If you were at Santa Clarita Lanes in Saugus last Wednesday, you might’ve noticed a relatively large number of middle-aged women with red curly hair, wearing colorful house dresses. You might say these women resembled Helen Roper, the character from the 1970s and ’80s TV sitcom “Three’s Company,” originally played by the late actress Audra Lindley.
That’s because “the Helens,” as they’re called, have started to take over stand-up comedian Pam McGeary’s comedy shows at the bowling alley.
“There’s probably a good 25 Helens that come out,” McGeary said in a telephone interview after last week’s show. “There are even a couple of men who come out dressed, along with their girlfriends and wives.”
“Pam McGeary’s Comedy Alley” is a recurring comedy show with a variety of stand-up headliners and local comics that takes place at 7:30 p.m. on the last Wednesday of every month at Santa Clarita Lanes on Soledad Canyon Road.
McGeary worked as a stand-up comic and actress in the 1980s and ’90s, even making an appearance in the very first “Comic Relief” special on HBO with Whoopie Goldberg, Robin Williams and Billy Crystal, where she played Princess Diana of Wales. She stopped working in 1996 to raise a family. She’d done a few shows when she first became a mom, but ultimately, she couldn’t be there for her two kids and simultaneously work the crazy hours required to succeed.
Last summer, she returned to comedy by launching her monthly show, “Pam McGeary’s Comedy Alley.” Since then, the show has been selling out, and it’s inspired some audience members to try performing themselves. In response, McGeary plans to introduce open-mic nights for anyone in the community interested in stand-up, spoken word and even poetry.
“There are even two employees who work at the bowling alley who want to get up and do time,” McGeary said. “Every single time I’ve had a show, they’re like, ‘Can I get up and do five minutes?’ And I say, ‘Not tonight, but I’m going to have a night where you can.’”
The Helens started taking over McGeary’s shows a couple of months ago. It’s been a recent phenomenon around the world, she said, that began maybe a year or so ago.
It’s getting more and more popular, she added.
“It’s kind of this phenomenon that middle-aged women are doing right now,” she said, “where they dress up as Helen Ropers and they take over a city. Like, they take over Paris. I was on a camping trip, and we did what’s called a ‘Helen Roper Romp,’ and we took over Bakersfield. We literally — the entire weekend — probably had about 150 Helen Ropers.”
One of the comics at last week’s show was Fritz Coleman, former NBC Channel 4 weathercaster, who, according to McGeary, noticed the Helens and asked how he could get in on the act.
According to McGeary, he’d asked what was up with all the middle-aged wannabe Little Orphan Annies. But soon after he was asking for a curly-haired wig that he could wear.
With the comedy show packing in audiences and the Helen Roper Romps gaining steam, it seems that McGeary has tapped into something delightfully offbeat and unexpectedly unifying.
The next show is scheduled for Wednesday, July 30, at Santa Clarita Lanes. For more information or to get tickets, go to bit.ly/3GohFQ9.
