Moontower Star Sophie Buddle on How Comedy Is Becoming More Welcoming to Women

Sophie Buddle (Photo by Leigh Righton)

Sophie Buddle made her stand-up debut at age 15. She'd been attending comedy clubs with her mom for a few months and got into the sticky habit of lying about her age, until a local comedian Googled her name to find her photo and 5K race time – from her high school gym class. "I did my first year of stand-up with everybody thinking I was six years older than I was," Buddle said. "Then everyone found out and got really mad at me. But yeah, the first year was so bad because I was like, you know, making all these sex jokes and very much not having sex at all." 

Buddle has spent the past 12 years touring all over Canada. In 2019, she won the Juno (Canada's equivalent of a Grammy) for her album A Little Bit of Buddle. Once she realized she'd done every festival in the country, she decided to expand her network and move to the U.S. Moontower Just for Laughs Austin will be her first time in the city. "I'm just really excited," she said. "Everybody always talks about how Austin is such a comedy city, right up there with Chicago, L.A., and New York. I am really so new to America that every city I go to I've just never been to before. And my stand-up is sometimes kind of weird. So whenever there's a real comedy-savvy city, that's my best chance of doing well." 

Growing up, Buddle said she was never known as the witty kid or class clown. "For me, and for most comedians, it's not that people thought we were funny, it's that people thought we were annoying," Buddle said. "If you can hold your annoyingness together while you're onstage, that creates a great performer." Buddle's father is a musician; her mother, a painter. She said her family supports creative career paths and encouraged her to find a niche. Because she's always loved acting and writing, comedy immediately appealed to Buddle as the perfect combination. "Literally, the first time I performed onstage, I was like, 'I love this,'" she added. "I just love comedy as an art form. I think it's really cool to have such a pared-down, low-maintenance performance. It's you and your personality and your thoughts and your jokes, and full crowds come out to just listen and laugh together. I really love laughter, and I love entertaining." 

Describing her writing style as "punchline first," Buddle said the hallmark of a real comic is turning unfortunate circumstances into content. "Basically, when something bad or something hard happens, you're not as upset because you have such a good outlet to talk about it. If it's happened to other people, they'll be relieved to also talk about it. The best thing that we do is to make life just a little bit easier." With such a minimalistic craft, Buddle said comedians can achieve unique, profound connections with the audience. "After a comedy show, everybody feels on the same page," Buddle said. "I think that's why comics hated doing Zoom shows, because the thing that we do is create this fun vibe in a room with a group of people. Every show feels like a party." 

Now an established comedian, Buddle said she faced difficulties breaking into comedy as a young woman, as the open mic scene requires socializing and networking at comedy clubs. For Buddle, this took the somewhat awkward form of drinking and mingling with older men. "As soon as you feel left out of the scene or isolated, that's really all you have when you first start," Buddle said. "It's not like you have fans to keep you going. You really need your friends in the community." 

Since working in Canada, Buddle said she's seen a more balanced gender distribution in the industry, which she called a "huge relief. ... But I think the problem is still that women stop too soon. And I think that men don't stop." As she looks toward the future of comedy and her own next steps, she said she hopes more female comics see their careers through the open mic phase. At the professional level, there are successful women like Buddle to offer guidance and make comedy a more welcoming space. "This is really the best-case scenario for me," she said. "I'm just trying to go wherever I can, like the past three weekends I've been on the road doing gigs. I'm just living my dreams."

Sophie Buddle at Moontower Just for Laughs 2022

Moontower Just For Laughs 2022, April 13-24. Tickets and info at moontowercomedyfest.com.

Find all our news, reviews, and interviews from the fest at austinchronicle.com/moontower-comedy-festival.