Carol Montgomery was sitting in a podcast with three older female comics. “I honestly don’t remember” their names, she said recently. “I’m 68 years old. I can barely remember my own name.”
She does remember it was very funny. “It was done in the basement of someone’s house. She had food. We were eating and talking and laughing. The stories were just amazing.”
On the way home, she called her husband. “I said, this might be a good idea, to get older female comics together. And my husband said, ‘This is it. This is the one that will work.’”
And just like that, “Funny Women of a Certain Age” was born. Montgomery brings the show to the Stadium Theatre in Woonsocket on April 25.
Montgomery has been performing as a stand-up comic for 47 years now. “I created the show so older female comics can be seen and booked.” Montgomery defines “older” as over 50.
It’s an unfortunate reality that stand-up comedy is a male-dominated industry. It’s rare to see a three-person show where there’s more than one female performing. If there’s even a female comic in the mix.
Montgomery initially pitched the idea with “a showcase for a bunch of networks. We got a deal with Showtime, and the first show aired a year to the day after we got the deal. Nothing goes fast in show business.”
The show premiered around Montgomery’s 60th birthday in 2019. “We couldn’t tell anyone because Showtime hadn’t announced it yet. Someone asked what I wanted for my birthday, I said I already have it.”
Showtime aired three “Funny Women of a Certain Age” specials before the network “stopped doing comedy.” They have been re-released by Comedy Dynamics and can be found on a variety of streaming services like Roku, Amazon Prime and Apple TV.
The show in Woonsocket features Missy Hall, who Montgomery calls “a powerhouse.”
Kerri Louise Cotter, a Massachusetts native now based in New York, is also on the show. “I can’t say enough about her,” said Montgomery. She talks about how Cotter bailed her out on one of her specials.
“Our comics knew about their spots (on the specials) two or three months in advance. Literally a week before one of the tapings, a comic had an issue and couldn’t do the show. I called Kerri and said we’re in a bind. She said, ‘Whatever you need.’ She had a week to prep, and she was flawless on stage.”
Montgomery rotates her acts as much as she can and tries to get out at least twice a month. And she loves what she’s doing. “We did a show in Sanford, Maine in the middle of January. There was a blizzard. Of course there was. But over 800 people came to the show, predominantly women.”
Older women, she said, who told her that “Funny Women of a Certain Age” made them happy, because there are never shows for them.
“One woman said she laughed so much she peed. We should get Depends to sponsor us.”
“Funny Women of a Certain Age” appears at the Stadium Theatre on Saturday, April 25. For tickets and information, call the box office at 401-762-4545 or visit www.stadiumtheatre.com.
