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Even after performing for decades, D'yan Forest still gets stage fright, but now she has a way to alleviate it: "I get on the stage and I say, 'Hey, everybody, I'm 88 years old. Well, I gotta put it out right away in case I don't make it through the show.'"
Everybody laughs and claps and with that first laugh, Forest—the Guinness World Records-certified oldest female comedian—feels the show can go on. Forest will perform five shows in the next two weeks as part of the FRIGID New York Fringe Festival (get tickets here).
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Forest, whom critics have called the "naughty version of Betty White," will perform her one-woman show "Swinging on the Seine," which chronicles her experience living in Paris in the 1960s. A young, innocent and recently divorced Bostonian, Forest moved to Paris to try to make it in the Parisian cabaret scene—and she collected plenty of glamorous and even scandalous stories along the way.
Even though some of the stories may seem larger-than-life, “it’s the truth,” she says to Time Out over the phone. She wrote the tales for the stage along with bestselling author Stephen Clarke, and she doesn’t hold anything back.
"I was going to cut them out, and I said what the heck. And so I do it, and people don't seem to mind the salacious stuff," she says. "I've got the stories. All of them are true and that's what people can’t believe."
In addition to her storytelling, Forest breaks into song (and encourages the audience to sing along) and even plays the ukelele. She tells jokes about herself, never making fun of other people.
After Forest moved back to the U.S., she made her home in New York City and performed as a cabaret singer. When the 9/11 terrorist attacks happened, she said the cabaret industry shut down. A friend suggested Forest try comedy, so she secured a spot at Caroline’s on Broadway and realized the joy in making people laugh.
Over the years, she's performed across the globe from New York and Paris to Edinburgh and Ethiopia. She has appeared on SNL, Comedy Central, France’s Incredible Talent, The Drew Barrymore Show and in comedy clubs across New York. Her act called "I Married a Nun" landed her on the same stage as Jerry Seinfeld, Jim Gaffigan, and Joan Rivers. She even wrote a tell-all book called I Did it My Ways.
Two decades since that first comedy show, she's still on stage, even as many of her friends retire and spend their days playing golf. She admits that memorizing lines can be more difficult at age 88-and-three-quarters than it was years ago, but she perseveres.
“I think that keeps me going. To think of new material or new jokes, it gives me fun and this is what keeps me occupied,” she says. “I love it."
See D'yan Forest perform at the Kraine Theater in the East Village as part of the FRIGID New York Fringe Festival. Performances are scheduled on: February 18 at 6:40pm, February 22 at 7:10pm, February 26 at 3:20pm, March 3 at 8:20pm, and March 5 at 5pm. Tickets range from $10-25. The show's runtime is one hour.