D'yan Forest, World's Oldest Comedian, Lives by Her Own Rules

D’yan Forest is not interested in acting her age.

At 89 years old, she still has a vivid sense of adventure, an active curiosity about life, and boundless energy. Perhaps her most outstanding characteristic, one that has defined her since day one, is a willingness to take a leap of faith, again and again.

Forest, who owns a home in Southampton Village, embarked on a new and what most people would consider very intimidating career in 2001, entering the world of stand-up comedy. Undeterred that most of her peers in the industry were decades younger than her, she put herself out there and gave it a shot — and she’s still standing.

Against the odds, she’s had success in a field that’s tough to break into and tough to stay in, bringing her brand of carefree, self-deprecating humor — with more than a dash of naughtiness — to stages from New York City to Paris and plenty of locales in between.

On September 2, she performed just a stone’s throw from her Southampton home, as part of the Sticks and Stones Comedy Club event at the Southampton Cultural Center on Pond Lane.

Forest’s late career pivot — before stand-up, she made her way as a talented musician and cabaret performer known for playing both the piano and ukulele — has not only given her a new passion in life and kept her booked and busy, it has also landed her in the Guinness Book of World Records. Forest is now officially recognized as the oldest female comedian in the world, a label she wears proudly.

Frank Sinatra coined the phrase “I Did It My Way,” but Forest has truly lived it over her nearly nine decades on Earth. Fittingly, she chose “I Did It My Ways” for the title of her memoir.

Forest grew up in Newtown, Massachusetts, calling herself “a nice Jewish girl from Boston.” In the early days, she did what was expected of young women at that time, getting married in her 20s in the late 1950s.

Forest soon realized that the marriage was not built to last. Instead of doing what the vast majority of women would have done at that time — conforming to patriarchal societal norms and sticking it out in an unhappy union — she chose herself, getting a divorce and promptly moving to Paris, France.

“The guy didn’t turn out to be so great, and I was an innocent girl back then,” she said. “I just wanted to know, is this all there is? So I finally got a divorce. That was very hard in Newtown society, and my parents never accepted it.”

Going overseas allowed Forest to start a new life, away from the stigma of divorce that would have followed her like a shadow in her hometown. During two years living in Paris, Forest said she “did everything adventuresome,” exploring and expanding her horizons “to find out what the hell life is all about.”

“I realized I could be my own person,” she said. “Going to Paris gave me the courage to be myself and to entertain.”

Forest said she remained focused in the midst of all that freedom and adventure by staying away from drugs and alcohol.

She eventually returned to the states, settling in New York City, and embarked on a long and successful career as a musician and cabaret performer. It was a good and steady life, until the September 11 terrorist attacks created a seismic shift.

“After 9/11, so many jobs were canceled,” she said. “After a year, I was playing golf with Caroline Hirsch, who owns Caroline’s comedy club, and I asked her how to get into comedy. I got a coach and started doing comedy three weeks later.”

More than 20 years later, Forest is still going strong, drawing laughs from audiences young and old, with people of all ages telling her she’s an “inspiration.”

She knows how to play her unique situation for laughs. At an appearance on “The Drew Barrymore Show,” she joked that she knows that “my parts aren’t under warranty anymore,” but quipped that young men would still find her desirable despite that, because she has three things they want: experience, a pension — and a place in the Hamptons.

Continuing to perform and book gigs at places like Gotham Comedy Club, The Broadway Comedy Club, Le Poisson Rouge, Under St. Marks, and Dixon Place in Manhattan, and Paris clubs like Paname, Jamel, Gymnase, and La Nouvelle Seine, keeps Forest young, she says. She also plays golf regularly at Noyac Golf Club, is an avid swimmer, and still travels.

Last week, she was gearing up for a trip to Germany, where she planned to pay a visit to an area that was formerly a summer retreat for the Nazis. Delving into history and experiencing it firsthand, while also sharing it with others to create awareness of past atrocities like the Holocaust is important to Forest, as a way to ensure the truth of what happened at that time remains real to people and isn’t forgotten. She’s visited several former concentration camps as part of that effort.

Forest is one of the rare people who refused to let societal norms dictate her life, at a time when rejecting those norms carried great risk, especially for women. As a result, she’s lived the life she was meant to live, without regret or what-ifs weighing her down. She admitted she wished she could have had children and grandchildren, but said “I kept thinking I would meet the right guy, but I didn’t.”

Instead, her thriving career as a performer has become, in essence, her grandchildren.

“Instead of the grandkids calling and asking me for money, I have my PR person calling and booking interviews,” she said with a laugh. “That affirmation warms my heart.”

Predictably, Forest has no plans of retiring, using a Yiddish word to describe what performing does for her.

“It gives me nakas,” she said. “That’s the Yiddish word for ‘inside happiness,’ the thing that makes you smile from the inside.”

Forest will celebrate her 90th birthday on July 31, and she said she hopes to make it a memorable birthday by doing what she loves best. “If I’m still around, I pray I am still doing shows then,” she said. “Turning 90 oughta drag some people in.”