At 6 foot-3 inches, Judy Gold is a comedy Amazon. Bold and brassy, she’s a stand-up true believer who refuses to curb her act or her speech in the face of today’s repressive PC climate. She’s been “going up” for nearly 35 years, created comedy specials for Comedy Central and HBO and has been appearing on TV from the ’90s (Roseanne, All-American Girl) to now (with roles on FX’s Better Things, Netflix’s Friends From College and TBS’s Search Party). Judy won a couple of Daytime Emmys for her work on The Rosie O’Donnell Show, created a pair of one-woman Off Broadway performances and has released three comedy albums. Today she also hosts the spicy podcast Kill Me Now and is the author of the acclaimed book Yes, I Can Say That: When They Come for the Comedians, We Are All in Trouble. The delightful Ms. Gold joined HUSTLER via Zoom for a cheerful chat about the First Amendment, the power of comedy and the dark beauty of gallows humor.
HUSTLER: Thanks for joining us, Judy.
JUDY GOLD: Sorry I’m late, but I was just playing tennis. When I was younger, I was like, “Ugh, I’m never playing doubles.” Now I’m old, and I love it. But now everyone is taking up pickleball. I live in Provincetown, and there’s a public basketball court across the street where they fucking play it all day long, and it’s so goddamn loud. Every time the ball hits the racket, it’s loud, and after every point it’s like, “Whoo! Yeah!” And I just want to go over there and fucking kill every one of them.
Ha! I usually start these interviews by telling people, “It’s HUSTLER, so you can say whatever you want,” but I guess I don’t need to tell you that.
Uh, yeah. No.
Tell me about a couple of your shows, World’s Dumbest and At the Multiplex With Judy Gold.
