D’yan Forest: ‘When I walk into a club, they say, ‘Whose grandmother are you?’ Who are you coming to see?’ They don’t have a clue’ [Christopher Robin Baker]

HER divorce scandalised conservative Boston in the 1960s, but for the world’s oldest working comedian it was only the beginning.

D’yan Forest was just 25 years old when her parents persuaded her to marry a man she didn’t really like, and 28 when she realised suburban housewifery wasn’t the life she wanted.

“The problem was he didn’t know how to pleasure a woman,” said Ms Forest.

At 91, she is now the Guinness World Record Holder for World’s Oldest Working Comedian.

“I realised if you don’t really believe in something, don’t listen to what other people say – even your parents. You’ve got to follow your own path and do what you need to do in life. If you don’t want to marry the guy, don’t marry him.

“It’s like in comedy – people told me when I started that I was too old, it would be all late nights and people would heckle me. They’ve all proven to be wrong.”

Talking to the Tribune from New York ahead of her London tour later this month – including a show at Betsey Trotwood pub in Farringdon Road, Clerkenwell – Ms Forest said she had come a long way from her “puritan Bostonian” youth.

She has danced in Parisian swing clubs, sung in New York late-night bars, appeared on the Drew Barrymore Show and performed on France’s Got Talent.

She had first been to Paris on a girls’ trip in 1955, and “hightailed” it back there on a boat from the States when the divorce went through, beginning a lifelong love of French culture, language and people.

“I said, ‘this ain’t like Boston, that’s for sure’. I was shocked out of my brain. The girls were dressed like men and guys were always chasing me.

“That’s when I started having a good time and realised I had another chance at life.” When she went back home two years later, she had even adopted a French accent, much to the shock of her mother’s friends.

In the years that followed, Ms Forest moved to New York where she played piano and sang in bars, while often going back and forth to Paris.

She spent two years dating the city’s second-ever female bus driver, and later had a relationship with a former nun, both of whom feature in the one-woman show she’s bringing to Islington, 90 Years of Songs and Scandal.

But it wasn’t until after 9/11 – when musicians fell out of work because everyone was too sad to hear them – that a comedy club-owning friend suggested she pivot from playing music to making people laugh.

“Three weeks later I was performing – I had never done comedy in my life. My first show was on Good Friday, there were only 15 people there, and when I got to the fourth line, sure enough people started laughing. That hooked me.”

When she started out, comedy was even more male-dominated than it is now, although it’s still “mostly young guys with beards”, said Ms Forest.

And despite her years on the circuit and Guinness World Records fame, she still has to remind people that she belongs on stage.

“When I walk into a club, they say, ‘Whose grandmother are you?’ Who are you coming to see?’ They don’t have a clue.”

No interview with a self-described “risqué” 91-year-old who performs internationally would be complete without asking where all that energy comes from.

“Most of my friends sit in front of the television and go out once a day. But what I do is keep my brain going by thinking up new shows and memorising them, so I’m using my brain every minute.

“I go swimming every day, and I walk nine holes of golf during the summer when I’m out in South Hampton. You have to do exercise, for your brain and your body. And I have young friends. That’s what keeps me going.”

• D’yan Forest will be part of the Cray Cray Cabaret night on August 26 at Comedy Store, 1a Oxendon Street, SW1Y 4EE; and performing her show 90 Years of Songs and Scandal at the Betsey Trotwood in Farringdon Road on August 29, 7.30pm, tickets are £10 on the door, with some of the proceeds going to Alzheimer’s Society.