articles Check it out the new Joy Show Website: http://www.thejoyshow.com

Winnipeg Fringe Festival THE JOY SHOW Reviewed by CBC Online in Canada:

The Joy Show, Part 1...

Horniness can turn a person into a clown as quickly as the application of a shiny red, rubber nose. Joy Gohring knows this, and she's like a giant, insurgent hormone through out The Joy Show. It isn't really a play -- there is no narrative thread running through the performance -- although Gohring does stay in character as a manic, party girl missing some crucial social boundaries. When she shares a beer with an unsuspecting male audience member, she begins a hilarious one sided relationship with the man that runs the entire course from flirtation to vindictive bitterness within minutes. The way she pulled his entire

affair out of thin air, relating every naked emotion on her pretty face, had me laughing to the point of tears. Gohring is an exceptional comedian. Whether she's relating her mortified response to seeing her mother's pubic hair, or making observations about the eleven year old girls wearing low rider jeans and g-strings at the mall, Gohring manages to find the natural absurdity in all matters sexual. She can appear vulnerable and goofy singing along to a sappy song, or she can flash a look that clearly says don't f*** with me (many aimed at her hapless paramour in the front row).

Maybe her ex-Catholic parents instilled a need in Gohring to reclaim sex from its sinful definition, back into the embarrassing human instinct it actually is. Or maybe Joy is just a big tramp, a very funny, foul-mouthed, unapologetic tramp who can keep an audience laughing for an hour. Gohring strips down to her underwear and runs through the audience demanding that “everybody cuddle”. This girl-girly is unhinged, adorable, and you probably won't get a chance to see a performer as unique and funny as her too often in your life. A very enjoyable show.

...a new series called Good Girls Don't allows its two young heroines to wallow and flail in sexual freedom. Originally titled My Best Friend Is a Big Fat Slut , this loopy new show on Oxygen (the other women's network) has been billed as " Laverne and Shirley set in a new millennium"—which would be a perfectly reasonable comparison if Laverne and Shirley had regularly shtupped Lenny, Squiggy, and any other guy who wandered into their field of vision. Made by the producers of That '70s Show , it has no laugh track and a very lo-fi, off-kilter sensibility, something of a relief after the polished Summerland .

Good Girls pivots around Jane (Joy Gohring) and Marjorie (Bree Turner), two friends constantly testing the limits of acceptable behavior. Is it OK to sleep with your friends and neighbors? How about creeps and junkies? Marjorie is the prissier one, constantly trying to rein in Jane, the aforementioned big fat (barely chubby, really) slut. Jane will seemingly do anything to get laid, even pretending she's got a bun in the oven to snag a guy with a preggo fetish. She may look like a giggly blonde bimbo, but Jane is also campy, sly, and unpredictable. That pretty much sums up the charms of the series itself: It revels in sitcom clichés but then veers off into weird, uncharted TV territory. Trying to restore Jane's self-esteem after she's been dumped, Marjorie encourages her to say an affirmation. "I have a big, white, lumpy ass—and I love it!" burbles Jane. "And someone else will too," Marjorie earnestly coos. "Yeah," says Jane, "like black men!" Cue next scene: Jane and Marjorie in a nightclub, hunting for booty-loving black men who can appreciate Jane's lumpy ass...

Entertainment Weekly, June 11, 2004 - Good Girls Don't - Oxygen – June 4 – 9 P.M.

L.A. roommates Marjorie (The Wedding Planner's Bree Turner) and Jane (Not Another Teen Movie's Joy Gohring) drink too much, smoke too much, and sleep with all the wrong people. It's about time. Good Girls Don't is the newest offering from Claudia Lonow, whose Showtime series about a has-been party girl, Rude Awakening, was largely autobiographical. “I have a real affection for flawed people,” says Lonow. “I think they're heroic.” If there's a breakout character, it's Jane, a slutty blonde who nevertheless manages to steer clear of stereotype. “How many whores are there on TV?” Lonow asks. “ Soo many…(but) Jane is grandiose. She feels great about herself even through people roll their eyes.” The yin to Jane's yang is Marjorie, a serial-monogamist schoolteacher who tries to boost Jane's self-esteem but instead inadvertently turns her into a man-eater. It's a loving, supportive, toxic friendship that Lonow feels is best explored on cable: “There's no [other] place where they make jokes about chlamydia.” – Alynda Wheat

"The inevitable happens: it is all good, clean, dirty fun, and the show, a first for Oxygen, will probably giggle, scream, and mislay vibrators well into the next decade." - VOGUE

Vogue, June 2004
p. 152, “People are Talking about…”

Profane and sacred love are addressed in the correct formats this month: casual sex in a new sitcom from Caryn Mandabach (whose company produce That 70's Show and Whoopi, among many others) and total surrender to Christ and its consequences in an HBO documentary by Antony Thomas that includes interesting footage of an Indian sadhu wrapping his penis around a pole and securing it behind his legs. Neither the sitcom, name Good Girls Don't, nor the documentary, titled Celibacy, has any answers to the tragic challenges posed by the sexual urge, but each in its own way addresses the questions that have been tormenting men and women forever. To wit, “Does it matter that my ass is too big?” and “How can I rise above carnal desire?”

In Good Girls Don't, on the cable channel Oxygen, two wide-eyed young women from Minnesota navigate the complexities of lust and insecurity in a Los Angeles that consists, in a logical progression, of public nightspots, apartments, and laundry room. Unlike the girls in Sex and the City, Marjorie and Jane are outsiders. Their Midwestern eagerness, which on network television would be aimed at securing a husband or, better still, a job as a network anchor, is here directed at getting sex. The dark-haired, thin, and marginally more sensible girl, Marjorie, is played by Bree Turner, who bears a very slight resemblance to Mia Kirschner on The L Word but shows few signs of wishing to explore her Sapphic side. Joy Gohring is chunky Jane, who fearlessly wears a ruched orange two-piece in the pilot. She squirts Cheez Whiz into her mouth before a big date so she can act dainty at dinner, a plan foiled by her first martini, and voices the true insecurities that attend the prospect of a date: “He will be…there…won't he?”

Good Girls Don't hits its stride in the second episode, when Jane who has overdone her right to sexual freedom, joins a Sexaholics self-help group to meet her “make-believe boyfriend Danny Masterson” (one of the stars of That 70's Show ). Marjorie accompanies her, both girls giggling in an innocent Midwestern way about “chasing a sex-addicted TV star to a wacky twelve-step group.” The inevitable happens: it is all good, clean, dirty fun, and the show, a first for Oxygen, will probably giggle, scream, and mislay vibrators well into the next decade.

On TV: Diane Holloway

'Good Girls Don't,' but in this new Oxygen sitcom, Austin comedian Joy Gohring does -- make us laugh

AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF

Tuesday, June 1, 2004

Much has been written about the critical condition of TV comedy today. Reality and drama are all over the television landscape, but good sitcoms are rare -- and many sitcoms are quite rotten.

The fledgling cable network Oxygen, backed by the deep pockets of Oprah Winfrey among others, has a new comedy that may well be the funniest sitcom in years. And it stars Joy Gohring, who grew up in Austin and cut her stand-up teeth right here at the Cap City Comedy Club.

In the unpredictable and irreverent "Good Girls Don't," Gohring plays Jane, a wacky twentysomething transplant from Minnesota who is searching for sex and fun in sunny Southern California. Her best friend and roommate Marjorie (Bree Turner) is a bit more of a traditionalist, but she's also trying to swing herself into a looser L.A. lifestyle.

"Jane is a hairdresser, definitely blue collar," Gohring said in a recent phone interview from Los Angeles. "She's real, like Roseanne Barr, as opposed to 'Friends,' who were all fabulous. Jane is living slightly above her means and tries to be more fabulous than she is."

In the pilot, Jane and her boyfriend break up, and after sobbing into a pile of tissues, she takes Marjorie's advice and jumps back into the dating game. She also jumps (and stays) in bed with a series of guys, enjoying a loud sex life that finally drives Marjorie's boyfriend away.

"I like to play the crazy ones," Gohring said. "She's overtly sexual and also very wounded, which I think makes her very relatable."

Between chuckles at Jane's ups and downs, you may wonder exactly what the title "Good Girls Don't" refers to, since these girls, and especially Jane, definitely do have sex.

"Well, the original title was 'My Best Friend Is a Big Fat Slut,' " Gohring said, pointing out that guys who sleep around don't get slapped with derogatory labels. "Yes, I guess I'm the slut, but the title is evocative. Maybe the implication is she's a good girl who's a little bit lost."

And maybe she's a bit like Samantha on "Sex and the City," without the designer duds or the super-toned body.

At 28, Gohring has performed stand-up for years, written comedy plays, appeared in two other Oxygen comedies ("Ripe Tomatoes" and "Running with Scissors") and had roles in a couple of movies, "The Third Wheel" and "Not Another Teen Movie."

Born in Cincinnati, Gohring moved to Austin when she was a few months old and her family has lived here ever since. Her father Ralph taught at the University of Texas (he now works for the city) and her mother, who died when Joy was at Anderson High School, taught at Austin Community College. Her brother Tom owns a tai chi school here.

Gohring majored in journalism and history at UT, and after graduating in 1992, began dabbling in comedy. Her career took off in '99 when she and comedienne Johanna Stein co-wrote "Without Pants" and performed the two-woman comedy at the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen, Colo. Powerhouse comedy producers Marcy Carsey and Tom Werner ("Cosby," "Roseanne"), who are original partners in Oxygen, saw the show and signed Gohring to create and star in her first series, "Ripe Tomatoes."

"Oxygen was just starting, and Carsey-Werner gave us money to develop the show," Gohring said. "We shot six or seven, but they only aired a couple."

After "Running with Scissors" failed, too, comedy writer Claudia Lonow wrote "Good Girls Don't," and Carsey and Warner called Gohring in to audition for the lead.

"This show is super-funny," Gohring said. "This is my favorite show I've ever done. It's like something I would have written for myself."

Eight episodes of "Good Girls Don't" have been filmed and will air this summer. No word yet on whether the show will be picked up for fall, but buzz and ratings will be key.

Given the sorry state of sitcoms on the major networks, you may wonder why "Good Girls Don't" is on a tiny cable network.

"The intention is for this to be a breakout show that will make people tune in to Oxygen," Gohring said. "It was definitely intended for this network."

The hope is for "Good Girls Don't" to do for Oxygen what "South Park" did for Comedy Central and "The Office" did for BBC America.

Gohring bounces between coasts doing stand-up and comes back to Cap City Comedy Club, where she's been a regular for years, whenever she can. That's why she's hosting her series pre-premiere party there on Wednesday night. The party starts at 7, and the half-hour pilot screens at 8 p.m.

"They've been amazingly supportive in helping me develop my comedy," Gohring said.

Gohring plans to fly in from Los Angeles today, rent a boat and hit the lake.

"My favorite thing about Austin is being on the water in summer," she said.

You have to wonder why networks like NBC don't throw the dice with shows like "Good Girls Don't... "

"Good Girls Don't... " 8 tonight on Oxygen.

Pursuing its goal more doggedly than a man-hunting Bergdorf blonde, Oxygen has shifted from an older audience of Manhattan boomers to younger viewers and newer ZIP codes.

Gone is much of the earnest "womyn" identity. In place are shows like "Good Girls Don't... ," a raucous Gen Y sitcom from skilled producers Carsey-Werner-Mandabach.

The series features two transplanted Minnesotans living in L.A. Jane (Joy Gohring) is an earthy, free-wheeling neurotic whose demeanor recalls the young Carrie Fisher. Roommate Marjorie (Bree Turner) is the sensible one constantly dispensing advice — some of it even useful.

Jane and Marjorie live in the same apartment building as pals Ben (Kevin Christy), a romantic geek, and his roommate Davis (Brent King), the good-looking slacker who gets the girls.

Rounding out the group is ditzy, lovable swimsuit model Lizzie (Nichole Hiltz).

"Good Girls Don't... " is a descendant of both "Sex and the City" and "The Mary Tyler Moore Show." Some may consider it devolutionary; the characters have no big career ambitions and the attitudes toward sex and drinking are cavalier.

But so what? "Good Girls Don't... " isn't a primer. It's a fresh and brutally funny show about the confused desires that beset less-than-perfect young women.

In one scene, Jane has dinner with Doug, a man about to dump her:

Doug: "You're fine the way you are."

Jane: "No I'm not, or you would love me."

Doug: "No, I wouldn't."

Jane: "Oh, OK, cool, cool."

In the next episode, Jane goes a step further when she feigns pregnancy to date a man with a pregnant-woman fetish.

The men are no less misguided. "Hey, I'm sitting right here," says the studly Davis in a scene where his behavior is being discussed. "Just because I'm hot doesn't meant I don't have feelings." Yes, it does.

The actors are well-cast and very adept; the direction is slick. The first three episodes display no signs of a letdown.

You have to wonder why networks like NBC don't throw the dice with shows like "Good Girls Don't... " It's twice as clever as the short-lived "Coupling" and signals far more clearly that comedy is, first and foremost, about having a good time.

Good Girls Don't . . .

This new cable comedy is shocking and titillating

THE STARS Bree Turner, Joy Gohring, Kevin Christy, Brent King, Nicole Hiltz

THE STORY It's the antithesis of sugary Friends: Self-absorbed L.A. twenty-somethings experience severe relationship woes. In the opener. Marjorie (Turner) frets when "lumpy" pal Jane (bouncy standout Gohring) turns wild slut!

WHAT'S GOOD Girls does society a service by mocking women who think they're worthless without a boyfriend. When Marjorie wishes she were like Meg Ryan in the movies ("before her lips got all freaky"), she ain't just whistling Sex and the City - she's crying for help.

The series is the freshest show of the summer.

Good Girls Don't
The best bet to fill the Friends void.

Oxygen went to the night: the producers behind That 70s Show. The result is a witty take on the life of the five 20-somethings in LA who will do just about anything to find love... or at least a companion for the night. Good Girls Don't hits on the transitions and trials faced by the members of a new generation as they adjust to likfe on their own. "I should be married by now." wails Marjorie, playedby the stunning Bree Turner (Bring It On Again). "I should have a husband and a house and a washer and dryer that doesn't take quarters." The series is the freshest show of the summer.