ST. LOUIS HAS PRODUCED SOME ICONIC COMEDIANS, BUT MAKING IT AS A WOMAN IN COMEDY REMAINS A FIGHT IN A MALE-DOMINATED FIELD.
Comedy is often a boys club, but some St. Louis women have fought their way to the top. We can lay claim to Phyllis Diller, Kathleen Madigan, and Nikki Glaser. Then there are the rising stars: Tina Dybal, Cori Stewart, Mollie Amburgey, and many others. But it's not an easy climb. ¶ When Nikki Glaser started.” says Glaser. ¶ These days, most of her best friends in comedy are women who fought the same battles. “Once we all make it and we feel secure, it becomes a really tight-knit group,” says Glaser. “We have a bond that other people don't really understand.” ¶ Glaser questions why women in the field need to be defined as “female comics” at all. “I only really recently became OK with defining myself as a female comedian, because I feel like it undercuts it,” she says. ¶ Precious J Dorsey has similar feelings. She's spent the past decade working stages around the region, including snagging Helium Comedy Club's 2020 Funniest Person in St. Louis title. “I wanted to make sure I was one of the female comics who wasn't being booked because I was cute… I had to kick that door down and say, , ¶ Dorsey still hears young female comedians struggling with the same experiences she had while starting out. “They still have the same complaints I had, about how the guys try to push up on them, or they don't always give them opportunities,” she says. “It's an ongoing thing.” ¶ For Meredith Hopping, it wasn't enough to find a place for herself on local stages. She needed to make room for other women, too. To that end, she started , a showcase at Heavy Anchor highlighting female-identifying comedians. The first event sold out, and the crowd took over the bar. It's been a consistent sell-out since. Hopping has more talent than she knows what to do with. “I can't book people more than once a year out of our local scene, or I miss out,” she says. “And that's such a frustrating but amazing problem to have. It's a joy.” ¶ While there are still fewer opportunities on stages for women, Hopping says local audiences can help change that. “I think people are rightfully very excited about Nikki Glaser and Libbie Higgins and Tina Dybal, who have all come out of St. Louis and are just forces of nature,” she says. “But you can go see those folks before they're that. They're not going to become that without you.”
