#58 Finding the Funny with Judy Carter

Announcer 0:00

Looking to sound like you know what's going on in the world, pop culture, social strategy, comedy and other funny stuff. Well join the club and settle in for the Jeff Dwoskin show. It's not the podcast we deserve. But the podcast we all need with your host, Jeff Dwoskin.

Jeff Dwoskin 0:15

All right, Michael, thank you so much for that amazing introduction. You get the show going each and every week and this week was no exception. You can feel the excitement in the air you can practically touch it. Welcome, everybody, to Episode 58 of live from Detroit, the Jeff Dwoskin show. As always, you guessed it. I'm your host, Jeff Dwoskin. Great to have you back once again for an amazing episode. They just keep getting amazing or an amazing or I was so excited. I got so much great feedback from last week's episode with Steve Stoliar author of raising eyebrows Mark tweeted me that he thought the episode was essential listening for any Groucho Marx and Marx Brothers fans, so definitely check out Episode 57 check out Steve Stoliar yours book raising eyebrows we only bring you the greatest in entertainment stories and comedians air at live from Detroit. The Jeff Dwoskin show

This week got an amazing guest author, comedian Judy Carter, author of the comedy Bible, the new comedy Bible. And the message of you I had reached out to Judy, because I was a big fan of her book, the comedy Bible I have it it's practically falling apart. I've gone through it so many times. It's such an important part of my comedy journey. And so she was kind enough to spend some time with me. And that conversation is coming up in just a few minutes. And I do want to take a quick second to thank everyone again who likes subscribes follows the podcast on their favorite podcast app. You're like Jeff, I don't have an app. We'll just go to jeffisfunny.com you can listen to all the episodes there through the fancy podcast player on every page while you're at jeffisfunny.com. also sign up for our mailing list. I send out a mailing list every week. So you'll never forget about the podcasts the great episodes coming up that you might have missed. I know you didn't. Yeah, Jeff, we don't miss any Thank you. That means the world to me. I really does. So if you'd like subscribe, the best thing you can do people always like Jeff, what's the best thing we can do? I said, Well, in context of my podcast, the best thing you could do is tell everyone. That's right. Next time you're at the dentist be like Oh,

your dentist would be like you really think I'll enjoy live from Detroit, the Jeff Dwoskin show and you'll be all like whoever and your dentist will be like, okay, I'll check it out. Maybe I'll even play it on the speakers instead of this old classic radio station we got going. So anyway, so thank you very much. I appreciate all that. It really means the world to me so much so much. Oh, also, while you're at it, just follow me on twitter at @jeffdwoskinshow you can follow my personal app @bigmacher. All the links are in the show notes if you can't spell macher. Follow us on Facebook facebook.com slash Jeff is funny. We have a YouTube channel on the YouTube channel. If you follow the YouTube channel, you'll never miss my live show. Jeff, you do more shows. Yes. I also do a live show every Wednesday 9:30pm eastern time with my pals. And we all get together and we talk about awesome shows that you should be streaming. The show is cleverly named crossing the streams get it streams crossing. Anyway, great shows great recommendations of things that you should be watching. Last week we had an amazing episode, we talked about so many cool shows such as Halston and 1971. year that changed everything on Apple, but lots of other shows as well every week. So if you're always asking yourself, what should I watch, check out crossing the streams, subscribe to us on YouTube. We do it live, you can ask questions, engage, and we'll talk to you during the show. It's really a lot of fun. So check all that out. That's a lot I know I dropped a lot on you. But thank you, I know you can handle it.

And now it's time for the social media tip! Alright little change of pace this week. Normally, I drop some amazing social media knowledge on you and we got it we are this week. Don't worry, you're going to get something great. My social media tip for you this week is to stay tuned to the end of my interview with Judy Carter. She's going to give away something free to all the listeners if you're creative and interested in making a living being creative. Judy Carter is someone you want to know. The conversation is fun and informative. And you're gonna learn a lot and at the end, she gives away something free. So my social media tip for this week is stick around to the end of the interview. You won't regret it. And that's the social media tip!

Alright, well I do want to thank everyone who supports sponsors week after week. I can't thank you enough. It means the world to me. It really does. It helps us keep the lights on the sponsors. They just they write me They call me The middle of the night they just can't get over their response from my fans and just how much you embrace them. Thank you so much. I can't thank you enough. This week sponsor Acme portable stages. How many times have you been in an awkward situation where you knew you could save the day by starting an impromptu performance that no one would expect? Without with an Acme portable stage, you're just seconds away from entertaining everyone around you. Whether you're at a library, the DMV stuck in the backseat of a lift, a bris, anywhere, somebody needs a laugh or inspirational speech. You're just one stage setup away from wowing your next crowd. That's right, Acme portable stages. It's like a floor, but higher. You'll love when people are looking at you as you are just entertaining them out of nowhere. And don't worry if it's not going well. Acme portable stages are so lightweight. You can just grab the stage and run know when you were even there. Don't be afraid to make the world your own stage. Get an Acme portable stage today. All right, that sounds amazing. I mean, how many times are you like somewhere and it's so boring and you wish you could just start entertaining or reading poetry? I'm gonna get me a portable stage. There's so many times where I'm like, at a restaurant with my family. And I'm like, you know, I think I could really make this waitress laugh and my wife's like, just order. But you know, I mean, they don't understand. Normal people don't understand the need to entertain. Anyway.

Okay, so who is calling me? Hello? Hey, Jeff. It's Kevin. Hey, Kevin. What's going on? Did you get a chance to check out my show? Of course, I checked out your show Kevin Hart's Lyft comedians, how would I miss that?

Kevin Israel 6:45

Yes, it was awesome. It was it was such a great show to tape with a lot of fun. Did you would you think was funny?

Jeff Dwoskin 6:50

I thought you were serious. But I'm not gonna tell the audience whether you won or not because we want them to watch right? Right Of course. Tell me how did you land his lift gig

Kevin Israel 6:58

I just applied for it. I went out and taped with with Kevin Hart's crew. The lol network was a lot of fun. The concept behind the show is lift. Passengers don't know that their driver is actually a stand up comedian. And you compete against another stand up comedian and the comic who gets the most laughs from these unsuspecting riders wins. Definitely go check it out. It was it was a really cool take on Comedy competitions, which sometimes are a little weird, but this was fun. And you get to see these riders because most people don't want their driver talking to them. We have to battle through and make them laugh.

Jeff Dwoskin 7:30

Sounds like a nightmare situation as a passenger but I guess in the good hands of a professional comedian. The hands of somebody. All right. We're all gonna go check that out. Thanks a lot, Jeff. Appreciate it. Kevin Israel, everyone. Check them out on Kevin Hart's Lyft comics. he competes in Episode Six. Check that out on the peacock channel. I watched it on the Pluto app free app. It's on tubi roku, Vizio, you can get it anywhere. So check out my buddy Kevin.

All right. Well, you know what time it is. It's time for me to share my conversation I had with Judy Carter with you. Enjoy. All right. I want to welcome to the show. Author, comedian, renowned keynote speaker. She helps bring out a funny and you ladies and gentlemen, my special guest, Judy Carter. Hello.

Judy Carter 8:23

Wow. Thanks, Jeff. That was such an awesome intro. That was That was good.

Jeff Dwoskin 8:28

I've been like trying to write as if I was like on stage bringing up the next person. Yeah.

Judy Carter 8:36

up and coming young comic and I go like yeah, I've been 50 years and I've been coming friggin they always say up and coming out long. You have to be up and coming. I don't know. You're just not coming up about it these days. Anyway,

Jeff Dwoskin 8:54

that's my other favorite. Hey, tours all around at closing.

Judy Carter 9:00

Yeah, I haven't performed forever. And zoom performance is Sachs. It just doesn't cut it, does

Jeff Dwoskin 9:08

it? No, it's I wouldn't do it. I was talking to Craig Shoemaker. And he actually brings people into his little studio, they COVID tests and do all that. And they actually so he has like 510 people there. So he's actually kind of performing to them, even though he's the bigger audiences through zoom.

Judy Carter 9:25

Oh, yeah. I did it show. Yeah. I tell you. I'm getting so hard up for performing that I was walking on the beach and I saw like about 30 pigeons just sitting there and I did a set the good stuff. It's pathetic.

Jeff Dwoskin 9:44

You got to be funny where you can be funny. So when I started doing comedy, one of the very first things I did in by myself was Judy Carter's comedy Bible. It's been updated. It's on Amazon. You can go to it. It was a great just one. No one I took a comedy class at my local club Margaret Lee's comedy club. Where's that? Is that's in Royal Oak, Michigan and Michigan. Okay. And your book was a great companion piece to that class. Your comedy Bible book was so great. And you went into every comedians kind of points of view. He had lots of pro talks and all that kind of stuff. So I literally I have it, I underlined it. I like it was definitely my Bible as well. So it was definitely something that as I was up and coming the us a lot. It was great. But this comes from you doing comedy for decades and decades, because well, you're not you say you're not doing stand up now, except for the pigeons. You did. You were once a regular on TV, the mike Douglas show, right?

Judy Carter 10:44

Yeah. Wow. You know, when I started comedy, what was it Lewis and Clark was Discovering America. I don't know what it was was a while ago. But there weren't that many comic female comics. And there was Elaine puzzler me there was like the whole genre of Lily Tomlin, but she was doing more like stories, and kind of sketchy, sketchy type things. And so there there were, there weren't that many. And I was a magician, I started the Magic Castle as a childhood magician. And then I started touring doing these shows. And then one day my tricks didn't come, you know, show up and I was in this mafia club in Chicago and they go, yo, you got to go on, I go, I got my props aren't there, you got to go on. So I just went on and started talking about the tricks I would have done. I started, you know, just being funny. And they liked me. And I went, Oh, my God, I don't have to schlep all these props. I mean, there's, there's something so incredibly awesome about just being yourself on stage, just you with no gimmicks to say, Please love me, let me amaze you, and with just your ideas. So that switched me to carry on traveling with sign a man in half. And at one point I was here because I kept getting these ideas for magic tricks like an escape from a garbage can. I was actually traveling with garbage cans, huge garbage. And that's how I started with stand up. And that was quite a while ago in the 80s. And I remember back then the comedy club would call me please can you come on tonight was just on last night. Oh, please, because they had no buddy. Five people no way who knew how to hold an audience just by standing on stage. That's changed. Now you go to your kind of college because Okay, your pap smear is fine. And hey, come see me. I'm doing a gig at Yuk Yuks. You know, it's like everyone's a comic and that change things?

Jeff Dwoskin 12:54

Yes. Every there is just a huge array of folks. It even when I when I started doing open mic by a time years later, I was just there was so many people. And then so many people would just do anything for 25 bucks. And I was just like, no, yeah, I'll die. I'm from Michigan. Yeah, I'll drive to Iowa. For 50 bucks. Like No.

Judy Carter 13:17

Yeah, it's shocking. Because back when I started, prices haven't gone up so much. for inflation counting for inflation. They haven't they really haven't. It's hard. But what are you going to do? You know if that's what you want to do with your life? You don't have much choice, right, Jeff? I mean, exactly. Your whole thing is that feeling you get onstage working audience making them laugh, seeing life through the eyes of a comic seeing things that happened? Oh, that's weird. That's the stupidest thing someone said to me. But you know what I wish I said and you do that up on stage and that's the way you live that's why you see your life we comics have no other choice doesn't matter what's going on there. And that's why people who say Judy shy give it up. I go, yes. You shouldn't give it up because of you have to ask somebody else if you should do this. Give it up. Because when you're a comic, come on, what else you gonna do with your life? Nobody quits.

Jeff Dwoskin 14:13

Nobody quits comedy. They morph into something else. Like you don't do stand up anymore. No, I don't do stand up anymore. I really don't. But you do keynotes now and humorous keynote. So that's your Do you see that as your way right of

Judy Carter 14:26

Yeah, stand up comedy to me is the Haiku of comedy. It's Haiku poetry means that you convey your message with a few as minimalistic use of words. And so stand up teaches you because you're performing for a drunk audience. I mean, you're lucky, they're just drunk and not just also, you know, crack cocaine or something. And at the very least, they're on double lattes, let's just say so everybody wants everything quickly. And so you can't be meandering around. So let me tell you What happened yesterday and then this happened and then this happened this is Wait a second I'm getting do it like old comedy is to be like Bob Newhart would tell stories. Well, everything changed, I think, because drugs change and life change, and people want things quickly. So stand up them the format, learning the format of stand up comedy is so beneficial to anybody who has to either give a speech, or write a play or anything you do, because it shows you how to bring up a topic and quickly get a laugh. And then you can go back to your story. So it's not a story. And a lot of people are just so bombing on standup clubs and the quality of stand up has gone down so significantly, because people perceive it as well. I'm just gonna get up there and be funny and just tell something that quote unquote, really happened. And that's not it. That is not it.

Jeff Dwoskin 15:54

No. So do you think your act like how would you even approach stand up these days with the political you know, the PC culture, the as it is, you know, everyone's going back now. And like just tacking everything

Judy Carter 16:06

when I do a corporate gig, and I'm kind of really what I did was I added a message to my comedy. And so I took my stand up material. And like, this just happened, because when I wrote the comedy Bible, and I was on Oprah had me on, I started to get calls from corporations and FedEx and Oh, you want me to do my act there? No, we don't want your act. Just talk to us about lightning that Ben just talked to us about the value of humor? Really? That's easy. And you're going to pay me What? How much? No, really? You're gonna fly me first class. And I'm not staying in Rach and Roach infested comedy condo with three other comics all day and night poking me going? Is this funny? Listen to this one. I have my room by myself. The Four Seasons, Are you shitting me? Oh, my God, really. And I wasn't used to be treated, treated so well. And I didn't even have to be like real, real funny. And no one's gonna Heckle me.

Jeff Dwoskin 17:06

It sounds like a dream.

Judy Carter 17:07

It was and nobody told me that there was this huge market. And I had no idea at the time that most even celebrity comics make the bulk of their money from corporate and how much you're willing to pay me. And granted, there were a lot of restrictions. You have to you know, HR is there. Oh, is that racist? Is that sexist? Is that looks is you know, you can't swear sometimes even working, you know, the red states, you can't say what the hell really, I'm pissed off. Oh, I didn't even know that was a bad word. Geez, I was on a plane flying to Bismarck, North Dakota, everybody on the plane knew each other. And I went something about Oh, geez. And someone like slapped the back of my chair. We do not use that kind of language here, young lady. So there's no restrictions. But I kind of looked at the check I got afterwards..

captive audience get to do an hour. That's when I wrote my next book called The message of you. Because I'm all about sharing these wonderful ways that creative people can make a living. I'm all about sharing it cuz I'm here to help you guys. If you're a comic, if you're a speaker, if you're a writer, I've been so fortunate to have made a living doing what I love doing. I only had a day job like, as a teacher for a couple years when I was 20. I got fired right away. So I guess being the class clown is not good as the teacher and I don't know, you know, I just feel like I've always been entrepreneurial. I've always had a business head. I've always also, you know, I feel like I know how to build a sandbox, but play in it. So I just think that's a skill that a lot of funny people need to develop. And I offer to help people do that. And I'm happy, I'm happy. But I just you know, I just am I talking too much, Jeff.

Jeff Dwoskin 19:03

No, you're great. You're great.

Judy Carter 19:05

I just read this article. Where was it? Jeff dye just was interviewed. And he just mentioned me in an article and I was so thrilled to read it. You know, he's a really successful comic. And he was talking about, he came up in the Dane Cook era, and where everybody felt like, Oh, you could just Dane Cook it just get on stage and riff on a topic. And he said he was bombing not well, and then he read my book, and he learned that there's a formula, and he took all the jokes and weren't working, putting the formula and that night, they work and he attributes that to his career. And I was like, I don't know, it's even better than me succeeding on my own. Seeing that, you know, it meant something to someone. I don't know. I felt like okay, that's cool. That's really cool. That made me feel really good. So Jeff, if you're listening, shout out to you. And thank you That's amazing.

Jeff Dwoskin 20:00

That's kind of one of the things that I think drew me to you and even wanted to reach out is if anyone Google's Judy Carter, everything is just Judy giving back most the time you if you google a company or anything, it's just them as I'm doing stand up is doing this is doing that most of your stuff is either your podcast, or the message view, all this stuff that they do for free. And everything about you is just giving back everything you've learned. I think it's, it's amazing.

Judy Carter 20:26

It's a secret to being successful. To me, I really, really believe that narcissism is ruining the world, in terms of our politics, in terms of our way we are with each other and a lack of empathy. And oddly enough that it's a successful business technique that even and creative techniques. So for instance, let's just say your setup is we go on to so many comedy clubs, and we hear this let me tell you a little bit about me. We're set up in the world. Why? How much do people care about you? Zero? How much do people care about themselves? 100%. So it makes psychological sense to do a stand up set up? How many of you are feeling like, your life is hopeless right now? Okay, that's how we connect, then you could go I'm feel it. Yeah, me too. So it's on stage making that effort to build the bridge to the audience. And you asked me about comedy clubs. I think it's hard to play comedy clubs, because you don't know who's in the audience. Everything's become very niche. And that's why I think if you're in comedy, you need to find your audience. And a lot of audiences are along people's ethnicity or point of view, or even there are comics now has just performed for accountants, like they do it. Right, and they live it up and they're making a fortune I was working with a guy is a CPA and he's does corporate and they hire him because he's a CPA, but he's really funny. And if you've ever been to a CPA convention, they're really really boring. He gets to his comedy and climbing up so there's in my new book, the new comedy Bible, the New Testament. That's right people I list over 150 jobs you can get paid if you know how to write funny. That's pretty awesome. Yeah. Can you not want to

Jeff Dwoskin 22:26

common close? Yeah, they like you mentioned earlier, the pay hasn't increased in 15 plus years I've been doing it it's it was the same every single time I ever went there. So that's interesting. So this is the new comedy Bibles that just the complete update or is it like a sequel with new information? Or is just that

Judy Carter 22:41

here's the thing, it's page one rewrite. It's not at all the same information totally given the comedy Bible had a small section on stand up and then a went into sitcom writing went to a variety of things. The new comedy Bible is extremely interactive, and it has a workbook that's published with the comedy Bible workbook that's at the comedy Bible calm. I think they're selling. I don't know that. How are they selling it so cheaply? Real? Like people go? Do I need the new book? What is it $8.40 right now, maybe you could splurge on your career and as 48 exercises that asks you questions about yourself. And a lot of people think to create comedy, they're gonna go my dick. You know, my vagina and my breasts, right? This, they go for like hack topics. So this book really dives into questions where it's interactive. So it goes like, Okay, what was the hardest thing about growing up? Were you ever like a fish out of water? Like the the only African American in your town growing up that way? What you know, what's your relationship status like, and then it asks you to throw emotion against that to come up with what we call premises. And so you start unfunny because the true job of a stand up comic or any comedy writer is to take something unfunny and transform it to something we can laugh at. And that's the gift we give. And that's but if you start funny, like this, this will be really funny. You're not doing anyone a service. It's just hack. It's interesting.

Jeff Dwoskin 24:21

Really, it's hard to go deep. And you know, it's it's hard to, like, reflect on yourself and, and this is like certain obvious things that maybe you have in your in your life. Sometimes I think, Oh, I could have been a better comic. Had my childhood been a little worse.

Judy Carter 24:35

My childhood, that's worse. I know, I had a happy childhood. No, you just haven't bothered really examining it. Take that join data mouth and kind of go to therapy and look a couple things. There has to be a break contrast. I mean, let's just face it. Your parents paint a picture you're gonna have a great life. You're special. What do you mean I'm going to die? What do you mean you're going to die? Why did man what is whatever the grandma so just to say everything is good and happy. It's impossible or it's it's life.

Jeff Dwoskin 25:03

Right? That's, that's Yeah, no, you're right. I need to go to I need to go to therapy. Have you been to a dentist?

Judy Carter 25:09

I mean, come on. Come on. Everything was great. Are you at you're just in denial. I'm probably about how you can't deal with anything real. I mean, that's what I don't teach anymore stand ups. I I'm running some online classes now with carousel Donovan, she's wonderful comic and Dean Lewis from Dallas. And they're teaching them online because I had there was so many people who just want to do this hack stuff. And I found myself yelling at them and I went, you know what time to get out of that teaching thing?

Jeff Dwoskin 25:43

Not a bad idea. I yeah, I am gonna. My dad was a dentist, by the way.

Judy Carter 25:49

Just to me. Father's a dentist and everyday is occupations inflicting pain on people and you don't think you have problems, Jeff?

Jeff Dwoskin 26:00

Anyway, it was it was a safe space for me. You go there. Yeah.

Judy Carter 26:05

The drill. See, that's a funny concept right there to me. You found a father who wields a deep shot that he pokes in people's comms and drills as your safe place. So Benton funny to me. That's how we come up with material like a lot of people will just write things by themselves. And it always ends up sounding like the unabomber. Ride manifesto is just like, oh my god, just in conversation. So if you're interested in becoming a comic, just start writing stuff down. That's the only difference. We just write it down. You're good.

Jeff Dwoskin 26:44

He pulled that right out of me now. Yeah.

Judy Carter 26:49

Oh, talk to Jeff. And Jeff, I'll talk to you in a minute is like Yeah, well, I'm on antidepressants. Now, Judy, thank you so much.

Jeff Dwoskin 26:59

So talk to me about the message of you. That is where your focus now. Right. And

Judy Carter 27:03

yeah, that's really where I'm focused. I believe it's important to convey meaningful things to people transformative things in a funny way. So I found that I was on this cruise ship. And there are two comics on this cruise ship and they were getting paid 1500 for the week, they had to do four shows for the week. They were and then one of them it just you know been on television. So they weren't like unknownst they were told not to mingle with the get guests they had like couldn't eat with the guests had to eat with the with the help with waiters. Meanwhile, I'm getting paid 25 times what they're making. And anything I want to eat. You want to have, you know, Alaska, Flom Bay at 3am duty, you go ahead. And at the end of this cruise, I did one hour show. And that's when I went, what's the difference between me who's funny on stage and these comics was that I had a message and the message was worth a lot of money. And then I started to think about what does it mean to have a message? And how does one find their message. And I really, after working with so many people, I believe that we all have well many messages in our life. But we all have an essential life message that we live every day. And but but it's like we can't see it. It's there. We're living it. It's like fish swimming in the water. You know, how's the water fish? I don't, what? What's water, they're swimming in it. We're swimming in our message. So I created this book and a methodology called the message of you, and a way to find it. And the way we find it is this journal, I also created the message of your journal for people to write their stories every day. And that you'll find and if you look at like just one scene of the day, and usually it's the scene when you got angry. And if you look at when you got angry, and then I asked you in this jungle, what does this remind you of from your childhood? And people lightbulbs go off? It's like, whoa, whoa, you know, a friend is late. And I'm upset about it because they're supposed to be the rehearsal at two and it's already three and they didn't even call me what is remind you buying she was back at the orphanage that her mother sent to her all dressed up with a coat on on a hot day, but she didn't want to take it off because you want to be ready when your mother came and her mother never came. I was like now tears are coming down on her face. And then I go well, what's the message you want to tell people? It's like, show up be your word. Be Your Word and live. Okay, now she's a comic. Right? So now she has a message that's now she's in touch with why she gets angry when everybody's ever late. It comes from a very deep spot. She has her message and when you have your message, you have your purpose in life and that's why I created the power purpose podcast because we all want Live a purposeful life. And it's not just I want to, you know, be successful or I, you know, it's like how do you want to be successful, we all feel successful when we live our life on our purpose, and most people just have Not a clue what it is. And they don't realize how it happened in their childhood really writes the script for their life, but they can change that script, once they become conscious of their message. I've never really talked about it like that. But it makes sense, doesn't it? I mean, yes, yeah. And how great then to get paid to speak it. So that's amazing.

Jeff Dwoskin 30:37

I want to be Judy Carter, that's my background is business, I've always had things I always thought like, oh, the mix of comedy. And business is such a powerful thing. And you know, to be able to go and do things. And you know, you mentioned earlier taking comedy, and how great it is to have those skills in real life. And one of the greatest ways that I was able to use comedy, not just on stage, which I, you know, I loved and it was, it was always great, but it work when I was asked to present something, and I would get up there and just, you know, come at it from the comedian point of view, like this three, you know, the 360 point, do you see things differently than the normal person that would have presented it? You know, to the point where it was like, anywhere I worked, everyone was like, don't go after Jeff.

Judy Carter 31:29

Yeah, I mean, you know, corporate America has become humor impaired, and certainly in COVID-19, and the pandemic, we could all use some lightening up. And I really appreciate people who make an attempt to make people laugh, even when they fail, at least they're making attempts. So that's awesome that you do that.

Jeff Dwoskin 31:48

Yeah, it was it was just one of those things where it's just, you know, it's it's a natural thing. And it is easy, it is easier, I guess it kind of goes to what you were saying where if you're performing to your audience, it becomes easier because you have a lot of the shared frames of references that you're able to trigger on faster than when you're speaking to just complete strangers, where you have to kind of create everything and all of the connections and then take them through that story to get the laugh.

Judy Carter 32:15

It used to be back when I did stand up, there were like the seven topics that everybody talked about, that everybody could relate to in terms of relationships and girls stuff. But then it started to be like people started to be entrepreneurial, and go, okay, Girls Night comedy, and just have girls and you know, and then that led to certain kinds of material. And then it just be like George Lopez, when he started he could get on Hispanic or Latino radio and promote his show. And so he didn't need to get booked in comedy club, he would just what we call for wall the room and go give you kind of the door. And I'll take this, but I'll get the people in there. The comedy clubs were. Yeah. And so he cultivated his audience. And now that's what people do through Instagram and social media is they present their kind of humor, and then the venue becomes what would be appropriate like Mike Birbiglia performs. And last time I saw him was in the theater, and where he's telling a long form story. He's from the stand up world. So what he does is he's telling a story. And then he stops the story and goes on a stand up riff and the stand up riff might even be 1520 minutes about, like, maybe the story starts off in the stories about him and his wife thinking about having a kid or rather his wife thinking about having a kid and he's sitting on the couch, and then he'll just go off on couches are weird, because, you know, and then he does his 15 minute riff on a couch, but then it comes back to a story so it becomes a theatrical event, and then it became like, Okay, he's gonna do it in theaters. So it's really different now where people perform Ali Wong. When I first saw Ali Wong, she was doing a show in the lingerie department of was victorious, trashy lingerie, trashy lingerie, penthouse, it was some kind of lingerie store, and they put out some chairs between the G strings and these broads and she did her show there. And so there are more creative ways to find your audience and to do things that way by not giving your power away and going like I need a comedy club to book me No, you don't know you don't.

Jeff Dwoskin 34:38

That's interesting. Do you need a book to do corporate speaking like Dude, is that part of what gets you in the door like I always heard like, Oh, you need a book.

Judy Carter 34:45

You used to need a book but now anybody can you know self publish a seven page pamphlet call themselves a quote unquote best selling author, which is I started to look up everybody who called himself a best selling author and I going you Number 7 million and the bottom of Amazon bestsellers, you are not a bit you, your grandmother and your aunt bought your book, you are not a best selling author. So everybody, I feel nobody really cares about that. However, you do have to have credentials to speak. And those credentials have morphed into TED Talks, TEDx talks, and maybe web shows, YouTube channels, X amount of followers, all sorts of influencers. So a book is sort of an archaic way of proving yourself as an expert. I do write books, but I don't know if I am writing a new one too. What

Jeff Dwoskin 35:48

is it about?

Judy Carter 35:49

It's based on my years as a magician, and it's called a death defying escape from a Jewish family. And I started as I started to think about my life, I started to realize, boy have I had some he live your life and you think, Oh, it's just normal. But then you start telling people some stories about what it's like to travel and open for prints, or so many points in history. I was kind of like Forrest Gump in history of like, when the era went down to the feet, I was before, you know, when working the Playboy clubs and being the bunny locker room and all these points in history. And I realize that combined with a very unusual upbringing with a extremely disabled sister, and then coming out and being gay when it wasn't like acceptable. And all of that I went, you know what, I think there's a play here. And I think there's a memoir here. And so my next one is, I usually write how to books but this one's going to be really funny. It's like 75% written, but it's gonna have a real good message to it about really being who you are.

Jeff Dwoskin 36:57

That's awesome. I am good. I'm I am gonna buy that and I'm gonna read out of it. I'm gonna read the hell out of it.

Judy Carter 37:03

Thank you I it's writing books is tough thing takes a lot a lot of time. And then you have to hire people. You don't tell you what, where to put a semicolon? I never understood semicolons me, right?

Jeff Dwoskin 37:16

What's the point? What's the point of them?

Judy Carter 37:17

It's a point and a comma. So I don't understand the point or the comma. Why not use one or the other but you got to hire people, then you got to have someone do the art work. And then yeah, self, I did self publish my last book. Every other book has been published by a major publishing company, but I have to tell you, you get to a certain point, it can be worth it. Because there's nothing like holding something that you've done. And then like I said, seeing people post on in articles and media, how it really affects them. That's the best

Jeff Dwoskin 37:50

there. I'm surprised you only had one example because I'm sure there's so many examples of people that have been touched by your books and everything.

Judy Carter 37:58

Oh, who took my class and read my book? What Seth Rogen, Sherri Shepherd always gives me a shout out really nice to her a Maz Jobrani. He gave me a quote for the cover my other book I started you know, he started my class and so many people. So that's it's awesome. To see people succeed. I love I don't believe like competition like, Oh, you do better that means I'm not gonna do well. Now. There's room for everybody.

Jeff Dwoskin 38:25

So follow up question. You kind of glossed over opening for Prince. Yeah. You got just like said that. Like it was no big deal. Did you get to hang out with friends or anything like that?

Judy Carter 38:36

Yeah, he's excessively shy. So it was very awkward. I was discouraged. I was told not to do his his show. It was before you know, he had a wide following. It was back when he just started to tour and he had I was the only white person in the room. I'm just gonna say that and I had a blast doing it. And I opened from was at the Roxy on Sunset Strip. And so I stood I knew I was gonna have trouble. So as everybody lined up, I played accordion the same song over and over pretending I was blind. And people threw me quarters and they said, Oh, thank God when the lines moving. Oh, thank God, we don't ever listen to that girl anymore. Then they come in, they sit down, they have drinks, and they go like and sprint is gonna be here. Yay. I'm coming to the stage, Judy Carter and I walked out with that accordion and the entire audience went, Oh shit, and I had them in the palm of my hand. And then he asked me to do more shows with him. And it was just it was a love fest and and that's when I found my audience, oddly enough, and I was asked by the Roxy after that to open for every African American. Jewish girl opening for every single African American. No other comic wanted to do that. But somehow it just, I don't know. It just worked out really well and

Jeff Dwoskin 39:59

sounds like here. Real Life Miss maizel

Judy Carter 40:02

I love that show. The only thing I hate about that show is she just keeps coming up with new material and you never see her agonizing and bombing and writing and rewriting she just on the spot comes up with material. It's not that

Jeff Dwoskin 40:15

I say the same thing to my wife. I'm like, nobody just goes in and just spews cold. They had one episode, I think, where they showed like a two minute montage where they kind of insinuated, maybe she did that I am but like, other than that, yeah, she just would go up and talk about something that just happened. material like, you know, comics, some of us have been doing the same jugs for 30 years. But it's so funny, cool. What, Hey, tell everyone where they can find you. I know, we can find all your books,

Judy Carter 40:43

I have an online university because a lot of people wanted to learn how to find their message and turn it into a speaking career. And also have comedy tips. And every make it make it funny. So it's like find your message, make it funny, have a speaking career and I was charging like $800 for it. But during COVID I'm giving away for free. So I'm sure your listeners can afford that. And to get that all they have to do is email me at this address ready? Free at Judycarter.com free@judycarter.com. And I'll send you just how to login how to do it. I don't market to you, you know, occasionally I'll send you something about hey, I'm doing a reading my new play or here's a little book signing or a free class, but I'm doing a lot for free. So you should get on my list.

Jeff Dwoskin 41:31

Awesome. All right. Well, magician, accordion player, author, comedian, keynote. I mean, you're like I don't even know how many thread that is. So Judy, thank you so much. I can't thank you enough for spending some time with me. Thank you. All right. How awesome was that? I want to thank Judy Carter for hanging out with me. dropping all those pearls of wisdom. I'll put a link to Judy's website which and all her books in the show notes. Definitely check those out. All right. Well, can you believe it? We're nearing the end of another show. Episode 58 has come and gone. But there's still one more thing we all know what that is. It's time for the hashtag around up trend of the week. This is where we read tweets from a trending hashtag from that family of hashtag ground up games found on twitter at hashtag Roundup. Also download the free hashtag roundup app and never miss a game play along in one day. One of your tweets may show up on a future episode of live from Detroit, the Jeff Dwoskin show. How exciting is that? All right, we dove deep into the hashtags and we found #DeepThoughtsFromDentists. That's right part of my therapy session with Judy. we uncovered some feelings and things about the dentist so I found this awesome hashtag by open mic rejects weekly game on hashtag ground up. So let's go deep into the minds of dentists with hashtag deep thoughts from the dentist. I guess it could have been worse. I could have been a pract allergists Hey, she looks like a biter. With all the advances in technology. Why am I still using a tiny hook and mirror? I'm really enjoying this new wing in my house because of this mouth. I hope no one finds out where I hid the fifth Dennis body. Why are so many people anti den tight? These are some great #DeepThoughtsFromDentists. I can't get to the root of this problem. It's drilling me but I'm pumped so they call it a cavity search versus a cleaning. So true. So true. Did I forget to turn off the nitrus and room array. Shout out to Mountain Dew for all the business. This one's true. My dad was a dentist as you know from the episode and he used to say that people came in with horrible teeth. It was one of two things usually they were either a meth addict, or they drank too much Mountain Dew. Okay, sorry for the detour. Let's go back to #DeepThoughtsFromDentists. I've never seen his hairy nostrils on a kid and the final deep thought this is not a drill. I don't know why that one makes me laugh. All right. Those are some great #DeepThoughtsFromDentists. Thank you at all these awesome tweeters, as always they'll be retweeted @JeffDwoskinShow my Twitter account on Twitter. They'll also all be listed in the show notes. Go and find them retweet them, show them some love.

Well can you believe it? Here we are at the end of Episode 58 thanks to Judy Carter for being my guest. Thanks to Kevin Israel for calling in. Check out all Judy's books. Check out Kevin show live comedians with Kevin Hart. so much great stuff, and we'll see you next week.

Announcer 44:26

Thanks so much for listening to this episode of the Jeff Dwoskin show with your host Jeff Dwoskin. Now go repeat everything you've heard and sound like a genius. catch us online at the Jeff Dwoskin show.com or follow us on Twitter @JeffDwoskinShow and we'll see you next time.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai