Comedian Judy Gold Finds Humor Everywhere – Even at Synagogue
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Two-time Emmy Award-winning comedian Judy Gold has performed shows in a wide variety of venues. This Saturday evening, she returns to a setting that is as familiar as it can be challenging.
Gold will be performing a benefit show in the sanctuary of Temple Shaaray Tefila in Bedford. While there are types of jokes that she wouldn’t utter in a synagogue, it doesn’t mean it will be any less comical for the audience, Gold promised.
“You really know how to play different audiences,” Gold said. “It’s all about the experience and the stage time, which is very important, and that teaches you, okay, I’m doing a corporate gig, I’m doing a synagogue gig or I’m doing a nonprofit gig and I’m not going to tell this joke because they believe this. You definitely tailor when you are the guest in their house.”
All of that makes perfect sense for the 61-year-old comic who won her two Emmys for her work as a writer and producer on “The Rosie O’Donnell Show.” She has been seen on a bevy of cable television and streaming service specials over the years and even had her own show, “The Judy Show: My Life as a Sitcom” open Off-Broadway in 2011 before going to Los Angeles for a run two years later.
But returning to a synagogue holds special meaning for Gold. In particular, Temple Shaaray Tefila, where her nephew had his Bar Mitzvah.
“The reason why I love doing these gigs is Jews have used comedy as a coping mechanism for thousands of years, and I do so many gigs for Jews because they see the value of comedy, it’s their favorite way to raise money,” Gold said. “We always say, a lot of us say, ‘Thank God for the Jews or we wouldn’t be working.’ What other group of people, they’re like, we need to raise money, let’s have a comedy show. It’s so many Jewish organizations and I love it.”
Gold, a Newark, N.J. native, got her start in comedy innocently enough at 19 while attending Rutgers University. The secret Santa that she received for the holidays had her doing an impromptu five-minute standup routine.
It was a gift that has continued to give for more than four decades. While she always hoped to be a performer, the laughs that Gold received that night were intoxicating.
“I never felt like that before about anything or I had never had that feeling, period,” Gold said of being able to make people laugh. “And I still love it. I love everything about it.”
The 1980s was a popular period for the rise of comedy shows and clubs, and there were plenty of places for her to ply her emerging talent.
Gold would travel into Manhattan and eventually performed at clubs like Catch a Rising Star.
“Every Ramada Inn, every place was starting to do standup,” Gold said. “So I was in college and started to do standup, and finally I went to New York. I worked during the day, I took acting classes and I did standup and I worked up until I could make a living and enough money for health insurance.”
Her role models were the groundbreaking woman comedians when Gold was a child, including Joan Rivers and Phyllis Diller.
By the time Gold broke in during the 1980s, Paula Poundstone, Elayne Boosler and others took the art form to a different level.
While there are so many women comics today, Gold said they still don’t often get the plum time slots on television.
Gold has been doing some shows called Stand Up for Israel, traveling around the country. But the sensitivity of that topic and other material makes comedy as challenging and “weird” as ever, she said.
“I love doing standup and I do a whole bunch of stuff, but I’ve never seen the landscape like this where you tell a benign Jewish joke and they get quiet, and I never felt this in 42 years,” said Gold, who also wrote the book “Yes, I Can Say That: When They Come for the Comedians, We Are All in Trouble.” “That’s really disturbing, but I just yell at them ‘What’s wrong with you?’ We’re still fun; we’re still here. We’re not going anywhere.”
Saturday’s performance starts with wine, beer and light bites at 6:30 p.m. in the synagogue’s social hall followed by the hour-long show at 8 p.m. There will be dessert and coffee after the show. Tickets are $54 per person and limited Meet & Greet tickets with the star after the show are $90.
For information on availability, visit https://shaaraytefila.shulcloud.com/form/sisterhood-comedy-night.
Martin has more than 30 years experience covering local news in Westchester and Putnam counties, including a frequent focus on zoning and planning issues. He has been editor-in-chief of The Examiner since its inception in 2007. Read more from Martin’s editor-author bio here. Read Martin’s archived work here: https://www.theexaminernews.com/author/martin-wilbur2007/
