A MINISTER from South Zeal has reached the final of a nationwide competition — for stand-up comediennes.

Maggy Whitehouse, 59 is one of the eight finalists in this year’s Funny Women Awards.

A former BBC World Service journalist and presenter, Maggy is also an MC for events. She is an ordained minister as well as a stand-up comedienne and author.

She said: ‘As a minister and author I do lots of talks on the metaphysics of the Bible and so on. I kept getting people come up to me and saying I was funny and that I should do stand up comedy. Of course I thought that was ridiculous and scary. But then I realised there is nothing scarier than doing a funeral.

‘People kept telling me to try it and I had three people in one week tell me I should do it so I took that as a message trying to get through.

‘I looked up whether I could do a course in stand up comedy and found one nearby and signed myself up. I arrived and I was twice as old as anyone else there. One of the other people doing the course actually told me “Why are you here? You’re so old!”

‘At the end of the course we did a live performance at a pub, which seemed to go really well and the organiser offered me some gigs. I’ve supported Hal Cruttenden and I now gig on and off, around once a fortnight.’

Maggy describes her comedic styling as ‘extracting the Michael out of religion from inside the box’.

She said: ‘A huge number of comedians on the circuit are atheists. Many of them knock religion. I, of course, have a faith — a very strong faith — and I look at a lot of the ridiculous things around religion. For example, I look at all the stuff in the Bible around homosexuality and then look at some of the other 600+ laws in the Bible and how ridiculous a lot of those are too.

‘You can look at other things too like being a vicar, you can’t swear so you look at what else you can do instead. I also make sure I get to poke some fun at atheists too — after all, I wish I could be as sure as they are about everything!’

Growing up, Dave Allen was Maggy’s biggest comedic influence. Allen was a religious sceptic and religion became an important subject in his humour. Now Maggy’s main influences are Eddie Izzard and Paul Tonkinson.

She said: ‘I love Eddie Izzard’s work. He has an absolutely wonderful way of seeing things, he is the one for me. Paul Tonkinson too is so good at observing life. He has become something of a mentor for me.’

The Funny Women Awards have been going since 2003 and aim to be a launch pad for comediennes, writers and short film makers. Maggy has been nominated in the stage award category. Maggy must perform a set around five to six minutes long and will be marked on material, stage presence, delivery and originality.

She admits that stand up comedy would not be an expected career step for a 59-year-old ordained minister but said that those around her had been supportive.

She said: ‘When I told my husband he was nonplussed by the whole thing. My family and friends asked me what the hell I was thinking! I was most scared of telling my bishop. Thankfully he was so supportive and thinks it is brilliant. He is even coming to the final so having his support is such a blessing.

‘Getting to the final of the Funny Women competition has been amazing. I went to do some publicity photographs with the other finalists and it looks more like a picture of me with my seven daughters from different men! It is so exciting to be involved in comedy, as part of a movement that is so youth-orientated.

‘I wasn’t funny at school — I was something of a wimp actually. So finding out in later life that actually, I am quite funny, it’s given me a new lease of life.’

The final took place late last night (Wednesday) as the Times went to press. Keep an eye out in next week’s edition to see how Maggy got on.