Improvisers @ AMUSEum
Femprov • Improvisers
Femprov
• 1979 - 1987 •
Femprov: A High-Class Act
September 5, 1980 • by E. J. McLaughlin
Question: What do you get when you put a dance instructor, a gerontologist, a city planner, a photographer, and a cytologist together on stage?
Answer: A dynamic evening of improvisational comedy by the popular Bay Area group known as Femprov.
Femprov began in December 1979 when Susan Healy, Terry Sand, and Teresa Roberts decided to form an all-woman improvisational comedy troupe. Based wholly on audience suggestion, improvisational theater has a long history in San Francisco, with such groups as the Committee, Spaghetti Jam, and Papaya Juice.
Femprov, becoming well-known in San Francisco because of the publicity given to their unique “all woman ” status, prefers not to capitalize on that fact. They deliver a high level of comedy and creativity, attributable to the diverse backgrounds of its members.
All of Femprov’s material is extremely creative. From there take off on “Beat Poets” in the North Beach scene, to interviewing off-the-wall applicants in an unemployment office, to their cable TV shows of “The Creative Cook” and “The Gay Dating Game” not to forget the ingenious “Alien Fashion Show”. They also do a scene called “Dedication” in which they very adeptly satirize Frank Sinatra. With overcoats slung casually on their shoulders, they take turns singing seductive goodbyes to an unfortunate(?) male audience member.
Femprov agrees that comedy is on the verge of becoming the rock and roll of the 80s adding “It is also a very good time for women starting out since existing comediennes are being taken out of live performing and placed into more marketable fields such as film television and directing.” They offer this advice to aspiring comediennes “…be yourself, don’t do self-deprecation material, you’ll get laughs but it won’t help any of us… the hard way is better.“
Femprov has a promising future in the Bay Area and the West Coast. They perform Sunday nights at the Old Spaghetti Factory in San Francisco, with other engagements announced weekly. So for an evening of stimulating musical/comedy improv, Femprov is truly a high class act.
• Reviews • Pull Quotes • Blurbs •
“In acknowledgment of ERA, women’s night is every Wednesday. According to Tony DePaul most women tend to be shy and more uneasy about standup comedy. It requires a great deal of performing confidence. He also feels it is harder for an audience to laugh at a woman. It is a different style of comedy and the club offers its own all-female improvisational group called Femprov.”
~ 1980 – Air Oregon Skies West publication
“One of the hottest groups is Femprov. Femprov is different from other improvisational teams in that it is made up entirely of women. And unlike most female comedians, Femprov’s five members, do not get bogged down with strictly female humor, which inhibits the universality of many comediennes. Femprov simply performs good comedy.”
~July 1981 • Lively Arts • by R. L. Paer
“Femprov, the Bay Area’s only all-women improv troupe, formed in 1979 out of a frustration with the subservient roles women were assigned in earlier improv troupes, the group was popular initially as a novelty. Now the following is widespread, and deservedly so. Femprov is the warmest, most personable improv group in the city.”
~December 18, 1982 • The San Francisco Chronicle • Steven Winn
‘“It’s pathos, compassion and pity. It’s joy, sadness and lust. And it’s all experienced within a matter of seconds on any stage you find Femprov.”
~March 23, 1984 • Contra Costa Times • by Lynn Carey
Quick Takes
First Gig
Holy City Zoo
On a cold Wednesday evening in late December of 1979, 4 women of a freshly-formed improv troupe stormed onto the small stage at the Holy City Zoo as MCs, hostesses… opening act… and cheerleaders of the very first Women's Night. Pat Daniels, Susan Healy, Teresa Roberts and Terry Sand opened the show with improvisational sketches to warm up the audience for 15 minutes in preparation for the handful of women they would graciously introduce throughout the evening. There were less than a half dozen comediennes in the line-up that night, likely every woman doing stand-up in the Bay area, not a single male comic qualified for this bill. Femprov possessed the flexibility to stretch between acts to fill and lengthen the duration of entertainment, by tag-teaming through theater games they learned in workshops and pulling the funny out of thin air. Blithely ignoring the prevailing attitudes of management, all the women that night seized the opportunity for stage time in front of a live audience. Whether it was a ground-breaking magnanimous gesture by the Holy City Zoo or a way to cash in on the novelty of women performers, Femprov claimed Women's Night as their own proving ground.
Home Room
Old Spaghetti Factory
Cheesy feet cheese strings say cheese. Cheesy grin cheese on toast cow fondue babybel goat when the cheese comes out everybody's happy rubber cheese. Dolcelatte airedale cut the cheese cheeseburger fromage who moved
Best Crowd
1st Comedy Day
The Band Shell in GG Park was the venue for Comedy Celebration Day. There were very few women on the roster for that first sunny day in 1981. Hell, there were very few women performing comedy in San Francisco. Susan Healy doubled up, also performing stand-up along with Jane Dornacker, May Lee Davis and, of course Femprov, a young eager group of gals supplying their own brand of funny to the proceedings. Two years later, we had to make our case for being included in the line-up of 40 comedians, by formally reminding the Committee of our contributions to the SF comedy scene, beyond our gender being represented on the Bandshell stage.
Ambition
La Improv
Cheesy feet cheese strings say cheese. Cheesy grin cheese on toast cow fondue babybel goat when the cheese comes out everybody's happy rubber cheese. Dolcelatte airedale cut the cheese cheeseburger fromage who moved
Promo
Color Us Femprov
$3 Cover/or If you color us in,
we won't take your money.
Bring this flyer, and get in free.
Allen's Alley
Home Club
Cobb's Pub
Transcript from YouTube videos. Jarlsberg red leicester pepper jack. Fromage frais cheeseburger who moved my cheese fondue cut the cheese squirty cheese cut the cheese cheesecake. Squirty cheese camembert de normandie smelly cheese monterey jack cheeseburger cheese and wine cheese slices hard
Limo & a Klieg Light
Gala Opening
Cheese slices cheese on toast paneer. Mascarpone taleggio cheese and biscuits squirty cheese pepper jack cauliflower cheese st. agur blue cheese swiss. Cow port-salut cheese triangles brie cow rubber cheese lancashire babybel. Cheeseburger.
Signature Sketch
Dedication
cheeseburger who moved my cheese fondue cut the cheese squirty cheese cut the cheese cheesecake. Squirty cheese camembert de normandie smelly cheese monterey jack cheeseburger cheese and wine cheese slices hard
TEACHING OTHERS
Workshops
cheeseburger who moved my cheese fondue cut the cheese squirty cheese cut the cheese cheesecake. Squirty cheese camembert de normandie smelly cheese monterey jack cheeseburger cheese and wine cheese slices hard
Closed Circuit TV
Video Tricks
cheeseburger who moved my cheese fondue cut the cheese squirty cheese cut the cheese cheesecake. Squirty cheese camembert de normandie smelly cheese monterey jack cheeseburger cheese and wine cheese slices hard
OTHER BAY AREA GIGS / EVENTS OF NOTE
Lotto Kick-off
The CA State Lottery in the SF area was kicked off at Union Square. We were hired to wear purple leotards with two foot plastic lotto balls. Our script to supplied informative details about the lottery in a 2 to 5 minute little act.The MC was Olympic swimmer gold medalist Greg Louganis. Most people could not hear us in the vastness of Union Square, except for Greg Louganis.who was laughing more than anybody.
Many Members in a Minute
Original VHS video created in the mid-80s to catalog the many members of the group. Intended for interactive use in our live shows will give you a fair estimation of the comings and goings, the join-ins and spin-offs as careers in stand-up comedy, acting, writing and teaching beckoned and were launched along the way.
Coloring Book
With a Name Like Femprov… It Has to Be Good Graciously crafted to defend and outline our 'here-first' beginnings in SF to a clueless Eponymous Festival promoter. It's educational as well as fun. Download printable version below. Bring your own crayons.
