WORDS / TAYLOR GLADWIN

Welcome back to Arkansas, Echo Sunyata Sibley. The American singer and actress, not to mention comedian, musician, and professor, is back from her home in Italy to pursue the first ever tour of her one-woman show, Flippin’ Channels in the Estrogen Zone. Like Echo, you too may be sick of certain societal norms implying that a woman isn’t complete without a man, or you just might want to have your questions concerning the mindset of a woman answered. Echo has the heart, brains, courage, and female right to tell it like it is. And it’s graphic.

Echo pulls back the covers and single-handedly dismantles sexual stereotypes on stage in an unashamed and comedic way. Sunyata is sanskirt for “beyond constraints.” Flippin’ Channels in the Estrogen Zone is a show with honest unadulterated heart and soul that tells people they can be without constraints, that they too can be free and happy, regardless of relationship status. Go have your head raddled or shake it in agreement at Echo Sibley’s on-woman show. Just try to bust an ovary.

Flippin’ Channels in the Estrogen Zone will be performed in Fayetteville on February 9th and 10th at The Stolen Glass at 8:00 pm. The show is 21 and older, $10 and $7 for students. The last show of her tour will on Valentine’s Day at Caribe Restaurante and Cantina in Eureka Springs with a happy hour from 5-7 p.m. and free show at 7 p.m.

photo (19)After performing in Tuscany for a worldwide audience and receiving a phenomenal response, Echo became inspired, encouraged, and excited to take her show on the road. She started searching for comedy festivals and decided that the biggest sketch comedy festival in the United States, The Chicago Sketch Comedy Festival, would be perfect. After being accepted into the festival she flew to Chicago and performed alongside big names such as Danny Pudi from NBC’s sitcom, Community. Her show sold out the first night. After getting the most stressful show out of the way, she performed in Kansas, Oklahoma, and finally Arkansas.

Echo’s show is a series of scripted sketches from a woman’s point of view of love, sex, guilty pleasures, and the inevitable cluster of frustration and confusion that comes with relationships. For the sake of entertainment, and to take the edge off, Echo tackles these issues with a joyful and humorous perspective. “This show is about stereotypes. I’m sick of women having the stereotype that we don’t like sex as much as men, that we’re the ones with the headache. I wanted it to have the graphic in your face honest comedy where I can talk about sex like the way men can. Men can talk graphically about sex and it’s accepted and I want to feel like I can talk in a graphic way and it not mean I’m dirty,” said Echo.

Like drawing out poison from a snake bite, this is a show that unapologetically brings to the surface some of the mistakes that women make when it comes to men due to the pressures put on by society to be in a relationship. There are things to be learned for women and men about how society shapes our ideas of relationships. However, she confirms, “This is not a male-bashing show.”

Echo infuses Disney princesses and Mary Poppins into the performance as a way of poking fun at a system that convinces women they need a man to keep from feeling bored or lonely. The Little Mermaid makes an appearance as a woman trembling to find love after her marriage didn’t work out. Echo chose parodies from television, a wildly accepted medium and main culprit of sexual stereotyping, to prove her point.

“So much of the pressure we feel from society comes from the commercials of the products that’s going to help you be perfect, blah blah blah. The side effects sound worse than what the product will give you,” said Echo.

Echo gets her material from her own experiences and from the stories her friends tell of their adventures. A section of the show that was inspired by a lesbian friend includes the challenges that lesbians and bisexual woman combat. Her show speaks of the paradox to women who stay in bad relationships for the sake of being in a relationship when the true key is to be comfortable enough with yourself to be alone. Then, being alone isn’t lonely.

In addition to spreading the female sexual revolution and helping audiences stay honest about themselves and their relationship status, Echo has two masters degrees from the University of Arkansas in music and vocal performance. Before moving to Italy in 2012 she taught in the music and drama departments for several years, occasionally intermingling the role of student and teacher simultaneously. Though she loves to teach at a university level, something her dual degrees were necessary for, she is truly happiest when she’s performing on stage.

A woman with an appetite for many passions, Echo has loved performing since childhood when she would dance on her grandmother’s table. Her specialty is singing, any genre from opera to jazz. She teaches voice lessons in Italian, and in her show she sings to the accompaniment of her ukulele.

Echo wants the first reaction to her show to be laughter. Part of her hook is, “you’ll laugh so hard you’ll worry you busted an ovary or you peed your pants. I want people to be shocked and to laugh, just laugh their asses off, and then go home and talk about it and think about it because there’s a message behind it.”

Her message is simple: “relationships are ridiculous, funny, painful, and wonderful. To survive them with our hearts, libidos, and dignity intact we need to be honest about what we want, who we are and not compromise that because our culture says we should be married and have babies before we’re 40.” As a colorful extension of her message, Echo also adds, and who could disagree, “women deserve more orgasms.”

VISIT: ECHOSINGS.COM

Photos courtesy of Echo Sibley

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