Judah Friedlander On Stand-Up Comedy & Times Sqaure
(CBS Local)-- Judah Friedlander never took a comedy class and didn't even know if comedy classes existed when he was growing up.
The stand-up comedian has toured all around the world and been in movies like "Meet The Parents", "Along Came Polly" and "Zoolander." The NYU graduate is performing at home this weekend at Carolines on Broadway where he will do five shows between Friday and Saturday.
"I remember when I first came to New York and Carolines was known for being a little nicer on the inside," said Friedlander in an interview with CBS Local. "It is still fancier and bigger than some of the other clubs in New York. It's right near Times Square, so sometimes you might get more tourists or different types of tourists who are just walking by."
Friedlander says he loves performing stand-up in New York because the city is so international and you get people from all walks of life. The stand-up comedian has been performing in New York since the late 1980s. He remembers when Times Square used to be a lot different.
"Times Square, I don't really go there that often anymore," said Friedlander. "I have great memories of Times Square. My dad is from Brooklyn and we used to come up here in the early 80s. I remember coming up here in '81 and Times Square was a lot different back then. You had to really watch it and it was like a war zone. There were three 24 hour video arcade places called Playland. They were kind of dangerous and that kind of made the games more exciting."
Friedlander will be traveling all over the world over the next few months with his Future President Tour and even did a show in Romania last year.
"I did a guest set, so I'm unannounced in Romania," said Friedlander. "I was filming a movie called 'Sharknado 6' and we filmed it there. When I was in Romania, I did some researching on the internet and found out they have a comedy club there. I met up with some local comics and did there podcast. The show was all in Romanian. It was great."