I recently went one-on-one with D’yan Forest, the Guinness World Records title holder for Oldest Working Female Comedian in the World.

Adam: Thanks again for taking the time to share your advice. First things first, though, I am sure readers would love to learn more about you. How did you get here? What experiences, failures, setbacks, or challenges have been most instrumental to your growth?

D’yan: "I’m from Newton, Massachusetts and got into the arts at an early age. I started playing piano at 5 years old, and as a teenager started singing lessons and drama lessons. I started entertaining with these different abilities at the age of 14. This was in the 1940’s. I loved seeing and playing popular songs and did pantomimes even on television. One of these acts that I did was a pantomime of taking off my clothes and taking a bath. It gave me a false bad reputation at college as it was streamed live and there were no recordings in that day, but what people didn’t know was none of it was real. 

In the 60’s, I went to Paris and started to perform in French and English at different nightclubs. After a while, I went back to Boston and quickly moved to New York. There, I played in cocktail lounges all over the area and since I knew all of the French songs and had a great French accent, I became a French chanteuse. I learned to sing also in 8 other languages, so it was a very good career. 

I eventually became a cabaret singer with bands in the Catskills and all over Long Island, Connecticut, and New Jersey. However, when 9/11 happened, a lot of these job opportunities stopped, as people were very depressed. I had a friend who owned the biggest comedy club in Manhattan and asked her how I could become a comedian. Within three weeks, I was doing comedy at different places around town, and especially at Caroline’s Comedy Club. Singing parodies with my Ukulele at the end of my schtick set me apart immediately from the other comedians. Now, I’ve been on the Drew Barrymore Show, on France’s Got Talent, and continue to perform regularly as the Guinness World Records oldest working female comic in the world."

Adam: In your experience - other than being funny - what are the keys to excelling as a comedian?

D’yan: "I know how to read an audience. I always sit out in the club and watch the people come in and size them up, so when I’m on stage I already have a feeling for the atmosphere and I’m able to work with the crowd and communicate with them."

Adam: What are the keys to constructing a great joke?

D’yan: "You give one line or two lines as the basis of the joke, and then you have to have a good punch line very soon. I use a lot of slang and call myself a risque comedian, but I don’t use vulgar words."

Adam: What can anyone do to develop and enhance their sense of humor?

D’yan: "You have to accept anything and see all the different sides. When somebody says something you have to see the different sides of what they’re saying. I do a play on words and make a comeback using the word they use but with a different meaning. You have to look at all sides of things and you’ll come up with something funny."

Adam: What are the best lessons you have learned from your career as a comedian that are applicable to readers across all professions?

D’yan: "You have to be ready for anything. Know what your audience is, and roll with the punches. Be friendly with everyone you meet and smile all the time. I used to be a very shy and quiet person. This has opened me up to be friendly with the world, and when I walk down the street and smile, everyone smiles back."

Adam: What can anyone do to become a better communicator?

D’yan: "Whenever I have a new adventure, such as even a heart operation, I am able to find the funny part in it and make a whole new schtick. On the golf course, there are funny things that happen, so I make a new schtick about golf. In other words, I love to always have a new subject that I will talk about and find funny in. A lot of comics just do the same schtick night after night. Not me. I like to always try new ideas, and it works."

Adam: What are your three best tips applicable to entrepreneurs, executives, and civic leaders?

D’yan: "Ask everybody you meet what occupation they are in, how they got in it, and you will find lots of information. Travel a lot. That opens up your eyes to new adventures and new methods of how all different places work. It gives you a fresh view of how things can be done. Look always at the practical side of what you’re trying to do, and don’t go too far with pie-in-the-sky ideas. Keep everything you want to develop or do down to earth and imagine how it will affect people in the world."

Adam: What is the single best piece of advice you have ever received?

D’yan: "When I was in the Catskills I would be the female singer and usually I was in a small dressing room with the comedian. He said always end with a song when you do your comedy because that will leave them happy. This was many, many years before I started doing comedy, and guess what! This is what I’m doing now at age 90. Also, I got the advice many years ago of having the audience join in and sing with me, and this I use all the time and people go out smiling. They love to be part of the show."

Adam: Is there anything else you would like to share?

D’yan: You are never too old to try something new. I am now 90 years old, and I didn’t start doing comedy until 15 years ago. Now look, I’m a world record holder. 


Adam Mendler is an entrepreneur, writer, speaker, educator, and nationally recognized authority on leadership. Adam is the creator and host of the business and leadership podcast Thirty Minute Mentors, where he goes one-on-one with America's most successful people - Fortune 500 CEOs, founders of household name companies, Hall of Fame and Olympic gold medal-winning athletes, political and military leaders - for intimate half-hour conversations each week. A top leadership speaker, Adam draws upon his insights building and leading businesses and interviewing hundreds of America's top leaders as a top keynote speaker to businesses, universities, and non-profit organizations. Adam has written extensively on leadership and related topics, having authored over 70 articles published in major media outlets including Forbes, Inc. and HuffPost, and has conducted more than 500 one on one interviews with America’s top leaders through his collective media projects. Adam teaches graduate-level courses on leadership at UCLA and is an advisor to numerous companies and leaders. A Los Angeles native, Adam is a lifelong Angels fan and an avid backgammon player.

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