Comedy is for everyone and one group on campus takes that to heart.
Lady Parts is an all-female improv group on campus. The group is five years old and was started as a way to provide a specific voice in comedy.
“A lot of the improv groups on campus are co-ed but they don’t have a lot of girls in them, or the boy to girl ratio is kind of unbalanced so they wanted to start a group that was all female to have a female voice in comedy and to show that women are funny,” sophomore member Katelyn Eisenmann said.
Callie Inkrott, the director of Lady Parts, said something similar regarding the group.
“We are a team who is all about women empowerment,” she said. “We are in a world where women are not recognized on the same level that men are when it comes to comedy, so Lady Parts is established for the expressed purpose of promoting the positive representation of women in comedy.”
On top of providing a voice in comedy, Lady Parts tries to raise awareness about issues. The group puts on an event called Women in Comedy and all proceeds from the show go into helping The Cocoon Shelter. By doing this, there is a voice not only in the arts but in the community as well, Eisenmann said.
Inkrott said donations from Women in Comedy are collected through admissions and a raffle. She also said that the group donates to The Cocoon as a way to support battered women and what they may be going through.
“Lady Parts is a group that serves to empower women, and it is such a neat collision when we mix sexual violence awareness with comedy,” Inkrott said. “Lady Parts aims to uplift women who are dealing with sexual violence, and we want to support them in any way that we can.”
The eleven-member group has a multitude of games for their performances, one being “Weekend at Bernie’s.” The game involves four performers who go through a scene once and then the audience chooses one performer to be ‘dead’. The rest of the performers have to prop up the ‘dead’ performer and do their voice and the cycle is repeated until one performer is left to move the others.
“I think the audience just likes to see us sweat,” Eisenmann said. “I think it’s funny for them to see us kind of like a chicken with our heads cut off running around on stage.”
Eisenmann feels like the recognition of Lady Parts on campus has changed from previous years.
“We’ve gotten a lot more presence on campus this year than I feel there has been in past years. Last year I didn’t know what Lady Parts was, and this year I feel like it’s everywhere… I think this year has definitely been the year of Lady Parts. We’re really coming into our own,” Eisenmann said.
Lady Parts received support from a wide group of people at their last joint performance with The Plastic Shatners, including roommates. Sarah McClure is roommates with Inkrott and attended the show. McClure has only been to four improv shows, but is enjoying the performances.
“I didn’t know what to expect after the first one,” McClure said, but finds the shows funny.
Comedy can be used as a creative outlet and the group can be used to explore interests as well.
“I’ve always loved stand-up comedy. I’ve always loved ‘SNL,’ so I thought improv would be really cool,” Eisenmann said.
The group will be opening for The Vagina Monologues, which are February 24th and 25th at 8:00 p.m., and February 26th at 3:00 p.m. in Olscamp 101. Lady Parts will also be holding their next mini Women in Comedy Show on April 29th at 7 p.m. in Olscamp 117.
