Comedy Showcase: Meet Joel Chasnoff -- Stand-up Comedy In English and Hebrew

Not too many stand-up comics can deliver a set of jokes on late-night television shows in English and in Hebrew, too.  Joel Chasnoff has shown that he can deliver on both counts.

Chasnoff interrupted his career as a comedian to enlist in the Israel Defense Forces for a year.  His new book describing his experiences, The 188th Crybaby Brigade, will be published on February 9.

The book is a hilarious coming-of-age tale in which Chasnoff takes readers into the barracks, across international borders, over, under, and through political fences, and face-to-face with the absurd reality of life in the Israeli Army.

The lone American in a platoon of 18-year-old Israelis, Chasnoff finds himself caught in a twilight zone-like world of baby-faced officers, diabolical sergeants, and teenage Israeli mama’s boys who feign injuries to get out of guard duty and claim diarrhea to avoid kitchen work. And all while Joel’s relationship with his tough-as-nails Israeli girlfriend (herself a former drill sergeant) crumbles before his very eyes.

You can see him in New York at the Yeshiva University Seforim Sale performing stand-up comedy on Wednesday, February 10 and reading from his new book on Saturday night, February 13.  He will also appear in Boca Raton on Wednesday, February 24 at the Hillel Day School.

Here are a few samples of Chasnoff's comic routines.  First, his experience getting his tefillin inspected at an airport (yes, this was a few years ago, before the tefillin incident last week aboard a Louisville-bound flight.)