STAND-UP TUESDAYS: Erin Judge

June 19th, 2012

Grant Trimboli

Stand-Up Tuesdays is a weekly comedy spotlight written by the wonderfully talented Angie Frissore. Covering both known and unknown comics, Stand-up Tuesdays is your new source for all things funny.

This week, Angie puts a spotlight on Erin Judge. If you or your comedy troupe would like to be featured on Stand-Up Tuesdays, please email utgjames@gmail.com.

Despite now living in New York, comedienne Erin Judge will always be a Boston comedienne to me after her time spent in my home city, delighting my home crowd with her sharp and intelligent wit – so it should come as no surprise that I’ve been patiently waiting for months on end for the release of her debut CD, So Many Choices. Alas, I was not disappointed.

Recorded in Santa Cruz, California at The Playhouse, So Many Choices showcases Judge’s inherent ability to overcome ostracism and relate to her audience through warm stories and observations. Whether she’s (quite literally) stumbling into her ex-girlfriend’s wedding, ultimately owning a bully at her Texas high school, or trying to explain bisexuality to her Brooklynite grandmother, Judge tackles it all with humor and wit. If you’ve never seen yourself reflected in women’s magazines or have cried tears of horror at the thought of being asked to be a bridesmaid, then “So Many Choices is for you”.

Right from the moment she takes the stage, Judge wastes no time with pithy introductions or crowd-play, instead launching right into her set – a risky move for some, but Judge does so with the fortitude of someone who is confident her material will speak for itself. A good call, given Judge’s material is just the right amount of personal information that affords her audience an intimate look at who she is and what has influenced her work.

“I am excited about one thing, being the maid of honor – because I get to plan the bachelorette party. I’m planning a destination bachelorette party to Mexico, and I’m definitely bringing some condoms,” Judge states, while describing how she feels about being in friends’ weddings. “Just in case we can’t finish all the cocaine there.”

Judge has appeared on Comedy Central’s Live at Gotham and at comedy clubs and festivals all over the world, most recently at the 2012 Women in Comedy Festival in Boston, MA, which she headlined along with Wendy Liebman, Carol Liefer, Erin Jackson and Kelly MacFarland. Erin has also been featured at the Eugene Mirman Comedy Festival and the prestigious Bridgetown Comedy Festival, and she’s currently performing all around the south with the Pink Collar Comedy Tour. Her humorous essays can be found on Thought Catalog and Salon.com, and her two-woman comedic play “The Meaning of Wife” earned a four-star review from TimeOut New York.

“I have a man in my life, we’re married,” says Judge, who is openly bi-sexual. “We met when we both worked at Harvard; he was the I.T. guy. Super awesome, dating the tech support guy because I’d just walk into work every morning and pour coffee all over my keyboard and kick the CPU a few times. ‘I don’t know it’s just broken, you’ll have to come over and crawl under my desk again.’”

Everyone has their opinions of the world around them, but I can almost guarantee that you haven’t heard any quite like Judge’s. Erin Judge’s ability to pull in her audience in almost any situation is unmatched, and her debut comedy CD from Rooftop Comedy is a fitting collection of the comedienne at her ultimate best. So Many Choices will be available for purchase on Tuesday, June 26 on iTunes, Amazon, Rooftop Comedy and anywhere else fine comedy is sold.