Last Friday I was lucky enough to go to Umeå, half way up Sweden to perform two shows at the Seriekrock! festival on gender and gender related issues.
It was a great day, with me came Aron Flam, Evelyn Mok, Marja Nyberg, Emma Knyckare and Marcus Johansson. I was really proud to be performing with these comedians, I think they are some of the smartest, edgiest young comedians in Sweden and in a few years when their voices are heard much further, I think the country is going to be way better off for it.
We did two shows and I was the host: The first gig was wild, over 200 people and we had such fun, a wireless mic in a large group of people is my ideal territory. Maybe you heard something about a "controversy" they had at Umeå university in the last weeks, there was a student party held in a Student Union venue, organized by the girls of the Business facility which got a bit out of hand and there were girls dancing on poles and apparently chocolate sauce was licked off someone. Wild stuff huh? However this is PC Sweden and the university cant be seen to be condoning this stuff, never mind there was an equivalent party last year where the men organized the event and paraded around in the underwear and noone seemed to mind then. However when the girls do it, now that’s sexist. Read about it in English here.
The venue for our first performance was THE actual hall where the party happened and with over 200 fun loving students in front of me I went into the crowd to ask peoples opinions and make light of the situation. Gold was struck several minutes in when in my questioning I worked out I had found THE girls who were at the center of the controversy and indeed "chocolate sauce girl" herself. Oh pure gold! We had some very funny moments and while a little embarrassed the girls were all super cool and were into the spirit of the show. I got to speak to them in person after the show and it was interesting to hear their side of the issue and how some idiots in the media got hold of his issue and turned it into something huge when it really was nothing.
The second show was a more cosy intimate affair which suited the later in the evening vibe. I am very happy with how the trip went, that the 6 of us got to have a great adventure for the day and that the students of Umeå got a chance to hear some young fresh comedians who usually couldn’t make it so far north. Also the multi language nature of the event worked really well, I hosted in English and all the other comedians performed in Swedish and it worked totally fine, if nothing else it mixed things up a bit and can help to keep the audience’s attention. This gives me enthusiasm because this week I am doing 3 shows in Finland including hosting one event so we will see how the multi-language hosting thing continues.
What a top day, thanks to Niclas Ledin, Josefin Sundberg, Elisabeth Wallman and all the organizers of Seriekrock for their fantastic organization, we were so well looked after and for a day we felt like rock stars
