Search - Laughing Matters ... More! on DVD

Four Funny Females

Amos Lassen | Little Rock, Arkansas | 04/21/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

""Laughing Matters...More!"

Four Funny Females

Amos Lassen and Cinema Pride

If the names Sabrina Matthews, Vickie Shaw, Rene Hicks ad Elvira Kurt mean nothing to you let me tell you that they will. They are four of the hottest lesbian stand-up comediennes around. Presenting the ladies in a reality approach to showing their talents, Andrea Meyerson has directed a laugh festival. Alluvial Filmworks gives us "Laughing Matters...More1", a follow -up to the successful "Laughing Matters" of 2003. Not only do we see the women on stage but we get to see them behind the scenes and also as all four together. The satirical views they give of the world will keep you laughing long ever you eject the DVD.
The film is a documentary on the four comics and includes footage of their acts, personal interviews and a roundtable discussion in which we get insight into the lives and comic routines of the women. One of the reason this film is fascinating to me is the women are so different and diverse. Aside from each having her own kind of comedy, each comes from a different background and when you watch each approach no holes barred comedy, you laugh and laugh and laugh. Not a second is wasted, when the movie begins, so do the laughs. The one-on-one interviews with the comediennes and the director are a wonderful study of diversity and an entire new look at the "L" members of the GLBT community. As we laugh the women, we laugh at ourselves--our stereotypes, our foibles and the way we live.
Elvira Kurt openly talks about how disappointed her mother about her daughter being gay and as she performs her comedy routine, we are shown photographs of her childhood and then her comic performance becomes richer and more personal and even more political. When the women come together at the end of the film, it almost seems that their togetherness reflects a united community of all aspects of GLBT life uniting to form a unified community.
Sabrina is the butch lesbian and she is in no way afraid to do so. Her handling of gay stereotypes is real and extremely funny. She is a regular on Comedy Central and her appeal goes well beyond the gay community. Vickie is femininity personified and provides a whole new way of looking at lesbian relationships when she speaks about her own long-term relationship with a policewoman, Sgt. Patch. Rene gives us "intellectual" comedy. She is the first African-American female comic to be nominated as Best Female Stand-up at the American Comedy Awards. Her insight into the world of politics is witty and sometimes caustic. Elvira oozes style especially with her "looking like your little brother" routine.
The movie also goes into each of the women's coming-out stories and while doing so allows us to reflect on our own experiences so that when we laugh at the comics, we also laugh at ourselves.
With "Laughing Matters...More!" we have an hour and a half of fun. It is hilarious, it is sensitive and it is touching. Barriers and torn down and even though what the women say probably will not change the world, it gives hope that we may, indeed, one day, see equality between all people. The comediennes become our friends and as we get to know them, we watch as they become who they are in their comic routines. This is so much more than just a camera looking at comedy; it is a look into the inner-workings of the four women. It is also a very easy way to raise spirits and to cure depression. As you laugh, you look at yourself--what can be more fun than that? We laugh and we learn and we realize that no matter who we are, there is a great deal of commonality between us.
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