Julie Goldman Hosts the 4th Annual Pink Flamingo Awards

Late last month, The LGBT Visitor Center announced the nominees for the 4th Annual Pink Flamingo Awards, which honor the best of the best in the LGBT community each year. This year's awards will be held at Jungle Island on Thursday September 22 from 7-10 pm.

Each year, the Pink Flamingo Awards is hosted by a funny homo, and this year is no exception. Julie Goldman is currently a series regular on the runaway hit series on BRAVO, "The People's Couch", and co-host of the "Vanderpump Rules After Show". She was a star of LOGO'S "Big Gay Sketch Show," and currently a cast member of LOGO'S "Gay Skit Happens."

She is a former comedy writer for E's "Fashion Police" with Joan Rivers, winner of the NEWNOWNEXT - Brink of Fame Comic Award, and the MAC Award for Best Headlining Comedian in NYC. Julie has appeared doing standup Comedy Specials on LOGO, COMEDY CENTRAL, SHOWTIME, OXYGEN and AXS TV.

It was great to chat with Goldman when she spoke to us in this Hotspots exclusive interview.

I hear you are about to go to Europe for a couple of weeks. Is this a vacate?

I'm going to work on an Atlantis Cruise, the gay cruise company, so that should be super fun. Hopefully I don't die from having so much fun!

Well you are definitely going to get laid!

Uh, right! With all men... YES!It should be interesting with the gay guys. The guys are so much fun. Seriously, they are just SO MUCH FUN! So, I know it's going to be great!

How did you get your start in comedy?

Well, I, for whatever reason, and I don't know what... I was compelled at an early age to perform. I would reenact movies and force my family to watch. Then, I took an improv class in temple, I went to Hebrew School. So I took this improv class with an improv teacher named Gene Traunstine who then introduced us to standup comedy. I saw the standup, this was when I was like 14, and I like was OBSESSED! And then, these guys came and did standup at our temple named Tony V and Mike Bense from Boston. After the show, I went up to them and was like: "How do you do that? I want to do standup." So he said, "Why don't you come down to the Comedy Connection and I'll put you on stage for five minutes? So six months later, I went and started doing it and I've never stopped! So I've been doing it since I was about 15 technically.

Well, my next question is which did you know first, that you were a lesbian or that you were funny but if you were that young, I would guess that it was funny first?

That's pretty subjective, but I certainly thought I was funny. So I think because I was exposed to comedy so young... I wish that I had grown up more recently because kids are coming out now in kindergarten. It's really amazing.

I know, it really is great that many kids feel safe to come out so early now. I was a lot older than that, but once I came out, did I EVER DO IT RIGHT!

Yeah, that's the thing, once you come out it's like (sings) "I'm going to make up for lost time." And you like, really, REALLY do it right. You gotta really do it. You've got years and years to make up for... We all did it that way.

As a standup comedian, I'm sure you are on the road a lot, where is your favorite place to play?

I think my favorite places, at least so far are Boston, New York, and Los Angeles. Those have been my favorite places. But there have definitely been some surprises, like I've been to places that I thought were going to be terrible and it was great and I loved it. And places where I thought would be great and were terrible. But Boston's where I'm from so every time I go back to New England I find that those audiences are great. New York is always amazing and a challenge. LA can be really super fun because for the most part here, people here expect TV ready Hollywood style stuff and I just like to go and dyke around and be like: How's this for TV... (fart noise) pu$$y stuff. You know what I mean, I have fun.

Do you get down to South Florida often?

I have defintely been a handful of times. I have performed in Fort Lauderdale, Miami, St. Petersburg, and Fort Myers. So I've definitely done Florida and I do really enjoy it down there. Obviously Miami is where it's at. Fort Lauderdale is super fun too, but Miami is just so exciting and... GAY!

When you think of Miami, what images come to mind?

Speedos, G-String bikinis, tan people, Cuba!

You know that we have topless beaches here in Miami right? You might want to spend some time at the beach when you get here.

Oh, I didn't know that. So it's just like across the board topless ladies? Ok so boobs! D!cks in little bathing suits, the beach... I have a friend who's dad lives there, so I have also just been there, just to spend time and visit and it's just super fun, it's great. The bars, really great places to hang, great gay nightlife, all the beautiful hotels. It's a fun city I think.

How did you get involved with the Pink Flamingo Awards?

Lori Lynch called me out of the blue, and she just explained to me what it was and asked me to do it and I said yes! I am pretty easy when it comes to booking me so I jumped right on it.

Well, thanks so much for talking to me before you go have all that fun on your big two week gay cruise.

Where I will probably die from... partying.

When it's over you are going to be like, "I don't want to talk to a gay man for at least a month."

I know... I'm going to come back and be like "OH, GOD!" But of course, you are welcome for the interview. Lori was so F'ing cool, sometimes you just... click. You hate to say no to people but it has to be done. But you know that there is something that happens when you talk to people and realize, this is going to be fun. I'm going to make this happen. I haven't met her, but I saw the video and I was like this chick has it going on. The show looks like fun, with a community that's fun and that's something I can't wait to be part of.

Voting is now open for the 4th Annual Pink Flamingo Awards. To vote or to get tickets and more info, visit PinkFlamingoAwards.com. A quick google search of Julie Goldman is guaranteed to keep you laughing for hours!