‘They turn a blind eye to it’: The open secret in Australian comedy

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At the height of the #MeToo movement in 2017, women comedians in Australia shared around a colour-coded spreadsheet.

The names of certain male comedians were highlighted in red, orange or yellow: red for “Don’t be alone with this person”; orange for “They crossed the line, but it wasn’t assault”; and yellow for “A bit of a creep”.

Russell Brand has been accused of rape, sexual assault and abuse. He has strenuously denied the allegations.Credit: Chris Pizello

“I remember not being shocked by the fact that it existed, but thinking, ‘Oh, this is a good resource’,” recalls Alex Jae, a comedian, podcaster and producer. The spreadsheet, which was deleted after circulating for a couple of months, is one example of the ways that women working in Australian comedy warn each other of danger.

Six years on, the issue of women’s safety in the comedy world is back in the spotlight following allegations of sexual assault against British comedian Russell Brand, allegations that he denies. Women comedians from around the world, including in Australia, are now talking openly about the whisper networks that have been created to protect themselves.

“Most female comics in the country definitely have a working knowledge of which male comedians to avoid being alone with and which ones are creepy and dangerous,” says Jae.

Alex Jae says women in Australian comedy have a sense of the people to avoid.

Elouise Eftos, a comedian and actor who featured in Logie Award-winning series Colin from Accounts, says that women will use group chats to tell each other to steer clear of certain male comedians.

“If you post that you’re in a line-up with someone who’s a known sexual predator, you’ll get a little ping from a group chat or from a female comic,” she says.

“There are definitely open secrets in comedy,” says Alice Tovey, a comedian and writer on Gruen. “Those with power allow those secrets to remain secret from the broader public.”

One of those open secrets is the prevalence of harassment, abuse and sexual violence in the scene. While there have been recent high-profile examples of male comedians being exposed for alleged bad behaviour – Russell Brand, Louis C.K., Chris D’Elia — interviews with Australian women comedians suggest that there remains a problematic culture at all levels of the local industry.

The kinds of stories being published in the UK and US are harder to tell in Australia, due to the small and insular nature of the Australian scene, fear of not being booked for speaking out, and Australia’s notorious defamation laws that make it hard, expensive and risky to report on this kind of behaviour.

Bec Charlwood, a comedian, Triple J presenter and podcast host, says that while we live in a post-#MeToo culture, there remain significant problems.

“Men are a lot better behaved, or they’re smarter at getting away with it,” she says.

Bec Charlwood says there are still issues in Australian comedy.

Stories within the industry can range from incidences of sexual assault and rape, to threats and intimidation from other comics and from audiences, to men making misogynist jokes on stage.

Rose Callaghan, a stand-up comedian, describes sexual harassment and sexual assault in the industry as “pervasive”. She recalls getting unwanted attention when she started in comedy, when men would ask her to write jokes with them.

“I thought, ‘That’s so awesome, he really thinks I’m funny and respects me’. And then it’s like, ‘Oh, you just want to hook up with me’.”

Cassie Workman, a TV comedy writer who worked on Shaun Micallef’s Mad as Hell, has been subjected to threats and stalking from audience members in the course of her work. She recently decided to take a step back from stand-up comedy, in part because of the level of abuse she was receiving both online and in real life.

Cassie Workman has recently taken a step back from stand-up comedy.Credit: Jim Lee

“Even though the good of being a visible trans person on stage certainly outweighed the bad, and even though I felt the vast majority of people were supportive, I also felt there was this undercurrent of people who were just furious that I existed,” she says. “I got sick of pushing against it.”

Elouise Eftos is frustrated that the burden is on women to keep themselves safe.

Eftos is frustrated that it is up to women to protect themselves and others from harm: “We have to do all this work because we’re women in the industry,” she says.

“I wish that male comics would step up.”

Women comedians who spoke to this masthead also raised the fact that responsibility for women’s safety should be placed on bookers, venues, festivals and management companies.

Alice Tovey thinks there should be a zero tolerance policy for bad behaviour in comedy.

“Anyone in a position of power should institute a zero-tolerance policy towards assault and harassment,” Tovey says. “I’m not speaking about broad public cancellation campaigns. I’m saying that if someone tells you that someone is unsafe, you don’t bring them into a space that is meant to be safe.”

Charlwood suggests two legal factors that make it harder for victims of abuse to speak out: the difficulty in getting a conviction in a sexual assault case, as well as Australia’s defamation laws, which favour the plaintiff.

“It all just slants in favour of the people with power and money, and they know that they can rest on these laws and get away with this shit,” she says.

Callaghan notes that it is not always in the interest of major players in the comedy industry to stamp out sexual assault or abuse.

“The institution and the industry of comedy just doesn’t think that that’s their problem or their business, but they’re the ones that are creating monsters,” she says.

Rose Callaghan says it is not in the interests of some in the industry to hold abusers to account.Credit: Alan Fang

“They turn a blind eye to it. They are creating this world in which people act badly and don’t get pulled up on it because they’re famous … [It’s] a culture that encourages predators to do what they want because they feel confident that no one’s going to do anything. There actually needs to be repercussions.”

The public’s response to these allegations is also a factor in whether women come forward. Many men and women have come out in support of Brand, questioning the women who have made allegations.

“We treat women like shit when they do come out about this,” Workman says. “And you [people speaking out] put yourself in a position where your whole career becomes about that, where the thing you’re most famous for is that [allegation].”

There are also professional risks to speaking up, explains Tovey. “Women and gender-diverse people who speak up are shut out of this industry. They’re not given opportunities that others are because they’re labelled difficult, they’re labelled mouthy.

“I’ve unfortunately seen several women who have been chased out of comedy, because of speaking up. And you don’t want that to happen because you don’t do comedy because it’s a good career choice but because it’s your passion and you love it.”

While it is easy to say that women should speak up, the reality is more complicated.

“When these questions are asked, there’s some standard answers, like we need more accountability and we need men to speak out,” Workman says. “But we’re confined by a system that is beyond our control.

“The only real thing that women can do is the thing that we’ve always done, which is stick together and talk to each other and make incremental progress.”

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