Judah Friedlander
The Sweet Spot Makes you Soft
“Yeah, you have a lot of fighters who think they’re really good. But you know, MMA is all scripted and fake; that’s why I’m more of a WWE guy — it’s more realistic. But to each their own.”
Judah Friedlander – World Champion
Weight Class: None of Your Business.
Wins by TKO: Infinity²
World-renowned extra dark black belt holder Friedlander didn’t land on our radar solely based on the release of his kick-ass karate instructional book How to Beat Up Anybody or through his role in 30 Rock as head comedy writer Frank Rossitano, no. Instead, we picked up this title-winner on the stand-up comedy scene.
You might recognize the uniquely designed trucker hats, the thick rimmed glasses and most notably his iconic yellow t-shirt — or maybe you’ve seen him on TV, caught his Save the Mermaids campaign on YouTube or completely live under a rock and have no clue as to who I’m talking about. Either way, let me introduce you to self proclaimed World Champion of martial arts, air and ice hockey, soccer and most other professional sports as well, Judah Friedlander. No matter what opportunity arises, he always seems to have choice words for his competitors: “I support WWE even though I’m banned from wrestling in the league. I support what they do, but I could be winning all their shit, you know.”
Luckily, even though he is a huge wrestling fan, the champ stays out of octagons and prefers to spend his time battling on the comedy circuit; man versus rowdy crowds. “That’s the most fun part,” he tells me referring to the unpredictability of live crowds. “That’s what I look forward to; it’s one of the things I like about stand-up. I like challenges and mixing stuff. That’s what makes life interesting, even off stage. I like new things.”
If you’ve ever had the chance to watch him solve the world’s problems on stage at the Comedy Cellar in NYC, you would know that stand-up isn’t one of those aforementioned “new things”. Friedlander has been owning stages ever since he first stepped foot in front of a mic at the age of 19. Before that, he was making his own short and animated movies but quickly found that he was better suited at tackling live audiences: “When I started doing stand-up I realized this really fit me as a person much more. I still will make movies and I still do like making them but stand-up is number one.”
So how does a World Champion tackle stand-up comedy? He does what all successful athletes do: he works his tush off. Extending his talents way beyond the high-profile NBC comedy series and the “would you rather” jokes his TV character Rossitano is known for, Friedlander has developed an on stage persona so boisterous and brash that he makes Charlie Sheen sound like Lizzie McGuire. The set may come across as far-fetched and pompous but the craft has truly been mastered. “It’s basically observational humour for someone like me, but I’m the only person like me so…”
Friedlander has honed in on the Holy Grail of stand-up comedy, crowd work and flexibility: “A professional comedian should bring something to the audience that the audience isn’t bringing to themselves.” In a world where comedy sets are immediately uploaded and streamed on YouTube channels and one-liners tweeted directly from live shows, creativity and candor are the tools to maintain momentum.
• • •
He dives right back in, “Yeah, but some of that is also just comedy philosophy.” Staying clear of the obvious jokes and being able to get the unexpected laughs are the core of his comedic ideologies. “I don’t like doing the obvious. That’s one of the reasons I’m a professional comedian.” The perfect set for him is a balance of reworked material, somewhat autobiographical fables and his uncanny ability to pull audience participation.
Even though the champ never fails, he does recall a time when he too had to push himself to train harder. The good stage times in comedy clubs, or the “sweet spots” as he refers to them, weren’t simply handed to him. Instead he was performing to get laughs from the 2-AM/half-asleep/mostly-drunk crowds and focusing on proving himself to be better than the comedians whose talent levels he knew he had already surpassed.
He thrives in situations that force him to develop as an artist. In his words, “you can only get good at stand-up by doing stand-up.” Traveling abroad and performing in front of multicultural crowds in New York have forced Friedlander to value the “shitty gigs” as they are the ones who help you grow the most. In fact, as his career flourishes he realizes that there might be some disadvantages to always being cast as the feature headliner because, as he’ll tell you, the “sweet spot” makes you soft.
So what can we expect from his upcoming performances? Well, there is only one thing we know for sure: “If you like puppets and songs that rhyme, please pick something else. There’s nothing wrong with puppets singing cute songs or puppets doing impressions of giraffes, but if you wanna see that please go to another show. That’s all I’m sayin’.”
Friedlander will soon be in Montreal to perform at the Just For Laughs Festival. Could we see the World Champion come out of retirement to go head-to-head with one of our city’s beloved MMA stars? “I actually trained Steven Seagal in MMA years ago, but I actually taught him stuff that makes you a worse fighter. I didn’t give him good information, and he’s probably just passing that on. He was getting a little arrogant, so I had to.”
“I just think the MMA fighters are not real athletes. I mean, any time you have Steven Seagal giving advice to Anderson Silva, how could they be?”
Okay World Champ, we’ll warn GSP.
“Yeah, you have a lot of fighters who think they’re really good. But you know, MMA is all scripted and fake; that’s why I’m more of a WWE guy -- it’s more realistic. But to each their own.”
Judah Friedlander - World Champion
Weight Class: None of Your Business.
Wins by TKO: Infinity²
World-renowned extra dark black belt holder Friedlander didn’t land on our radar solely based on the release of his kick-ass karate instructional book How to Beat Up Anybody or through his role in 30 Rock as head comedy writer Frank Rossitano, no. Instead, we picked up this title-winner on the stand-up comedy scene.
You might recognize the uniquely designed trucker hats, the thick rimmed glasses and most notably his iconic yellow t-shirt -- or maybe you’ve seen him on TV, caught his Save the Mermaids campaign on YouTube or completely live under a rock and have no clue as to who I’m talking about. Either way, let me introduce you to self proclaimed World Champion of martial arts, air and ice hockey, soccer and most other professional sports as well, Judah Friedlander. No matter what opportunity arises, he always seems to have choice words for his competitors: “I support WWE even though I’m banned from wrestling in the league. I support what they do, but I could be winning all their shit, you know.”
You can only get good at stand-up by doing stand-up.Luckily, even though he is a huge wrestling fan, the champ stays out of octagons and prefers to spend his time battling on the comedy circuit; man versus rowdy crowds. “That’s the most fun part,” he tells me referring to the unpredictability of live crowds. “That’s what I look forward to; it’s one of the things I like about stand-up. I like challenges and mixing stuff. That’s what makes life interesting, even off stage. I like new things.”
If you’ve ever had the chance to watch him solve the world’s problems on stage at the Comedy Cellar in NYC, you would know that stand-up isn’t one of those aforementioned “new things”. Friedlander has been owning stages ever since he first stepped foot in front of a mic at the age of 19. Before that, he was making his own short and animated movies but quickly found that he was better suited at tackling live audiences: “When I started doing stand-up I realized this really fit me as a person much more. I still will make movies and I still do like making them but stand-up is number one.”
So how does a World Champion tackle stand-up comedy? He does what all successful athletes do: he works his tush off. Extending his talents way beyond the high-profile NBC comedy series and the “would you rather” jokes his TV character Rossitano is known for, Friedlander has developed an on stage persona so boisterous and brash that he makes Charlie Sheen sound like Lizzie McGuire. The set may come across as far-fetched and pompous but the craft has truly been mastered. “It’s basically observational humour for someone like me, but I’m the only person like me so...”
Friedlander has honed in on the Holy Grail of stand-up comedy, crowd work and flexibility: “A professional comedian should bring something to the audience that the audience isn’t bringing to themselves.” In a world where comedy sets are immediately uploaded and streamed on YouTube channels and one-liners tweeted directly from live shows, creativity and candor are the tools to maintain momentum.
Hold on a second, your Prime Minister is texting me. Hold on. Give me just one second here... Sorry, you must be getting pretty nervous. It’s okay now, I’m back.• • •
He dives right back in, “Yeah, but some of that is also just comedy philosophy.” Staying clear of the obvious jokes and being able to get the unexpected laughs are the core of his comedic ideologies. “I don’t like doing the obvious. That’s one of the reasons I’m a professional comedian.” The perfect set for him is a balance of reworked material, somewhat autobiographical fables and his uncanny ability to pull audience participation.
Even though the champ never fails, he does recall a time when he too had to push himself to train harder. The good stage times in comedy clubs, or the “sweet spots” as he refers to them, weren’t simply handed to him. Instead he was performing to get laughs from the 2-AM/half-asleep/mostly-drunk crowds and focusing on proving himself to be better than the comedians whose talent levels he knew he had already surpassed.
He thrives in situations that force him to develop as an artist. In his words, “you can only get good at stand-up by doing stand-up.” Traveling abroad and performing in front of multicultural crowds in New York have forced Friedlander to value the “shitty gigs” as they are the ones who help you grow the most. In fact, as his career flourishes he realizes that there might be some disadvantages to always being cast as the feature headliner because, as he’ll tell you, the “sweet spot” makes you soft.
So what can we expect from his upcoming performances? Well, there is only one thing we know for sure: “If you like puppets and songs that rhyme, please pick something else. There’s nothing wrong with puppets singing cute songs or puppets doing impressions of giraffes, but if you wanna see that please go to another show. That’s all I’m sayin’.”
Friedlander will soon be in Montreal to perform at the Just For Laughs Festival. Could we see the World Champion come out of retirement to go head-to-head with one of our city’s beloved MMA stars? “I actually trained Steven Seagal in MMA years ago, but I actually taught him stuff that makes you a worse fighter. I didn’t give him good information, and he’s probably just passing that on. He was getting a little arrogant, so I had to.”
“I just think the MMA fighters are not real athletes. I mean, any time you have Steven Seagal giving advice to Anderson Silva, how could they be?”
Okay World Champ, we’ll warn GSP.
Judah is Performing at Just For Laughs July 22-27th - Admission $20