The audience is too scared to heckle, we're funny women

"Sometimes people will post things on Facebook like 'women are just not funny'," adds Sue Hawkins. "And I'm like 'really? There's still this attitude out there?' but we never feel like that – we never feel like we have to prove ourselves, we know we are funny."

Visit any one of a number of cafes in the region and you're likely to find Jacky, Sue and Deb Nicholls in fits of giggles, actually make that rowdy fits of belly-laughs, working on their latest comedy project.

"We're experts when it comes to local cafes," says Jacky. "That's where we do all our writing and usually we're making so much noise, the staff come over to see what's so funny."

But how do the trio, who are the bosses, brains and banter behind Fizzog Productions, know when their material will work on stage?

"If it makes all three of us properly laugh then we know it will be successful," explains Sue, 41. "It's as simple as that."

The Fizzogs, who all met at college, are in their office/costume store/props cupboard. The rails are heavy with outfits ranging from the shawls of little old ladies to the Spandex of Abba, with random items such as oversized present boxes, plastic trees and old photographs dotted around.

In the middle of their biggest tour to date, they're talking to us about what it's like to be a woman in the traditionally male-dominated world of comedy. Never before have female stand-ups and comedians been so in demand.

From Bridget Christie winning this year's Foster's Edinburgh Comedy Award to the huge mainstream stars such as Miranda Hart and Sarah Millican shifting tons of tickets, books and DVDs, it's never been better.

From Bridesmaids at the box office to Mel and Sue on the Bake Off, funny gals are everywhere you look.

So has that ridiculous/offensive notion that "women aren't funny" (Christopher Hitchens, Jerry Lewis, Adam Carolla) finally come to an end?

"Like we say, apart from the odd comment online, we don't hear that while we're out and about," says Sue. "And people are too frightened to heckle us. A lot of our stuff is scripted and character-based and our audiences know that if they heckle, it will ruin things.

"The only time they can get away with it is during Christmas pantos but we give as good as we get – we jump down into the audience still in character to interact with them and if someone gets up to leave, well, that's a big mistake."

The Fizzogs' act is a mixture of outrageous comedy characters with a Black Country twist. They can be seen everywhere from Bilston Town Hall and the Black Country Living Museum to

Bridgnorth's Theatre On The Steps and Birmingham's MAC. They also work in schools across the region, tackling traditionally difficult subjects – and the odd gobby teenager – with humour.

They're influenced by local comedians such as Frank Skinner and Julie Walters and admire the observational skills of Peter Kay and Jason Byrne but it is French and Saunders who remain their idols. And they're doing everything they can to follow in their footsteps.

"We want to get bigger and bigger," explains Deb, 41. "We're working so hard to achieve our dream: we do school shows in the day and then other shows at night. Sometimes we're doing up to five different programmes a week, there's a lot of characters, a lot of lines.

"We are an unusual act because we're three women but that's never stopped us. In fact, we've just landed our own show on Black Country Radio every Saturday afternoon. That came about because every time we appeared on any local radio show, we'd always get people saying 'this is great, you should have your own show'. One lorry driver said he was laughing so much he nearly crashed, we're not quite sure if that's a good or a bad thing though.

"Radio's good because as well as being our characters, we can be ourselves a bit too."

So is that changing their stance on comedy characters forming the bulk of their act? "Not really," she continues. "We have freedom as the characters. There's limits to stand-up and this sets us apart on the comedy circuit. We like that Little Britain/Catherine Tate approach."

Jacky, 50, adds: "It's the variety of stuff that we do that we enjoy. The old ladies are probably our favourite because we get to be abusive. We have a confidence with these characters and you can be anything you want to be, with have these old dears dancing to Flo Rida's Low and we have our own version of Swan Lake called Ducks On The Cut. I'd like to think we make it look easy but you have to train to do it, you have to have thick skin, especially if you're a woman."

Sue, Deb and Jacky, from Wordsley, Wollaston and Wombourne respectively, met on a theatre course in the 90s. After graduating, it was community theatre all the way, working with various schools and youth organisations across the Midlands. And it was during an anti-bullying skit based on Cinderella that they stumbled on their winning comedy formula. "We didn't intend it to be funny but it just worked so we then produced a show for a general audience, it was half Cinders, half the characters and we charged £5 – afterwards people were coming up to us saying 'we would have paid a tenner for that'. We knew then that we were on to something."

Deb and Sue say their senses of humour are more silly and slapstick, while Jacky is observational and sharp.

"None of us like that Jim Davidson sort of stuff," says mum-of-three-daughters Jacky. "But then again, who does?"

Their humour has taken them far, they've performed at Birmingham's Glee Club and are now on their biggest tour yet, The 50 Per Cent Funnier Comedy Tour.

"We want to do an even bigger tour in January or February, around 14 dates in total," says Deb. "People get to our shows through word of mouth. Once someone has come to one of our shows for the first time, you can guarantee they'll be back and they'll bring more people with them."

Jacky adds: "We get people coming from all over, Scotland, London, even Morocco. The Black Country and its accent are intrinsic to everything we do but everyone can understand us surprisingly. In fact, the only people who can't understand us are brummies. But yeah people love the humour and the accent so we make the most of that.

"Sometimes we even go out and about as the characters. It causes quite a stir wherever we go, except Dudley. When we go out in Dudley as the little old ladies no one bats an eyelid.

Funny that."

Elizabeth Joyce

The next Fizzog Productions show is at Bilston Town Hall on September 27. Show starts at 7.30pm, call 07757 424618 for tickets.