Customers said: 'We don't like female comedians'

Another comedian has revealed how she was dropped from a stand-up bill - for being a woman.

Helen Keeler was booked to compere the regular Comedy Night at the ACE Centre in Nelson, Lancashire, on February 6.

But she says she was told by gig organiser Mike Taylor of Concept Comedy that 'a group of women have booked and they don't like female comedians, so I'm taking you off the bill'.

Taylor offered Keeler other gigs but she stood her ground.

She told Chortle: ‘When he phoned me back the next day I said, “This really isn't right.

'”You need to let me do this gig, otherwise I can't challenge people's perceptions about female comedians. If we're taken off the bill whenever they express that [opinion], we're never going to get the chance to change their expectations”'.

However, Taylor refused to reinstate her. 'He knew the woman who was booking, it later transpired. She inferred that if there was a female on the bill they were going to cancel their booking.'

Keeler – who was replaced by gay comic Lee Peart – says that 'if I'd been bumped for being gay, I would want to know about that.

'So I told [Peart], and he told Mike he had a problem with it, and to put me back in. And Mike still refused.'

The night was also supposed to feature Rachel Fairburn and Red Redmond.

According to Keeler, 'when I said to [Taylor], “can you not see how unfair this?”, he said “I've got another woman on the bill”.

'So I asked “Well, why aren't you taking her off?” And he said “because they don't know about her, I didn't say her name”.'

Both Peart and Fairburn have now refused to do the gig unless the original bill is reinstated.

Keeler publicly identified Taylor as the booker in a Twitter post on Friday, adding 'I'm baffled when people discriminate against women, because they are being archaic AND picking on a group of people stronger than they are'.

The ACE Centre told Chortle that bookings for the comedy night were Taylor's responsibility and that they wouldn't comment on the allegation of sexism.

When asked for a comment, Taylor told Chortle only: 'The media will write and publish whatever they want to, why should I try to restrict their creative instincts?'

Keeler said: 'It's not my issue, it's everybody's issue. If I was just fighting on my own behalf, then I would have accepted it. But I think that all female comedians face this problem all of the time.'

She added that she'd been heartened by almost 900 messages of support she'd received on the invite-only Facebook Comedy Forum since sharing her frustrations there, 'which I wasn't expecting, it's great.

'But there are still a minority who say things like, “if they don't like female comics, you have to give the audience what they want”. Trying to explain to these people that “female” is not a genre of comedy is really difficult.'

Her experience echoes that of Jenny Collier, who last year publicised an email dropping her from a gig in Surrey run by the Mirth Control chain, because there were 'too many women on the bill'.

Collier acknowledged the backing of fellow comedians after she made her posting, tweeting: 'Overwhelmed by the lovely support. Reassured by the collective fury'.

By Jay Richardson

Published: 14 Jan 2015