Please give a brief background on yourself and your career.
I started out performing stand-up at the world-famous Comedy Studio in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Today, I write and tour all over the world. In 2014, I was selected as one of the Top 100 comedians invited to compete on NBC’s Last Comic Standing. I’ve traveled to more than 40 cities in the US and Canada as part of the Pink Collar Comedy Tour, and I’ve performed internationally in Ireland, Scotland, and on Atlantis Cruise Lines. I’ve also appeared on Comedy Central’s Live at Gotham, the Women in Comedy Festival, the New York International Fringe Festival, and the Bridgetown Comedy Festival, and in the pages of the Boston Globe, Time Out New York and the New York Times. My writing has been featured in Salon, Thought Catalog, and other websites, as well as in the Dallas Observer and the Boston Phoenix. I just moved to Los Angeles and I’m currently seeking a publisher for my debut novel. More about me can be found at erinjudge.com.
How has your career changed since you originally envisioned it at Wellesley? What other careers did you consider as a student?
When I got to Wellesley, I really wanted to be a music journalist. Then I did a couple of internships and I learned that I loved writing but did not particularly enjoy entertainment journalism and criticism. After that, I thought I would become an academic. I loved my American Studies coursework and professors at Wellesley, and I decided to pursue a PhD and become a professor myself. Alas, I took a year off after graduating to apply to PhD programs, and I fell in love with stand-up comedy and live performance. I continued to write and started dabbling in blogging, essay, and fiction, which all fit in well with my career in entertainment and performing arts.
How has Wellesley contributed to your career?
I learned how to think deeply and critically at Wellesley. The classes I took in Women’s Studies, Political Science, English, Religion and beyond taught me how to question popular assumptions about people and social norms. And living and learning at Wellesley fortified me against the struggles I would encounter entering a very male-dominated profession. After being in Dead Serious and co-hosting Last Call (the weekly comedy and variety show at Molly’s Pub), I knew I was funny, and I felt just as entitled as anybody else to tell jokes on stage.
What is a typical work day or work week like for you?
I’m thrilled to report that I don’t have a typical work day or work week! One of the things I loved about being a student was that every day and every semester was completely different and new, and my career in the arts and entertainment is much the same. I’ve spent months working with fellow alumna Ailin Conant (’04) on a play we performed at the New York International Film Festival; I’ve spent weeks on the road driving from city to city with the Pink Collar Comedy Tour; I’ve holed up in my attic apartment toiling away at my first novel. I love my crazy variable work life, but it definitely requires a lot of self-direction and some strong organizational and planning skills.
What piece of advice would you offer students looking to get into your area of interest and expertise?
Do not expect a career in the arts or on the creative side of entertainment to look like a career in business or law. Your parents and peers might have expectations for measurable progress, and they might push you — either directly or through peer pressure — to avoid a path that is unstable and insecure in favor of a career with a more defined ladder. Steel yourself against that. Any student at Wellesley has certainly worked hard and achieved a lot and climbed up the rungs of academic success. The arts and entertainment is more undefined. Hard work and talent are essential, but so are resilience, patience, and a deep faith in yourself and your art.
What do you wish you had known as a student?
I wish I had known to take full advantage of the extraordinary event programming at Wellesley. I wish I’d attended more lectures and discussions and performances. Every single week at Wellesley is jam packed with intellectually and culturally enriching events, and the opportunity cost is so low! You just have to roll out of bed! Maybe put on some pants! And even that is probably optional!
If you could come back and take one class at Wellesley what would it be?
I’m thrilled to learn about Marta Rainer’s new course in the Theatre Studies department on Trailblazing Women of American Comedy. I’ve actually been invited twice as a guest performer to a similar course at Boston University and it was so great engaging in discussions about comedy with the Women’s Studies students there.