The Monster Comedian Julie Goldman

On Thursday, April 15, comedian Julie Goldman delivered a raucous performance to an enthusiastic crowd that seemed to pop out of the woodwork especially for the occasion. If you are looking for any type of modest, well-behaved act reminiscent of Ellen DeGeneres, this was not the lady for you. From the very beginning of her set, Goldman made a great show of bounding directly over the line of tact and would not apologize or glance back for the rest of the evening.Being on a college campus and playing to a crowd of mostly twenty to thirty year-olds, Goldman, started the night off with sex, naturally. You see, if you are gay or lesbian in the performance industry then you really only have two choices-you either talk about it or you don’t talk about it and based on my brief encounter with Goldman, she seemed the type for which not talking about it is never an option. So, she talked about it. Goldman began very early by comparing herself to Dick Cheney’s daughter, who also happens to be an outed lesbian, in that when the Cheney’s are asked about their daughter, the respectfully refuse to comment because they find her lifestyle offensive. Surprisingly, this made Goldman more angry with the daughter than with the parents because “After all,” Goldman says, “if I were the vice-president’s daughter I would be right up there on top of the Washington monument with a huge lesbian orgy and dildos hanging out everywhere, screaming: ‘What are you gonna do about it? I’m the V.P.’s daughter, what are you gonna do?'”And right there within the first twenty minutes of her set, Goldman took our political fears, our fear of sexuality, and our fear of dildos and made us laugh at all of them.From Cheney, she moved on to the President, naturally. But at the mention of his name, like many other comedians in her position, she could do nothing more than look at the ground and shake her head. If you watch comedians closely these days, you can almost see the synapses flare up and then quickly burn out with the sheer overwhelming amount of presidential material. From the President, Goldman approached some of the other global injustices like the mistreatment of women, war, destruction, and reality television while pointing out how ludicrous it is that in a time of such chaos, we actually have a government devoting its time mandating whether or not and under which circumstances people are allowed to love. I mean, obviously love is our greatest problem right now. Goldman’s performance encapsulated some very sophisticated subject matter in a completely racy way, but not once did her jocular delivery waver which kept the audience tearing up and grabbing their sides while receiving the deeper message. As well as being one of the gutsiest comedians I have ever seen, Julie Goldman is also a musician, filmmaker and actress. She headlines at Caroline’s Comedy Club on Broadway and has an album out with her band Indigo Etheridge. Goldman’s Plymouth State show was sponsored by Women’s Services and Gender Resources and ALSO in celebration of Pride Week 2004 and provided a hilarious and enjoyable addition to the week’s festivities. I would suggest that anyone who has grown tired of nicey-nice, pretty humor should check out Julie Goldman. She promises to supply a provocative and edgy dose of realism every time.