Local Trans Comedian Julia Scotti Scores Multi-Date Borgata Gig

If you haven’t done AC in a while, here’s a good excuse to head back to The Boardwalk: Jersey-based trans comedian Julia Scotti — who performed at our LGBT Six-Word Memoir Slam in October — just scored a major, multi-date standup gig at the Borgata.

I had the pleasure of getting to know Julia two years ago when I profiled her in this piece for Philadelphia City Paper. At that time she was in the process of getting back into comedy as a woman after performing quite successfully as a man since the early-1980s. Since then, she’s kind of exploded. Last year she was named one of The Advocate‘s Top 5 Hottest Transgender Comedians of 2013; she headlined a comedy show at Planet Hollywood for Las Vegas Pride; and she just finished filming a TV pilot for a show she wrote called No Man’s Land. 

This Borgata job inches Julia closer to re-achieving her mainstream-comedian dreams (and hopefully getting her a spot on Ellen.) As far as she knows, she’s the only trans person to perform at the venue, where she tells me she’s happy to be treated  “as a comedian who happens to be trans, rather than as a trans comedian. It’s one step closer to the day when the only thing that will matter is if I’m funny.”

Let’s all zip down to support a sister. You can catch her at the Borgata Comedy Club on Jan. 27-30 and Feb. 2 at 9 p.m. For tickets, go here.