Get ready for another incredible night of sizzling, fast-paced humour and wit as I Am Woman! Hear Me Laff! returns to the Chilliwack Cultural Centre in celebration of International Women’s Day with award winning headliner Martha Chaves.
On March 8, a sidesplitting lineup of comediennes is coming together to celebrate the things that makes women so special and they are nothing short of witty, wacky, and womanly.
A veteran of Montreal’s Just For Laughs Comedy Festival, and other major comedy festivals in Canada, the United States and Latin America, Chaves is the night’s headlining comic.
Her straightforward style is infectious and her natural ability to relate to audience members has made this Nicaragua-born Canadian comedian a very popular headliner. She has had two nationally televised stand-up comedy specials: Comics! on CBC and There’s Something About Martha on CTV and The Comedy Network, and she frequently performs on CBC Radio’s The Debaters, Because News and Laugh Out Loud. Chaves has been honing her craft for over 20 years resulting in a captivating stage presence that will have you in stitches as she tackles subjects ranging from Rob Ford to the very Canadian custom of indoor shoes.
“Standup has been a home for me. My identity is intrinsically etched to Canadian comedy,” says Chaves. “One of my proudest achievements is to have become a refugee by myself, become Canadian by myself, to have supported myself all of those years, and to be a Canadian comic of Nicaraguan origins.”
Other comics joining her will be Christine Lippa, Alison Ogilvie, Melanie Rose.
An accomplished actor, writer, standup comic, improviser and puppeteer Christine Lippa turns host as she starts the night off as our fabulous emcee. With dogged determination and a good measure of fearlessness, Lippa began her career in Vancouver in 1986, where she spent most of that first year schlepping beer, until she made her way to Punchlines Comedy Cabaret. She managed to survive the rest of the year on the amateur stage, where eventually she became a professional standup comic headlining for Yuk Yuk’s touring across Canada. She is now a veteran of several comedy festivals, including Just For Laughs in Montreal and is also a regular Vancouver Theatresports contributor. Lippa has also participated at the Centre in both Sex & The Suburbs and Leave It to Cleavage, and knows how to have the theatre howling with laughter.
Next up will be funny woman and opening comic Alison Ogilvie, a comic and storyteller who is proud to hail from bonny Scotland. With a warm Scottish brogue, Ogilvie knows how to leave an audience in stitches with her unique take on family life. In 2016, she made it into the semi-finals of Vancouver’s Yuk Off competition, and then went on to win B.C.’s funniest female in 2017.
Feature comic of the night will be the fireball Melanie Rose, and she has one hell of a story to tell. This divorced mother of four knows how to charm audiences with her tales of marriage, divorce, past drug addiction and mental health issues by always finding the funny within. A favourite at comedy clubs across the country and a Yuk Yuk’s regular, Rose has been featured on the critically-acclaimed Crave TV show She Kills Me and Victoria’s Funny Women Festival.
I Am Woman! Hear Me Laff! is coming to the Chilliwack Cultural Centre on March 8 at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $32 for adults, $29 for seniors and $27 for youth, and can be purchased at the Centre Box Office, online at www.chilliwackculturalcentre.ca, or by calling 604-391-SHOW(7469).
