Calendar event

Women Like Us – Comedy Show

Some shows are a little more special than most. That’s how Mandy Nolan and Ellen Briggs feel about playing the Sawtell RSL. Every time he smash hit touring show Women Like Us has hit the stage, the room has filled with over 400 people, with waiting lists a mile long. ‘We feel like comedy super stars in Sawtell!’ laughs Ellen Briggs.

‘I don’t know why, but our comedy just seems to resonate with the women on the Coffs Coast. They get us. We get them. It’s one of those nights when they get the girls together. Mum’s bring teenage daughters and grandmas. Dad stays at home and watches the footy. Although he’s welcome to come. Men who love women LOVE Women Like Us!’ says Mandy Nolan, comedian and the former Greens candidate for Richmond.

Mandy Nolan almost stepped away from the comedy circuit at the Federal election, with her seat being one of three held over for a week. The full story was aired on Compass on the ABC – and while Nolan was passionate about taking her jibe to Canberra, she’s delighted to be back on the circuit. ‘One thing you realise after decades of touring and meeting people, is that everyone is sick of the bullshit. So if I can’t do it in parliament, I’ll call it out in a comedy room!’

Calling it out is exactly what Women Like Us is all about. Together, Briggs and Nolan have performed in excess of 200 shows!

With sold out shows at Melbourne Comedy Festival and 5 star reviews, the girls have also showcased at the Women’s Gala at Melbourne Town Hall. In Adelaide at the Fringe Festival, Mandy Nolan and Ellen Briggs were officially declared ‘Goddesses’

by the Weekend Notes writer who said ‘everything they say and do is the absolute word of sacred truth.’

Women Like Us is a comedy show that delivers. A Glamadelaide reviewer said ‘the audience barely had time to draw breath between hearty laughs!’ And it’s not just women who love this hilarious crowd pleaser. Men are wetting themselves too. And women that came with the girls echo the same sentiment ‘Next time I am bringing my husband! He would love this!’

Women Like Us was born when the two women comics decided to step away from the male dominated comedy scene into venues where women’s stories and experiences are centre stage.

‘We tell everyday stories about our struggles, our failure to parent, the beauty industry, getting fatter, strange surgeries, obsessions, frustrations, and at the end of the day ‘who unpacks the dishwasher’ says Ellen Briggs.

It’s not a show just for women’ says Ellen Briggs who appeared recently on Hughsey We have A Problem , ‘In the same way a comedy show by two men would never be seen as a bloke’s only show. Women Like Us is about making our experiences universal rather than ‘niche’. And as it turns out, there are a lot more Women Like Us out there then we ever realised. There’s even a growing tribe of men Like Us too!’

Mandy Nolan is a columnist for the Byron Shire Echo, and writes regularly for Mamamia –and  she is the host of their new podcast The Split. She has appeared on ABC’s Q&A, SBS’s Mums The Word & About Women and is in demand as a corporate and club performer around the country. Ellen Briggs is a national Finalist for RAW comedy and winner of Foxtel Comedy Channel’s Be A Comedian.  The two women have well over 30 years of comedy experience between them, and this year they released their book, Women Like Us nationally.

Women Like Us is stand up at its best , where Ellen and Mandy talk about housework, chickens, love, big undies, disappointment, resentment, sex when you’re drunk, fit bits, yoga farts and being a menopausal woman dealing with teenage angst. They’re overworked, overweight and over it….

It was perhaps the 27 year old reviewer from Adelaide Fringe who really got what Women Like Us was all about!

‘I’d be offended if they weren’t considered pioneers of comedy, because they know their shit and do that shit damn well!…Heck it should be part of a woman’s right to be able to be blessed by Briggs and Nolan!’