Meet Sharul Channa, the brilliant comedian obliterating Asia's comedy boy's club
Can women be funny? In 2007 author Christopher Hitchens wrote a now infamous article for Vanity Fair where he argued that the female really is deadlier than the male, at least when it comes to humour. His reason for this damning assessment? That men make jokes to get sex, but because women don’t need to, they’ve never really developed their funny bone. Oh, and they're too sweet.
The world has changed in the 12 years since that article was published, and what once caused a mild outcry, and more than a few nodding heads, now seems like a piece from another era. But even in the era of Fleabag, Broad City and Amy Schumer, certain people still believe that women’s jokes aren’t quite as good as men’s.
“People don’t expect women to be funny,” said the bestselling author Marian Keyes, in a speech earlier this year. “That’s the thing about internalised sexism—people don’t realise they are approaching things women create with an expectation that they’re going to be not as good or as important or as meaningful as things that are created by men.”
It is an attitude Sharul Channa has been battling for over eight years, since launching her now successful comedy career in her hometown of Singapore. Born in India and brought up in the city state, her work is powerful and very, very funny—covering everything from race and gender to the quirks of the society we live in.
“I loved being a comedian from the moment I first got up on the stage,” she says on the phone from Singapore, an hour before she heads out to play at a packed comedy club as the headliner for their Saturday night show. “But I knew right away that as a woman I had to be really good from day one and find my voice right away. Because what I say to all women in comedy is, ‘If you can stick it out for the first three years without getting the feeling that you’re not funny because you don’t have any dick jokes like the guys do, then you’re sorted’. Those three years toughen you up enough, so eventually you don’t care about the sexism.”
Channa’s career blossomed almost by chance. Eight years ago, she was a huge comedy fan, and was doing a variety of odd jobs herself, including working on film scripts. Her husband, Rishi Budhrani, was also a comedian and as she was going to sets regularly with him, she soon realised there were almost no women on stage—and those who were were all ex-pats. A club manager suggested she do a brief three-minute set, and the rest is history.