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Guinness World Record Worlds Oldest Female Comedian
I Did it My Ways Book

I Did it My Ways

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An 86-year old stand-up comedian's life-long journey from prudish to scandalous Parisian.

A hilarious and heartfelt memoir by D'yan Forest with Stephen Clarke.

D'yan Forest has always done things her way – or her ways, because she's lived a dozen different lives. She's been a desperate Boston housewife, a New York night-club singer and a Paris swinger. She's been the only Jewish girl in a Christian choir and the female pianist in a transvestite cabaret. She had day jobs teaching basketball, piano and sex education. She dated Paris's second-ever female bus driver, a transsexual rock guitarist and a defrocked nun. She also managed to get German friends to visit Nazi concentration camps, on her personal quest to understand why her European relatives were massacred. At 86, D'yan is still a working stand-up comedian and musician, but she's much, much more than that, as this hilarious but heartfelt memoir reveals...

Written by D'yan Forest with Stephen Clarke, best selling British author of books like 1,000 Years of Annoying the French and A Year in the Merde, and co-writer of D'yan's latest stage show, Swingin' on the Seine.

D’YAN FOREST
AEA, SAG-AFTRA, AFM – Local 802

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D'yan Forest is a one of a kind performer who has performed cabaret and stand-up all over the world with notable performances in New York, Edinburgh, Paris and even Ethiopia. At 85 years old, she brings her unique perspective and vibrant personality to every performance she does whether it’s on stage or screen. Critics have called her everything from "saucy," "witty," "irrepressible," and a "naughty version of Betty White."

At the age of 4, D'yan got into show business when she started playing recitals in her parents living room in Boston. Next, she picked up the ukulele, started singing and got into a dance band, which led to the trumpet, drums and naturally – the glockenspiel. While attending the Cite Universitaire de Paris, she began appearing in cafes, cabarets and nightclubs throughout the City of Lights. Paris appearances led to performing in other European countries. D'yan developed an international act with songs in nine languages. After returning to the states, she settled in New York City and was soon playing and singing in upscale rooms at the Waldorf, the Plaza and the Park Lane as well as saloons and piano bars, which led to working in the theatre.

New York stage credits include Gigi, Guys And Dolls, Shaw’s The Music Cure, Ladies In Retirement, and Helen in Grandmother Sylvia's Funeral at The Soho Playhouse. Her film & TV work includes the principal role of The Mother in Soldier's Heart, which has been screened in film festivals throughout the world. Other independent films include Sweet Flame with Anne Meara and Mira Sorvino and Coney Island Baby directed by Parker Ellerman. D'yan's appeared on Saturday Night Live, Comedy Central as well as national and international commercials and print campaigns. This past year, she was on the TV show France has Incredible Talent.

Over the past few years, D'yan has regularly performed in cabaret and comedy venues in New York and Paris. New York cabaret appearances include The Metropolitan Room, The Duplex, The Ukulele Cabaret and The Cutting Room. She can also be seen working on her distinctive stand-up act (complete with ukulele) at Gotham Comedy Club, The Broadway Comedy Club, Le Poisson Rouge, Under St. Marks, and Dixon Place in Manhattan. Paris clubs include Paname, Jamel, Gymnase, and La Nouvelle Seine.