There aren't that many really funny women that end up becoming well-known comics, but I have made it my mission to try and find some of the best. One of the funniest women I have ever come across is April Winchell, and although she's not really very well known outside L.A., she's a huge star to me. She's right at the top of the "My Girls" links.
I call her a "Goddess", which usually means that if I had the chance, I'd probably fuck her.
When I first found out about her I kept her a secret for months. I didn't want to share her with anyone, unless they happened to come home with me after a big Saturday night, and then I'd hit them with her radio show. It was so great for me because it would be on here at around midday Sunday, which is Saturday night in L.A., so I could stagger home with my records, have a shower, crash out on the bed and lie there for the next three hours giggling madly while I listened. I was totally addicted.
I crumbled after a few months though and finally started telling my friends, and made a Best of April cd for them to listen to (it took hours to compile because her archives are so full of great moments), and now a whole tribe of April fans has sprung up down here so I don't feel so alone in my adoration. Now when I go visit my friends they are SINGING and DOING SHOWS to some of the music they've found on her multimedia page, and play me stuff from her site that I haven't even heard, God bess them. My friend Tristan does the most amazing performance of "Pork Chops" that has possibly ever been, or will ever be, performed by anyone, ever.
I found April by accident. I have a link on my sidebar to the Coast to Coast radio show, and I listen to it practically every day on the internet. This was in 2002 before I became a Coast subscriber and I used to listen to a big LA broadcaster, KFI, to get the Coast to Coast show when it came over live on their web stream, but one Sunday morning I had been out all night DJing and partying, got home, turned the computer on, rolled a joint and got really comfy on the bed for my daily dose of "the edge", perfect for the headspace I was in. I must have tuned in a couple of hours early because instead of the familiar electro-disco bassline of Giorgio Moroder's "Midnight Express" to signal the beginning of Coast, I heard this crazy chicken yodel song, and April came on. At first I didn't really listen but then she was saying someone called in about a celebrity sighting in downtown Hollywood late at night, which will always catch my attention, about an aging actor who'd been spotted buying adult diapers at an all-night chemist, then she launched into a new segment called "A-Dub's Hop Hop Corner", which was a 2 minute "rap" that April would do using proper hip-hop gangsta language, but she would talk in her normal Jewish-American accent about really mundane things like having to find an outfit to wear for a Bar Mitzvah that weekend. Besides "What is Schaef wearing?" it was my favourite part of her show. Anyway, within the first five minutes she had me nearly wetting my pants she was so funny. Her show was so original, so eccentric, so well-produced in a haphazard kind of way, so crazy, so unlike anything I had ever heard before, and she covered all sorts of trashy stuff, it was unreal.
Over time I found out that her mother was a Hollywood showgirl and her father was a famous children's show TV host that did a ventriloquist act with a wooden dummy called Jimmy in the 60's.
And her best friend is gay, so how could I not love her?
I've also gotten to know some of her other obbsessed fans via her Yahoo group, who are a bunch of bloody comedians themselves.
I don't know if I can do the show justice by just describing it. You really need to go there and have a listen but if you like entertainment news, hilarious, quirky music from all over the world (especially songs featuring chickens), Americans who can laugh at themselves and their culture, and trash, then you'll probably love her too.
Around a year after I discovered her, she was axed from KFI as part of the ongoing effort by the media corporations to keep the American public as dumbed down as possible (she is WAY too smart), and to make way for a "best of" show of re-runs from one of their weekday hosts, much to the dismay of her many fans. A couple of months later she was invited by Mr KABC at another LA station to join him every second Friday to co-host his show, which she has been doing ever since, and although it's great to still have her on the air, I really miss those days when she was doing the show alone.
Navigating April's site:
1. Her radio show archives are free and the best stuff is pre-Dec 2002.
2. Her second anniversary show with her best friend Roy is a scream, and a great place to start.
3. Her multimedia page has untold treasures and should be explored courageously.
4. Her blog is updated regularly and is extremely funny.
5. One of my favourite pages is the one named "Whoring".
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