hoo:ha
'Ballou serves up entertainment by the bucket load.' - Jade Moulds
A comedy show that cleverly pits funniness against sexiness in a knock-down, drag-out fight for control of the female body.
Warning! May include the following:
Nudity, Pedantry, Ironic Pelvic Movement, Live Animals, Games, a Tiny Banjo, and Inadvisable Pathos.
Don't miss. the final performance of Shhh Friday, 13th September in the charming Rose & Crown Theatre Pub in Walthamstow. Tickets now on sale!
'Frank and hilarious...' -Dance Tabs
Shhh merges bedtime with showtime; Ballou has to get the baby to sleep in time for the performance, but if not...the show must go on. Don't laugh too loudly or things could get ugly. Shhh is an ongoing live art experiment that premiered at the Yard Theatre in 2018, produced by Womxn SRSLY and subsequently developed for their showcase at The Place in 2019 and revived for the Mother Art Prize show at the Zabludowicz Collection in 2023 and toured to the Centre for Live Art Yorkshire in Spring 2024. Can I keep entertaining an audience while not waking up my sleeping child? The performance world… my world… is simply past her bedtime. What if she won’t go to sleep at all? What if I'm being paid less than the cost of a babysitter? Can we put her to sleep together and save the show? I’d better teach you her favourite lullaby just in case.
What will an 8-months-along bump do to a showgirl’s bag of art tricks? It’s sort of like what would happen if Annie Sprinkle stopped being a weird hippie and impregnated Bridget Christie who (when 8 months along) waddled onstage to sing, dance, and moan about postfeminist malarkey and not being able to see her own muff. And she finds out baby's sex live on stage... then lets the audience name it!
goo:ga 1 (2016)
The Doctor Is In
When the esteemed scholars of a legitimate university saw fit to confer upon a young(ish) comedian the title Doctor of Philosophy they created… a monster. A monster who hides in plain sight, disguised as a humble artist, waiting for innocent citizens to make the fatal mistake of calling her ‘Mrs. Ballou.’ Then, like the Incredible Hulk, she grows too HUGE (no) green (nope) smug (that's it!) for her clothing, and as the buttons pop off her elbow-patched blazer she demurely roars ‘It’s “Dr.” actually.’
Dr. Ballou completed a practice-based PhD entitled ‘hoo:ha: Illuminating and Exploiting a Dissonance Between Funniness and Sexiness with the Female Comic Body in Performance’ What she insists this means is that she ‘literally has a doctorate in being funny and sexy.’ Through witchcraft and interviewing skills she has converted this accomplishment into a spine point 33 grade 8 lecturer position. This means she can now afford to foist her child off on (SORRY!) HAND HER CHILD OVER TO a trained childcare professional so that she can pursue her dream of responding to emails about problems with the virtual learning environment.
Alas, tending the artistic fires of undergraduate drama students is not enough. She became a doctor to save people, dammit! Therefore, Dr. Ballou has opened a clinic where she will diagnose and treat your feminist complaints via her trademark mashup of stand up and live art.
Hannah Ballou
a comedy special by a very pregnant woman
Shhh
Lambchop Magoo
'My cheeks hurt from smiling!'
-Jo King
Lambchop Magoo is a neo-burlesque legend. She's tickled audiences with her unique brand of ovine lunacy from New York to Berlin, from London to Torquay even.
You'll be singing her tune for the rest of your life:
'Da da da da da da...'
Marina Abramopug
Visit Marina on Tumblr here.
'We bow down to you, Abramopug'
Huffington Post
'YAY for Marina Abramopug!
Kate Bornstein
'Riveting.[...] This dog is the latest craze in contemporary art.' Redesign Revolution
'Marina Abramopug is the world's most important dog performance artist.' Vocative
'Crazy genius' Honour Bayes
'If you want a good laugh out loud, check out Marina AbramoPUG! So fun. Love it'
Annie Sprinkle