Four Funny Females ready for 6th season at MPAC

Their act is a part-time gig, mixed with careers and kids.

But their jokes are full-time.

Chat with the Four Funny Females, McKinney's own comedy troupe, and laughs take center stage - far away from the stage.

"I hope we get to keep doing this until we're 'Golden Girls' instead of 'Four Funny Females,'" said Linda Stogner, closer of the four-woman show.

The troupe returns for its sixth season Sept. 22 at their comedic comfort zone, the McKinney Performing Arts Center in downtown McKinney. Without spoiling the suspense, there's sure to be politics and pregnancy.

"Life evolves...so I've got some new stuff completely unrelated to anything I've ever done," said Laura Bartlett, the group's producer and third act. "And I think they're going to be surprised by Sherry's body."

That would be second-act, soon-to-be-eight-months-pregnant Sherry Belle. Speaking on one end of a four-way phone call last week, her words echoed an elated disdain for such an opener.

"It's kind of hard to heckle the crowd when I can't breathe," said Belle, a past finalist for Improv's "Funniest Comic in Dallas" and already a mother of one. "But when I was pregnant with my first, it was awesome because I come out, address it and get a big laugh up front. I have to find another opener that hits that hard - I guess I'll just have to keep getting pregnant."

Her fellow funnies snickered at the suggestion, particularly Bartlett, who maintains she "tried to get as close to scheduling the show as possible" to an on-stage birth. "And I am huge," Belle added.

Their material - a family-friendly smorgasbord of sarcasm - should still remind audiences what they've been missing for half a year. Cancer, Cajun living and candid banter likely remains.

Jodi Hadsell, the opening act, pleads with newcomers not to give up on the "family-friendly" tint too quickly.

"I know how to get the shock value out of the way, right away," she said. "I'm a little bit more risqué. Laura slants us 99 percent nice, 1 percent naughty just because the rest of them are 100 percent nice, and I'm naughty."

Shock won't come to all, though. Many who pack the Courtroom Theater attend two or three FFF shows a year, driving from around DFW to see the rambunctious rarity.

They come to hear - and use - their jokes.

"I love high-fiving the audience, being outside after and hearing people tell our jokes," Belle said. "It's great when we have our new material, but they like to hear the old stuff, too."

The atmosphere, the expectations, familiarity - that's what sets a FFF show apart. Stogner, who owns Backdoor Comedy Club in Dallas, said she finds her own relief at MPAC every season.

"When people laugh, that's what brings us back to the stage - that feel, that high," Stogner said. "And they're even greater in McKinney because everyone is so warm, so supportive. It's like an extra high."

No headliners, no wimpily short acts, no drunks. Their hour-and-a-half set engages the crowd, allows the women to "play with them a bit and really go for it," Stogner said.

The group's name continues to spread beyond their loyal listeners. Bartlett, with her single-mom/financer/comedian life, appears this month in Better Homes and Gardens magazine. They've been featured in The New York Times and Texas Monthly, perhaps just the tip of the attention-berg.

"The need to laugh transcends gender and race," Bartlett led. "So look for us in upcoming editions of Ebony and Men's Health."

Seemingly all jokes aside, when asked whether FFF will indeed broaden its fan base, Bartlett quipped, "I'm working with some people in Dubai."

"I can tell you where we won't be going: Iran, Pakistan and Syria," she added, just a tad more seriously. "Not only are we women, we're American women."

She admitted touring, at least in Texas and this country, is always a possibility. But the ladies love their home venue. Their season continues Jan. 12, Jan. 26 and Feb. 9, each time at MPAC.

In their separate lives, the four keep the laughs coming. But they save their best jokes for the stage.

"It's always like a reunion," Bartlett said. "There's this ease about going up there at MPAC, it's like sitting amongst a lot of your friends. We just love everything about it."

For more information, visit www.laurabartlett.com.

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