Judy Gold draws the line and crosses it in her solo show ‘Yes, I Can Say That!’
Yes I Can Say That, When They Come for the Comedians, We Are All in Trouble. Onstage, Gold makes a valiant stand for two modes of performance: The standup comedy routine and the solo show.
Co-written by Eddie Sarfaty, she argues — mostly successfully — for preserving standup as a form of free speech and, in doing so, questions when and where it’s valid to cross the line.Living your truth comes with a cost.
But, as Jerrod Carmichael found out, freedom is always worth it. Gold is a towering performer. She’s tall. She’s loud. If you know her work (which includes a role on Margaret Cho’s short-lived 1994 sitcom All-American Girl co-starring Wong, a writing gig on The Rosie O’Donnell Show, and nearly 400 episodes of her podcast Kill Me Now), you know what you signed up for.
Within the opening moments, Gold tells us, “I have a lot of important sh*t I need to tell you tonight.” Then, somewhat deflatingly, “It’s all in this book I wrote about free speech and comedy that came out during the lockdown…”Nevertheless, what ensues for the next 80 minutes may or may not be cribbed from the pages of a book I didn’t read.
