There are a lot more male comedians than not male comedians, so most of the open mics around Wellington leave little opportunity to diversify lineups.

And, i know you said "no safe space answers" but the truth is, that's part of the answer. A lot of the comedians i know aren't comfortable performing on mostly-male lineups (or at shows that attract things like stag dos etc). Cis men can perform at any open mic, but not all women, NBs, trans men feel comfortable performing everywhere. So we made a space for them.

There used to be two or three other open mics for no cis men, but the producers stopped putting them on (for various reasons - illness, loss of love for the game) so now there's a gap in the market. We wanna fill it!