(upbeat music) - Back by popular demand.

She's funny, she's charismatic, she's irreverent.

I could keep going all day.

That's Judy Gold, comedian, actor and writer.

The author of this book, it is called Yes I Can Say That: When They Come for the Comedians We're All in Trouble.

Judy welcome back.

- You gotta show the book.

Hello there we go.

Okay.

- It's gonna be in post-production anyway.

We're professionals.

By the way, Judy has a show, fifty-nine East.

- No it's E you're not supposed to say East.

It's fifty-nine E fifty-nine Theaters.

Don't ask.

- What the?

I'll leave that alone.

- I know.

But you know the address so that's good.

- Yes it is.

Hey, how you doing?

- I'm good, how you doing?

I'm good.

- Oh by the way, I had such a good time years ago when we used to be in person interviewing.

- Yes You remember that.

- But there's still chemistry here I feel it.

Let me ask you this.

When did you know you were funny?

- When did I know I was funny?

Well, I would get in trouble a lot at school but I think as a young, I think very young where I would say the most inappropriate things and then get in trouble and be like why?

If I'm telling the truth why am I not allowed to say that?

You know I always, that always confused me.

But yeah I tend to not have an edit button.

- The book, isn't that the premise of the book.

Why am I getting in trouble?

- Yeah pretty much.

- Same thing.

Nothing's changed.

- Right.

- What has changed in your view?

I mean a whole bunch of things have changed.

What are some of the biggest changes from your perspective Judy?

By the way Judy's website's up you can find out more about where she's performing.

Some of the most significant and frankly not healthy and dangerous changes in the world of comedy in the last several years.

- Oh my God.

Comedians are being assaulted.

Words are no longer able to be tolerated by people.

It is, okay first of all, the book by the way is becoming, is becoming an Off Broadway show at, as we said fifty-nine E fifty-nine.

So we've taken this book and sort of brought it to life.

But the book and the message in the book and the show first of all, comedians speak truth to power, satire, comedy.

Ummm...

It is part of the American experience.

I mean what other country sends comedians over to embedded military to make them feel better you know?

We are, it's such an extension of our First Amendment rights, and now it has become this assault on everything.

When a comedian tells a joke they're not thinking about you.

They're not thinking about your childhood trauma.

It's not about you.

Take a second and listen to what the comedian's intent is.

It's, it's ridiculous.

You hear a word and you're like I'm not listening to the rest of it.

No.

Stop it.

Oh what sorry.

My mic went crazy because I - Yeah, yeah.

Stop it.

I get, I get so annoyed about this stuff.

- So you say.

I'm sorry for interrupting.

You, you say.

- No you're not.

- No I am sorry because, because this is the thing I often say.

You say Trump, you say Biden you say COVID, you say whatever.

It triggers someone in the audience, and they start yelling.

Now you're dealing with a heckler.

- It's not even that.

I mean we've always dealt with hecklers.

We've always, it's been, there's no fourth wall but we are now, we're past heckler territory where someone needs attention or yells at the doubter or like prove to their girlfriend they're really-- You know we're done with that.

We've moved on to, you know, throwing things at the comedians.

- I saw that.

- Assaulting them, yelling, waiting for them after the show and beating them up.

It's, it is, you know, it's not just, I have to say, every, You know, I've been doing this almost forty years and every president has been fodder for material.

No matter what side you're on, you know?

You made fun of Clinton, you made fun of Bush, you made fun of Reagan.

You know you made fun of Carter.

All right I wasn't doing standup when Carter was in office but you know.

- Obama hard to make fun of?

- Obama no, yeah I totally made fun of Obama.

Everyone made fun of the of the, the presidents.

It's part of, it's part of them being the president of this country you know?

And it got to the point in 2015, 16, where you couldn't make fun of Trump because people would literally.

You couldn't even make fun of something benign like his hair people would get ooh.

And it, it became this, this thing where it was like wait what happened?

But it's not only that, it's, it's this political correct stuff Where you can't say this word or you can't say that word or going back ten years or twenty years and this person said that.

No the world has changed.

We've evolved.

I'm not doing jokes from twenty years ago because they're not relevant anymore.

You know, it's just beyond ridiculous.

It's, and this assault, it's a, it's an assault - It bothers you.

- Yeah well first.

- A lot.

And by the way look at the graphic that's coming up as it's what's so funny now you're gonna wonder.

It's a new series that we have talking to the most interesting, provocative, thoughtful comedians across the region and the nation.

Also focused in New Jersey as well.

This pisses you off.

- It totally pisses me.

When you silence people who are trying to make you laugh that's the end of free speech.

That's it.

You know Hitler, I don't know if you heard of Hitler.

Very funny comedian - We're getting Antisemitism right now too.

Go ahead.

- But Hitler, because comedy's a weapon.

Because it tells the truth and people feel threatened by it.

And Hitler passed this treachery act in 1934 where you could not make fun of the third Reich.

You would get killed or punished for even listening to a joke about because it weakens their propaganda or what, you know.

We're headed in that direction.

You know, we're headed in like, you know, we're we're banning books, we're banning ideas.

We're telling people what they can and cannot learn.

We're or talk about, no, this is the end of free speech.

It's the first amendment.

It's the first one.

- But this doesn't have to be the end.

How do we fight back?

- Well I'm fighting back.

- Is that what you're doing right now?

- Right you gotta, it, it's, you gotta speak out and you have to stop being, you know afraid.

A joke without context, nuance and intent is not a joke.

If you're just gonna get offended you know.

Remember when you got offended?

Like you'd see something, you'd be like eh I don't think that's funny and then you'd move on with your life.

No one does that anymore cause we have social media.

So they just try to ruin that person's entire livelihood.

- Are there, are there some lines here?

Because when Dave Chappelle and I watched his special.

He clearly made a lot of jokes about the LGBTQ community, the transgender community.

And where is the, is the line different for everyone?

Every situation?

- Well, you know, I think, you know, George Carlin said it's a comedian's job to find the line, cross it and make the audience glad that you did.

And you know when I think of Dave I believe in free speech, all speech.

I think you have to protect free speech.

Do I, did I laugh at every one of Dave's jokes?

No.

But I could have changed the channel or I could have just shut it off.

But, you know, I don't have to.

- But don't we have to protect on some level folks who already are targeted for who they are?

- Yeah I, I think they're lazy jokes.

They're not funny.

Targeting people, marginalized people who are in really bad situations like anti-Semitism and stuff like that, you know.

And anti-trans and, and racist and anti-immigrant and anti-Asian.

Like you, I mean, we could go on and on.

It's not funny.

Make a, make a, make a funny joke.

If you're gonna, you can joke about anything as long as the joke is funny and well crafted.

Why Dave wanted to spend his entire special on trans issues and his opinion about them.

I don't know.

I mean, I think it's a weird choice but we live in a country where you're allowed to say whatever you want.

- And that's why this book, yes I can say that.

Which is now tell everyone again where the plays where.

- So the play is at fifty-nine E fifty-nine theaters.

And if you wanna know the address.

- Judy Gold is comedy Gold, public television gold.

You're the best.

Judy I wish you and everyone tied to your team all the best moving forward.

- Thank you so much.

- Thank you so much.

Thanks for having me.

- That's Judy she's funny.

I'm not, I think I am but I'm not.

See you next time.

- [Narrator] One-On-One with Steve Adubato has been a production of the Caucus Educational Corporation.

Funding has been provided by TD Bank.

Rutgers University Newark.

PSEG Foundation.

Newark Board of Education.

The New Jersey Education Association.

New Jersey Sharing Network.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

The Fidelco Group.

And by The Russell Berrie Foundation.

Promotional support provided by New Jersey Globe.

And by BestofNJ.com.

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