D'yan Forest (born 1934) is an American comedian. She was named the Oldest Working Female Comedian in the World by the Guinness Book of World Records at age 87. Her award was presented by Ross Mathews of RuPaul's Drag Race . [1]
Forest lived though World War II and lost her whole family in Riga in the Holocaust. [2] She grew up in Newton, Massachusetts. After a divorce, she spent two years in Paris and then moved to Manhattan in 1966. [2]
Forest worked as a singer and pianist, performing cabaret songs mostly in French. In 2003, she hired a comedy coach and began to perform standup sets in clubs in Manhattan. [2] She has performed on Saturday Night Live , France's Got Talent, Comedy Central and The Drew Barrymore Show , in the Gotham Comedy Club, Caroline's, the Broadway Comedy Club, and at the New York Fringe Festival. [3]
At 88, Forest performed an autobiographical one-woman show, Swinging on the Seine: Searching for Amour in 1960s Paris, at Joe's Pub in Manhattan, [1] [4] after performing it at La Nouvelle Seine in Paris and the Duplex Cabaret Theatre in New York. [5] She previously performed I Married A Nun [3] and Around the World in 80 Years. [6] [7]
Forest has joked that she "didn't beat cancer twice not to become the oldest at something". [1]
Alternative comedy is a term coined in the 1980s for a style of comedy that makes a conscious break with the mainstream comedic style of an era. The phrase has had different connotations in different contexts: in the UK, it was used to describe content that was an "alternative" to the mainstream stand-up of the day which took place in working men's clubs, and was characterised by unoriginal gags often containing elements of sexism and racism. In other contexts, it is the nature of the form that is "alternative", avoiding reliance on a standardised structure of a sequence of jokes with punch lines. Patton Oswalt has defined it as "comedy where the audience has no pre-set expectations about the crowd, and vice versa. In comedy clubs, there tends to be a certain vibe—alternative comedy explores different types of material."
James Anthony Patrick Carr is a British-Irish comedian, presenter, writer and actor. He is known for his rapid-fire deadpan delivery of one-liners which have been known to offend some people. He began his comedy career in 1997, and he has regularly appeared on television as the host of Channel 4 panel shows such as 8 Out of 10 Cats, 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown and The Big Fat Quiz of the Year.
Carlotta is the stage name of Carol Byron, also known as Carol Spencer and credited briefly on television as Carole Lea, a transgender Australian cabaret performer and television personality.
Christa Teresa Hughes is an Australian singer, circus performer and comedian. She utilises wild on-stage antics and a powerful voice. From the age of 15, Christa performed with her late father, jazz pianist, journalist and broadcaster, Dick Hughes. From 2000 to 2005 she was the nude roller skating singer, KK Juggy, for rock band Machine Gun Fellatio and then the Ring Mistress with Circus Oz until 2008. During her solo career, Christa has regularly sung jazz and blues, created and starred in numerous musical theatre and cabaret shows, performed on television and appeared in films. She has recorded three albums, Sleepless Beauty (2004) with The Surgeons, 21st Century Blues (2010) with her father, Dick, and Shonky (2011) with the Honky Tonk Shonks.
Ali McGregor is an Australian soprano opera singer, actress and cabaret performer. She has performed in operas in the United Kingdom, in Australia and in New Zealand. Her cabaret performances have been seen at festivals in the United Kingdom, Ireland and Australia.
Frisky & Mannish is a British musical comedy double act, created and performed by singer Laura Corcoran and pianist-singer Matthew Floyd Jones. Known for their pop music parodies, the duo have toured the fringe festival and comedy festival circuits in the United Kingdom and Australia, and appeared on a number of British television and radio programmes.
Ophira Eisenberg is a Canadian American comedian, writer, and actress. She is from Calgary, Alberta. She has been living in New York City since 2001 and obtained American citizenship in April 2021.
Geraldine Mary Quinn is an Australian songwriter, guitarist, singer, comedian, and actor based in Melbourne. She has performed solo shows at many arts and comedy festivals, including Hex And The City in Adelaide, Melbourne, and the Edinburgh Festival Fringe (2009), and Queen Bitch at the 2018 Melbourne International Comedy Festival.
La Clique is a cabaret/variety show with Australian roots first conceived for the 2004 season of The Edinburgh Festival Fringe. It was originally performed in The Famous Spiegeltent with a small circular stage at fringe festivals, but since 2008 it was also performed for extended periods in permanent theatres keeping the same characteristic stage.
Sara Patricia Pascoe is an English actress, comedian, presenter and writer. She has appeared on television programmes including 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown and Taskmaster for Channel 4 and QI for BBC Two.
Emily Taheny is an Australian comedian, television actress and singer known for her multiple appearances on the sketch comedy television series Comedy Inc. from 2003 through 2007, her role as "Kat" on the 2009 series The Jesters, and as a regular cast member on long-running satirical news program Shaun Micallef's Mad as Hell. She was born at Warooka, Yorke Peninsula, South Australia.
Sarah Townsend, known professionally as Sarah McGuinness, is an Irish singer, composer, producer, director, and screenwriter.
Mina Liccione is an American performing artist, comedian, tap dancer, choreographer, and arts educator.
Amy Saunders also known as Miss Behave, is a British-born producer, performer, comedian and curator. She is a self-taught sword swallower and performs in cabarets.
Jayde Pricilla Gail Adams is a British comedian, actress, writer and opera singer from Bristol. She is the winner of the 2014 Funny Women Award.
Sophie Willan is an English actress, narrator, writer and comedian. She has won two BAFTAs for her television sitcom Alma's Not Normal.
John-Luke Roberts is a British stand-up comedian, writer, actor and performer.
Sophie Duker is a British stand-up comedian and writer.
Catherine Cohen is an American comedian, actress, and singer. Her live comedy performances combine stand-up comedy with cabaret-style songs. Her first Netflix comedy special, The Twist...? She's Gorgeous, was released in 2022.
Adrianne Tolsch was an American comedian. Tolsch's comedy style is bold, conversational, and covers broad topics. She made jokes about life as a middle-age woman, her sex life, her Jewish identity and Jewish family, and life experiences. She was long associated with the Catch a Rising Star comedy club in New York City, as a performer, club manager, and the club's first woman emcee. She was a headliner at many major comedy clubs in the United States and toured domestically and internationally. She also performed on Broadway and in cabaret shows and was a graphic artist. She was married to fellow comedian and writer Bill Scheft. The two toured together in the United States and co-produced the documentary film Take My Nose... Please!