Judy Gold has been a stand-up comedian for 20 years and won two Emmys for writing and producing The Rosie O’Donnell Show. She’s also a “Jewish lesbian mother of two,” and spoke recently with Forbes about where she gets her sense of humor, how she got started in standup, her one-woman shows, and what she thinks about labels.
As for the first topic, she says, “Most of the time, what came out of my mouth was the very thing everyone else was thinking — but too polite or afraid to verbalize.”
She got started in standup after a college dare. She explains: “One morning, I wake up and there was a note on my door from my Secret Santa instructing me to perform 10 minutes of stand-up comedy the following evening in the lounge. I was also told that I had to use my floor-mates as material.” To find out how it turned out, go read the whole piece.
As for labels, she says simply, “I am a comic. That’s all. I happen to be a Jewish lesbian mother of two, who is a stand-up comic.” At the same time, she affirms that all of those parts of her have an impact: “The aspects of my identity that you mention (I’m also very tall) inform how I experience life, and how I see the world around me, and that most certainly has a direct affect on my comedy and my career and my parenting.”
She also talks about interviewing people from Whoopi Goldberg to Edie Windsor, her view of women characters on sitcoms, and more. Good stuff!