Sandra Robbie expected to dive into some bars when she decided to develop stand-up comedy as a way of moving the conversation beyond racial segregation with her passion project promoting the history of the 1947 OC civil rights case Mendez v. Westminster, which made California the first state to end school segregation. What Sandra didn’t expect was to discover that comedy is still very much a segregated world dominated by men ages 20 – 35, typically 20 men to 1 woman at the open mics she’s attended – and there is power in what those numbers mean regarding whose perspectives we hear and how we define “comedy.” After a year of collecting thoughts and experiences, Sandra Robbie’s Lady Parts was born.
Sandra says the idea for Sandra Robbie’s Lady Parts started like this, “I walked into a bar that hosts what is legitimately the biggest open mic in Orange County. Every week, anywhere from 80 – 120 comics are on the list for three minutes of time. I thought, OK, this is the place! This is OC’s stand-up world. Then I looked around, and behind the mic, stage right, over your shoulder, is a 60’s kitsch velvet painting of a woman in what I call a “dream-catcher thong,” bare-breasted, on her knees in a pin-up pose. Art? This was velvet Playboy. I looked around and thought “#MeToo, anyone? Really? Come on, really?”
Soon, a body comment to Sandra from one of the guy comics triggered Sandra’s next three-minute stand-up. “I made two little signs on a string then placed the signs over the woman’s breasts in the painting. The signs said “#Me1” and “#Me2.” Women audience members applauded. Women comics thanked me…and I realized this is why Louis C.K., Roger Ailes, Matt Lauer and all of them got away with it for so long.”
“Bring you posse. Wear you pussy hats,” Sandra urges. “We are going to take a closer look at #MeToo, LGBTQ, Mendez v. Westminster, and some mom comedy too, having fun all along the way.”
Sandra is the Emmy-winning writer/producer of the PBS documentary Mendez v. Westminster: For All the Children. Sandra is working on Sandra Robbie’s Lady Parts the book and aims to take her Lady Parts show to Los Angeles, college campuses and communities across the country. “Bring your pen!” Sandra says, “We’ll be handing out voter registration forms, too…and that’s no joke! I’m more than Mendez and more than comedy. I’ve got lots of Lady Parts.”
Show includes painting with woman’s bare breasts.
