She is hilariously funny, and her star is on a big major rise. If you have LOGO, you are able to watch her on 'The Big Gay Sketch Show'—perhaps convincingly drunk and bubbly as Liza. It is novel now, I guess: a lesbian comedian on TV who has been out since the beginning. Julie Goldman is not going to have to make a big announcement at some point during her career; others have paved that path. So now she gets to do comedy her way, and represent lesbians in the process
Amy Matheny: Hey lady, how's New York City?
Julie Goldman: New York is great, though actually at this moment I'm in Washington, D.C.
AM: You are?
JG: Yes. My lady friend, my spouse, my wife has a job here and she moved here, so we're commuting. So I'm here whenever I'm not working.
AM: What is your town? Is New York your town?
JG: I'm gonna say New York City. I could do Los Angeles, I don't know really where else I could do, to be honest. Did Boston for a while; that was fun. I need something going on. I need life; I need gays.
AM: If you need gays, you should come to Chicago; we got the gays. You actually are coming to Chicago so you should hang out for a while. You're going to be here during the Market Days weekend, there are going to be about 400,000 of them over those couple of days. It's crazy—nothing but gays. Nothing but the GLBT … LMNOP; I mean, everybody's here.
JG: Damn. Wow. That's gay.
AM: It's good fun. Hey: You [ mentioned a ] spouse. Are you really married, or are you thinking of heading to California?
JG: No, we did it. We did it almost three years ago; we went to Toronto and got married and we had a wedding in Massachusetts. Yeah, we did the whole thing.
AM: Yeah, it's legal where it's legal. Surely New York [ will allow same-sex marriage ] soon, and surely Chicago and everybody will just have same-sex marriage.
JG: It's on its way. It's inevitable; people need to just realize it's inevitable.
AM: So tell me about your humble beginnings, Julie. Where were you born and how did you get your start in comedy?
JG: Oh, God. Well, let's start from the beginning. I was a young lady, born in Lexington, Mass. As a small child I was interested in theater and performing, and I never really got in trouble about being the class clown. I was very well-behaved, but I was … also sort of a smart-aleck, and didn't like authority ever, and as I got older—like in high school and going into college—I just wouldn't go to class. So I just wouldn't show up. Or I would just be an asshole, having to question everything. I always had to ruffle the feathers, so to speak.
AM: You were a challenging student.
JG: I was; I think I put math teachers in the crazy house. I was terrible at math and I truly didn't understand it, but I sent people away in tears. Even my own would get so angry with me when it came to math; they just couldn't believe how absolutely fucking stupid I was when it came to math. It would drive them insane.
AM: So when did you start sending people away laughing and who were your early influences?
JG: In high school, when I was 14 I saw live stand-up comedy; [ it was a show with ] two comics in Boston. They were at a Jewish youth group convention and I saw them and I was like, 'That's it. That's what I want to do. I went to [ one of the comics, Tony V ] and [ asked ] , 'How do I do that?' He said, 'Come to the club and I'll put you on for five minutes.' He did, and I went my sophomore year of high school and I started doing it. I then just kept doing it, and I got a little reputation around my little town for doing [ comedy ] , but I'll have to say [ that ] I'll never forget Tony V. He really opened a door for me, but at the same time I was obsessed with Joan Rivers [ and ] George Carlin. I love Lenny Bruce—the real shit-kickers, the real muckrakers, so to speak. But I was obsessed with Joan Rivers as a teenager.
AM: I met [ Joan Rivers ] in New York. She looked like she was tilted forward a little bit at like a 30-degree angle, and like she was walking against a Chicago wind. That's what it looked like to me. She's tiny; she's so damn tiny. [ Also, ] we have to mention [ the passing of ] George Carlin—an obviously huge loss to the comedy world.
JG: It's so sad. He pioneered [ along with ] Richard Pryor and Lenny Bruce and even Joan Rivers, I would say, and Phyllis Diller. There are plenty [ who ] came before him and are his peers and stuff, but [ Carlin talked about ] the seven words you can't say on television, and question [ ed ] religion and morality. He really just put it out there, and just said anything he wanted to. I don't even know how many hour [ -long ] specials or shows that he's done; he was just prolific and had a lot to say. I feel like it's a loss; I feel like comedy has lost that in general.
AM: Is it too safe nowadays, you think? Do you think Chris Rock is one of the more mainstream [ who ] still pushes it?
JG: Yeah, I think Chris Rock pushes it to a certain extent when it comes to race, but … I'm not in love with Chris Rock so it's hard for me to—
AM: Well, [ that's a ] bad example. Is there someone else to throw out?
JG: No, it's not a bad example. I think that he is important and is talking about important shit, and does it in a way that clearly people can relate to and can understand and it's great. But I do feel like [ the concept of pushing comedy ] is lost—like I feel like if he's the only one doing it, I really couldn't think of another comic. Carlos Mencia kind of [ talks ] about race on Comedy Central, but no one really points out the hypocrisy of everything. I guess the Daily Show kind of does it.
And [ there are ] no women! I'm like, 'Where's the women?' Kathy Griffin and Ellen [ DeGeneres ] are the only two popular mainstream female comics that we have, and [ while ] they're funny, no women are allowed to say anything. They're not really saying anything, you know?
AM: I think that's what's made having 'The Big Gay Sketch Show' on. When it first premiered on LOGO I thought, 'Ah, these people are going to get to say something.' Especially as queer comedians, you know? I remember turning to a couple of people and saying, 'They are really doing something that reminds me of the first season of 'Mad TV,' some of the early 'In Living Color;' I probably would have compared you most to some of the early 'In Living Color' sketch comedy. How did 'The Big Gay Sketch Show' happen for you?
JG: I have a manager and she found out about it. I submitted as a writer, and I helped as a writer on the pilot. Then they did auditions for the cast, and I auditioned for it. Then they separated the writers from the cast, so I could only do one, and I prefer and think I'm better at performing. And what I realized is that, in writing, there just so much focus; you have to sit there and write.
AM: Now talk about creating characters for the show. [ Do ] you get to do that? I know you have writers, but do you get to come with your ideas and say, 'I want to do this personality, or I have this idea for a character?' How does that work, and what are some of the characters that you've been excited about portraying?
JG: All of the cast pitch to the writers. We each get a pitch session with them and we talk about the things that we want to do, and the characters that we love to do. Super Liza was something that these two girls had just written, and then I got asked if I could do Liza Minnelli, and I was like, 'Uh, yes,' never having thought about that before. So things like that were just sort of dropped in my lap, when Suze Orman was something I pitched to them.
AM: Do you have a favorite sketch that you've done in your time?
JG: Yes. I do, absolutely; my favorite sketch was the vomit sketch [ featuring characters who are the younger people in famous May-December relationships ] . I had the most fun on that; we laughed the most, and I also got in trouble the most.
It's so highly edited, honestly. If you sit down and watch it now, [ and ] watch me, you can see that I pretty much couldn't take two words without laughing, and it's so edited together that it's not one take. I'm not ever talking in one take; it's many takes put together because I couldn't stop laughing—and then everyone did. We each had to put the stuff in our mouth, vomit it out, and it was supposed to start with people really vomiting; you were supposed to vomit in the bucket, and none of us could do it right.
AM: It's not like the old Harvey Korman-Tim Conway days where they just had to stab their fingernails in the back of their hands or squeeze their palms. I don't know what they had to do to just not laugh, and then they would laugh, and that was funny.
JG: That's another one: Harvey Korman who died [ in May ] . That was another personal fave who was so funny. He was so lovable and awesome, and he always laughed, and that's what people loved about him—he always laughed.
AM: Have you had a character who has not made it to the TV screen, yet that you hope will—or is there a teaser or a spoiler you can give me? I love exclusives; it makes me feel very important, Julie. I need that; I need that validation.
JG: There is a character that we did shoot actually, for this last season, that did not make it to the screen, and I was so upset. It was one of the funniest things on paper I've ever read, and it's the Girl Scout leader. I'm hoping if we do season three, I get to come back and do it. It's basically the worst Girl Scout troop leader in the world. They get lost, and she talks about which girl she's going to eat, [ and that ] they're all gonna die. It's just really funny.
AM: Well, you're coming to Chicago with the Queer Queens of Qomedy Tour on Aug. 8.
JG: I know one of the performers, Poppy Champlin, who I've performed with a few times. She's from L.A., and she put this whole thing together. She's hysterically funny, and she's just trying to get the best lesbian comedians together and do these shows.
AM: Do you like going out with other queer comedians? I guess there's so much time in your comedy life where you are the queer comedian, you know?
JG: I don't mind. We have a great time; I love being around comedians. It's good to have like-minded people around you who get your jokes and understand you, and we have a great time; I love it.
AM: Will you be doing new material? Obviously, [ you'll be ] in Obama country [ and ] Oprah territory—are there things specific to Chicago that you think will be fun to riff on?
JG: I'm definitely going to talk about the election; I'm going to talk about Hillary and Obama, [ but ] probably not Oprah. I don't know; I haven't even thought about it, yet.
AM: I just want to say that you just won a Nexty at the NewNowNext Awards and I think that's so super-cool. I thought your speech was great and so I just want to say congrats and that's another reason that I hope people will check you out.
JG: Yes, me too, great. Thank you for having me, and I will see you on Aug. 8.
The Queer Queens of Qomedy—featuring Julie Goldman, Poppy Champlin and Dana Eagle—will be at The Lakeshore Theater, 3175 N. Broadway, on Fri., Aug. 8, at 8 p.m. Tickets are $20 in advance and $25 at the door. Visit www.LakeshoreTheater.com or call 773-472-3492.
Hear the entire interview with Julie Goldman at www.WindyCityQueercast.com . ( It's segment WCQ225. ) For more information on Goldman, go to www.julie-goldman.com and www.queerqueensofqomedy.com .
