Meet Natalie Levant, 88, a stand-up comedian from Philadelphia.
“Aging gracefully, I’ve come to realize, is slowly disappearing, like Benjamin Button.”
At her recent stand-up performance at Ray’s Happy Birthday Bar, Levant worked the steamy back room in black spandex pants, green sequin boots, and a tank top that read: “NEVER KNOW YOUR PLACE.”
Some might say a Saturday night at one of South Philly’s oldest dive bars is no place for a woman like Levant, who turned 88 in September.
Good thing she knows better.
For the last seven years, Levant has been performing stand up at clubs, restaurants, and “the best dive bars in the tristate area,” from South Philly to Cape May.
Levant — who describes her style as “wickedly evil” — didn’t get into comedy until she was 81.
She remembers talking about her life at her first performance and telling jokes like: “We thought safe sex was pulling the bed away from the walls so you didn’t bump your head.”
But most of all, Levant remembers how it felt.
“I remember feeling totally like I had discovered treasure, like I had discovered the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow,” she said. “You get back so much more than what you could ever give when it works.”
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