Award-winning comedian Sarah Millican and journalist Hannah Dunleavy came to Newnham College to talk to Cambridge University students, staff and Fellows about feminist website Standard Issue Magazine.
In just seven years Millican has gone from winning the Best Newcomer Award at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival to becoming one of the UK’s most successful and multi-award-winning comedians.
She has had six nominations for British Comedy Awards who crowned her The People’s Choice: Queen of Comedy in 2011. She’s also been BAFTA nominated twice for her work and she holds the record as the highest selling female comedian in the DVD market.
Millican has appeared at The Royal Variety Performance and she has notched up countless appearances on top comedy shows including QI, Mock the Week, Have I Got News For You, 8 Out of 10 Cats, and Live at the Apollo. She is currently on her fourth national sell-out tour, titled Outsider, which arrived in Cambridge yesterday (March 10).
In 2014 with journalists Mickey Noonan, Hannah Dunleavy and comedian Kiri Pritchard McLean, she set up Standard Issue Magazine, the sharp, witty and irreverent magazine that champions women.
It provides a mix of news, opinions, life stories and entertainment, all from a female perspective and it has just been nominated for a Chortle award.
At the In Conversation with Standard Issue event at Newnham, the women’s college at the University of Cambridge, Millican and Dunleavy talked about everything from when they first realised they were feminists, why they felt there was a gap in the market for an online magazine to what Millican’s favourite joke is.
Millican said: “Standard Issue will never tell you who to be, what to wear or how to look. We believe that every woman should feel empowered to be themselves. It’s relatable, like a long lunch with a group of brilliant friends and it tells it like it is.”
There was an audience Q&A which uncovered everything from Millican’s journey to comedy, her love of biscuits to why giving women a space to write about everything from the menopause to American politics is important.
The women’s college run by women, for women welcomed the women’s online magazine run by women, for women on Friday, March 11.
Caption: Sarah Millican, comedian and founder of Standard Issue Magazine with Hannah Dunleavy, deputy editor of Standard Issue Magazine, at Newnham College.