Amy Beckerman Photography
by RUTH KIM
“So a little bit about me, guys—I’m half Asian, half white, which makes me a fat Mexican,” jokes comedian Susan Alexander. Cue laughter.
Even though female comedians have had audiences rolling on the ground in tears since the early days of Saturday Night Live and MADtv, some clueless folks still claim that women aren’t funny. Susan Alexander is helping prove them wrong.
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For nearly a decade, her touring stand-up show, 5 Funny Females, has featured some of the most talented funny ladies in the business. This weekend, May 2-3, Alexander returns to San Francisco to host the show at the historic Great Star Theater. Four separate shows will feature the comedic bests of Erikka Innes, Alison Kawa, Renee Gauthier, Luna Michelle, Joselyn Hughes, Kat Evasco, Glory Magana, Chantal Carrere, Molly Sokhom, Lydia Popovich, Ruby Gill, Priya Prasad, Sandy Stec, Paloma Cordova, Lilybeth Helson, and Glamis Rory.
Alexander, who is Korean and white, says her comedic repertoire covers topics such as celebrity gossip, pop culture, relationships and her Korean mom. On the latter subject, she gushed, “Oh my gosh, my Korean mom, yes! So my mom is like 70 years old and now she wants to learn better English. [My mom’s] like, ‘Susie, how do you say in English when all your friends are married and have children? Oh yeah, it’s too late! Too late for you!’ Yeah, you know, if you’re Korean, you gotta have the Korean mom.”
The comedian founded 5 Funny Females in San Francisco in 2005. “A lot of the time, [a comedy show] is a line-up of guys, and when you have more than two women, it’s like, ‘Oh, that’s too many.’ So I just wanted to feature female comics, and then from there, it kind of took off.” What first began as gigs in coffee shops and laundromats is now a national comedy act that has toured all over the U.S., including Seattle, Los Angeles, New York City, San Diego, Houston, Chicago, Atlanta, Orlando, Philadelphia, and Boston.
Alexander has appeared in the pilot of Friars Club: So You Think You Can Roast?, roasting George Takei, as well as various Social Edition shows of Bravo TV’s Real Housewives. Her standup has been featured on Rooftop Comedy, Comedy Time, and WEtv. She is also the co-host/creator of The Denial Show, a weekly web series that calls out celebrities in denial. Click here for tickets and more information on the San Francisco show.
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