The Hawks & Reed Performing Arts Center may feel like a world away from NBC’s “America’s Got Talent” stage, but the two will soon share the distinction of featuring a performance by Julia Scotti.
The New Jersey-based comedian stole audiences’ hearts with her direct, personal humor on the show’s 11th season in 2016, reigniting a career that had laid dormant for more than a decade. Scotti was originally scheduled to perform at Hawks & Reed on Nov. 16, but early reports of an impending snowstorm forced a postponement until Jan. 12.
“I was very disappointed. I was really looking forward to it,” she said, adding that the postponement was ultimately the right decision. “Everybody’s safe. We didn’t want anybody to get hurt.”
Scotti, 65, said she has never been to Greenfield, but she is excited to return to this corner of the country.
“I would like to play (New England) more. I did it a lot in the ‘80s,” she said. “I feel a kinship to New England that I don’t feel anywhere else other than home, where I live.”
Scotti’s comedy encompasses various aspects of her life — aging, being transgender, her Italian-American family and upbringing.
“(It’s) very relatable stuff,” she said. “There’s a little something for everybody in there.”
The Jan. 12 show will also feature comedian Anita Wise and will be emceed by Hadley native Tony Sykowski, who is now a comedian based in Brooklyn, N.Y.
Hawks & Reed Co-Manager Benjamin Goldsher and Media Director Andrew Nighswander said Scotti was recommended to them by local comedian Jon Ross. They watched YouTube videos of her “America’s Got Talent” appearances and fell in love with her jokes. Nighswander also said hosting a comedian who is transgender ties in perfectly with Hawks & Reed’s mission to be a safe, inclusive venue for all people.
Scotti said someone affiliated with “America’s Got Talent” found her website (juliascotti.com) and contacted her to see if she was interested in auditioning.
“I wasn’t going to, but I had a manager and she said, ‘You’re crazy if you don’t,’” Scotti recalled. “It was a great opportunity for me. It just changed my life. It gave me a recognition it would take years to get. … It was a really, really positive experience all around.”
During her 90-second routine, she joked about being old, saying her primary care doctor was a paleontologist. On the plus side, she said, she was also “fat, single and broke” with a 401K with enough in it for about “a month and a half of Netflix.” She received a standing ovation from the audience, and judges Simon Cowell, Heidi Klum, Mel B and Howie Mandel each voted “yes” to send her to the next round. She was eventually eliminated in the quarterfinals.
The network had given her the option of coming out as transgender and she decided to only after Mandel called her a joy with “so much to offer” and asked about her career. She then revealed that she was formerly “known as Rick Scotti.”
“I had to make a decision right in that moment. I said, ‘I may never get this opportunity again and I could help somebody,’” she recalled. “All of a sudden the audience started clapping. … It was just a moment I’ll never forget.”
Scotti started in stand-up comedy in 1980, when she was 28. She signed up for an open mic night at a Chinese restaurant and delivered a three-minute set.
“That was all she wrote. That was all I needed,” she recounted. “I was hooked.”
She worked as a headliner across the United States and Canada for nearly 20 years before coming to grips with her gender dysphoria and beginning her transition.
“I didn’t really know how to be a man or a male. I patterned myself after my father, who wasn’t really around, and guys in the neighborhood, and emulated them. But, it was never genuine. It never felt right,” she said. “There was no internet, so you were kind of left in the dark.”
In 2000, Scotti decided to go back to school, earning bachelor’s degrees in English and education from Georgian Court University, a private Roman Catholic institution in New Jersey. She then taught language arts to sixth-graders for almost seven years.
“I loved it. I loved teaching, but I did not like teaching to the test,” she said. “The beauty of teaching is being able to be creative and changing minds and watching them open up.”
She had no intention of returning to stand-up until close friend Chris Rich, a fellow comic, encouraged her to get back in the game in 2011, after an 11-year hiatus. She soon started performing shows regularly again.
Though she doesn’t shy away from the transgender topic, she said it upsets her when comedy clubs bill her as a “transgender comedian,” noting that they likely wouldn’t do the same type of labeling for a comic who is black or Jewish. Still, she is happy to address the issue.
“I can’t avoid it. It is part of who I am. There is a need for education about it, that there are a lot of us out there, and people who need role models,” she said, adding that people from all over the world have approached her to say her openness meant a lot to them or their loved ones. “Once you get to know me, or any trans person for that matter, you just see the person. When you take the mystery part out of it, the boogeyman part of it, all you see is the person.”
Scotti said her sense of humor helped her through her childhood and later transition, which was made more difficult by the fact that she had a wife and family at the time. Her story must have resonated with people, because her life is the subject of an upcoming documentary titled “I Don’t Want My Penis Back: The Julia Scotti Story.” The film is due out in 2019, though she has no involvement with it.
Scotti, who now lives in Toms River, N.J., said she keeps busy — performing two or three shows every weekend.
“Believe me, my life did not turn out the way I expected it to and I’m very happy for that,” she said.
She was named one of the top five transgender comedians in the country by Advocate magazine (not to be confused with The Valley Advocate) in 2012 and her comedy CD “Hello Boys … I’m Back!” is available for purchase online.
In addition to hosting comics like Scotti, Hawks & Reed also holds biweekly comedy nights hosted by Jon Ross and Monica Kelley.
Andrew Nighswander, the arts center’s media director, explained Ross scours the Pioneer Valley and Connecticut for comedy talent and invites them to the shows, which also have an open mic portion for people who sign up. Though the Jan. 12 performance featuring Scotti will take place on the building’s main floor, the biweekly comedy shows are held at 8 p.m. in the Wheelhouse — Hawks & Reed’s subterranean, speakeasy-style venue downstairs — on the second and final Tuesday of each month. The shows started mid-summer.
“It has just been growing ever since,” Benjamin Goldsher said.
Ross, who lives in Deerfield, explained he visited the Wheelhouse to see a band he likes and soon after approached management about holding comedy shows there. He said the space reminds of him of iconic comedy rooms — like The Comedy Cellar in New York City — where he has performed.
“It’s a really quirky, intimate, low-ceiling venue that could seem full if you had 20 or 25 in there,” he said.
Ross is an award-winning comedian and writer with series such as “Not Necessarily the News,” “CatDog” and “Lucky Louie” on his résumé.
Nighswander said the comedy nights allow people to “get some laughter in these dark and tumultuous times.”
Aaron Kater, a Hawks & Reed employee who books shows, said the venue would like to hold more comedy events such as the one slated for Jan. 12.
“Our goal is to be as diverse as we can so that we can please everyone’s palate,” he said. “That being said, our main focus will always be music.”
Tickets to Julia Scotti’s Jan. 12 show cost $18 in advance and $23 the day of the show. They are available at ticketf.ly/2zPgUKv or by calling 413-774-0150. Doors open at 7 p.m. and the show starts at 8.
Domenic Poli joined the Greenfield Recorder in 2016. He covers Sunderland, Whately, Conway and Deerfield. He can be reached at: dpoli@recorder.com or 413-772-0261, ext. 262.