Susie Essman with Judy Gold: New York Jewish Comedy OG’s in Conversation
There are some comedy pairings that just make sense.
Susie Essman and Judy Gold are both loud in the best possible way: sharp, Jewish, New York, fearless, and allergic to anyone telling women to tone it down. So when Susie Essman sat down with Judy Gold at 92NY, the result was exactly what you’d hope for — funny, frank, fast-moving, and full of the kind of comic intelligence that only comes from decades of knowing how to command a room.
In this 92NY conversation, Susie Essman joins Judy Gold to talk about her Upper West Side-set comedy Putzel, living and working in New York City, and the bigger-than-life persona audiences know from Curb Your Enthusiasm.
Susie Essman, Judy Gold, and the New York Comedy Gene Pool
Susie Essman is best known to millions of viewers as Susie Greene on Curb Your Enthusiasm, the volcanic, brilliantly profane, exquisitely dressed truth-teller who could turn an insult into an aria. But before and beyond Curb, Essman is a stand-up comedian, actress, writer, and unmistakable New York voice.
Judy Gold is cut from that same fearless cloth: an Emmy Award-winning comedian, actor, author, podcaster, and commentator whose comedy lives at the intersection of Jewish identity, LGBTQ+ life, free speech, motherhood, politics, and the sacred right to say the thing everyone else is thinking.
Together, they represent a specific and beloved comedy lineage: New York Jewish women who are funny because they are observant, unsentimental, impossible to intimidate, and deeply alive to the absurdity of everything.
The Joy of the Bigger-Than-Life Woman
One of the reasons Susie Essman and Judy Gold are so satisfying together is that neither of them performs smallness.
That matters.
Comedy has always had room for difficult men, angry men, loud men, neurotic men, and men who say whatever they want and call it genius. Susie and Judy come from the tradition of women who claimed that same space without asking nicely first.
They are not “too much.” They are exactly enough.
Susie’s Curb Your Enthusiasm persona is iconic because she says what polite people suppress. Judy’s comedy works for the same reason: she turns frustration, memory, family, politics, and cultural madness into something cathartic. Watching them together is watching two performers who understand that big personalities are not a flaw. They are the engine.
Why Judy Gold Is the Perfect Person to Interview Susie Essman
A great comedy conversation needs more than questions. It needs rhythm.
Judy Gold knows how to talk to comedians because she is one. She understands timing, tangents, grudges, punchlines, and the way a story sometimes has to go sideways before it gets good. That makes her an ideal conversation partner for Susie Essman, whose comedy is rooted in character, bluntness, New York impatience, and emotional precision.
This is not a polite celebrity interview. It is two comic minds recognizing each other.
See Judy Gold Live
If you found this page because you love Susie Essman, there is a very good chance you will love Judy Gold.
Judy is an Emmy Award-winning comedian, author, actor, and host whose stand-up is smart, personal, political, Jewish, queer, furious, generous, and very, very funny.
See Judy live, or book Judy for your next event.