aim High
In L.A. there’s a weird hierarchy and you’re afraid to reach out to certain people if you don’t have a relationship with them and you don’t know what they’re going to say. But at the end of the day, who cares? If you start making things happen, things start falling into place. We learned you never know what someone will say until you ask. The worst they can say is no.
Have A Great Team
Before the festival, we were writing and directing our own shows, but we wanted to get into bigger productions. It really helped to have a solid team. We’ve worked together long enough to know what buttons not to push and how we handle stress and how we motivate one another and how to delegate. Get a team of people that you trust and just do it.
Check out Backstage’s Los Angeles audition listings!