Find Your Resilience During Adversity

OR Excellence

By: Outpatient Surgery Editors

Published: 7/26/2022

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Sept. 29 | 4 p.m.


In 2016, Julia Scotti warmed her way into the hearts of millions of viewers worldwide when she appeared on NBC’s hit show “America’s Got Talent” and advanced all the way to the quarterfinals. Her appearance on prime-time television not only catapulted Ms. Scotti’s comedy career to the next level, it also caused the famously caustic and curmudgeonly AGT judge Simon Cowell to exclaim, “You genuinely made me laugh!”

While millions of viewers may have first discovered Ms. Scotti on AGT, the comedian is the furthest thing from an overnight success story. A veteran nationally touring comedian and motivational speaker, Ms. Scotti brings more than four decades worth of onstage experience to Orlando for the OR Excellence Conference — and the perspective of a patient who knows all about the benefits of life-changing surgery. With her appearance on AGT, Ms. Scotti, who spent 20 years as professional comedian Rick Scotti, became the first out transgender comedian to appear on national television, according to The Advocate.

HAPPY AUDIENCES Whether she’s performing stand-up comedy in sold-out theaters or speaking to a room full of busy surgical facility leaders, Ms. Scotti always aims to leave her audiences happier than when they arrived.

Now she’s bringing her message of resiliency to OR Excellence attendees who are returning to an in-person event for the first time in three years. And just what is it she hopes they take away from her presentation? “I hope people will feel a little better leaving than they did when they came in,” she says.

Whether she’s performing in sold-out theaters as part of the live tour of Showtime’s hit show “Funny Women of a Certain Age” or speaking to an intimate, engaged audience of busy surgical facility leaders, Ms. Scotti always has the same end goal: “I always aim to make people happy.” 

Ms. Scotti is at a point in her career where things are good — real good. In fact, recently she had to pinch herself when one of her comedy heroes, Bill Percy, the head writer for the Dick Van Dyke show and several other hit sitcoms, was in the audience to see her comedy show. “The next day, he wound up as a guest on a podcast I was doing, and we talked for more than 90 minutes,” she says. In addition to crisscrossing the country with her stand-up and motivational speaking gigs, Ms. Scotti was the star of Susan Sandler’s acclaimed documentary “Julia Scotti: Funny That Way,” a film that recently completed a national film festival tour. Plus, her second comedy album “Primal Cuts” was released in 2022, her Dry Bar Comedy Special is slated to be aired soon and she’s checked every item off of her bucket list except for a pilgrimage to Italy to visit the towns and villages of her ancestors. That’s something she’s tackling next year after her busy schedule dies down a little. 

Of course, getting to this point in her life was a process, Ms. Scotti acknowledges. “I went through a time when everything was taken from me,” she says. But Ms. Scotti persevered the worst life threw at her, and the theme of resiliency in the face of adversity is a major part of her presentation. When it comes to overcoming any type of adversity you may face, Ms. Scotti says it’s all about setting your mind to what you want to achieve and never giving up on reaching that goal. “Imagine you can do it, and you can,” she says. “Everything should be directed toward that goal, and you shouldn’t let anything get in your way.” OSM

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