The Women's Room encore to take over Verity Lane with Canberra comedians Tanya Losanno, Sarah Stewart, Trish Hurley and Jacquelyn Richards

The brainchild of Tanya Losanno, Sarah Stewart, Trish Hurley and Jacquelyn Richards, the Women's Room proved to be a hit at the Canberra Comedy Festival. So much so, that they've been asked to bring the sold-show back to the Verity Lane stage.

And they bring with them their take on the issues facing women, in a realm that is quite often dominated by men. From motherhood, middle age, menopause, death and everything in-between, they have a lot to laugh about when it comes to balancing life, love, kids, ageing parents, and doing it all in the middle of a pandemic.

"When we're talking about women and diversity, it's also the audience as well, and women as an audience, especially older women as an audience, are often ignored," Stewart says.

"And so we appeal to everybody. We've had men at our shows laughing their heads off as much as women. So we don't want to pigeon hole ourselves and say we're just for older women. But there's no doubt about it - women love our comedy because we have got that perspective."

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As well as bringing the laughs to the stage, it is clear that the four women just love making each other laugh. (What a hoot it would be to be a fly on the wall of the green room as they make each other laugh pre- and post-show).

It's almost hard to believe that three of these four comedians hadn't even thought about doing comedy pre-pandemic.

It was a course run by fellow Canberran comedian Chris Ryan in late 2020 that first got Stewart, Hurley and Richards to try their hand at stand-up.

For Stewart, it was a chance - in the lead up to her 60th birthday earlier this month - to try and find her voice.

"I was very conscious over the last couple of years that heading into that age where women become visible, or you retire, look out to the grandchildren and wait to die," she says.

"And so I wanted to do something different, find a voice, and how could I do that?"

For Hurley and Richards, it was a chance to shake up the monotony that came with that first year of the pandemic. Neither had plans to ever get up on a stage to do a comedy set - although the course did conclude with a five-minute on-stage set - they were just looking for a laugh.

"It was the middle of COVID and lots of things were happening at home and I needed an just an excuse to leave the house," Hurley says

"I liked Chris Ryan, she's an amazing local comedian and national, so I just thought maybe I would go along and she would make me laugh, for the fee of the course - it seemed like a good deal - without any intention of actually being a comedian or doing comedy myself.

"In fact, I thought I was only going to go for one night and I just kept coming back because I wanted to make Chris happy. And what would make her happy was that her students kept turning up."

From there they met Losanno, a Canberra comedian who originally moved from the capital to Melbourne to pursue comedy about 20 years ago.

She's done multiple solo shows at comedy events such as the Melbourne Comedy Festival and Adelaide Fringe Festival, as well as receiving comedy grants.

But Losanno has come full circle, moving back to Canberra to continue her comedy career.

"I think as I get older, I just prefer to collaborate with people. It's just more fun. Like Trish has always been saying it's about the experience and being together and being backstage and having a laugh and stuff like that," Losanno says.

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