"High Powered Howard" Wins Jewish Week's Funniest Comedian Contest

(Left to right) Third place winner Saul Daiell, second place winner Miriam Borenstein, Producer Geoff Kole, and first place winner "High Powered Howard" Newman at the Jewish Week Funniest Comedian Finals in New York last night.

The Broadway Comedy Club in Manhattan was the scene last night of a hilarious evening of comedy entertainment that featured nine stand-up comics vying for the coveted title of Funniest Jewish Comedian of 2014.

The contest, sponsored for the 15th year by The Jewish Week, was hosted by David Finkelstein and produced by Geoff Kole, who also provided some comic relief during the show.

Besides the contestants, the audience was treated to comedy performances by established performers Corey Kahaney and Yisroel Campbell, and an opening routine by previous winner Stuart Rapoport.

At the end of the evening, "High Powered Howard" was declared the contest winner. So who is "High Powered Howard?" He's Howard Newman, the stand-up comic and fitness instructor who created Jokesercise, a comedy and exercise routine that combines laughs with bouts of stretching for seniors. 

Newman, who has been a comedian for over 15 years, visits nursing homes, senior centers and assisted living homes all around the five boroughs, encouraging seniors to get active with his unique routine. 

We've got some more video clips of the contest to share with you, so watch this space. We'll  be incorporating them into our Monday "Joke to Start the Week" feature for the next few weeks.

Enjoy!

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Jewish Week's Funniest Comedian to be Selected Tonight in New York

Attention Stand-up Jewish comedy fans! Tonight's the night that the 2014 Funniest Jewish Comedian in New York will be chosen at the Broadway Comedy Club in New York City.
(See ad in the column at left.)

After three weeks of preliminaries, the finals at 318 West 53rd Street will be an evening of Jewish comedy and selection of the winner, starting at 7pm with advance seating starting at 6:30pm.

The evening of laughs, hosted by up and coming young comedian David Finkelstein, will feature professional Jewish comedians Yisrael Campbell, Corey Kahaney, and Geoff Kole.

Campbell is the creator and star of his one-man show, Circumcise Me!. Kahaney has appeared on HBO, Comedy Central, The Late Show, and The Late Late Show. Kole is the producer of the Jewish Week annual Funniest Comedian Contest and a stand-up comic in his own right.

We'll be attending and videotaping the fun, so if you can't be there in person, watch for funny clips from the show in the weeks ahead. 

Here's a sample from the third preliminary contest that we attended on June 15. Rina Blech was the winner of that night's session with her funny routine shown below. Enjoy!

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Guinness World Records Certifies Largest Shabbat Dinner on Earth in Tel Aviv

Two weeks ago, more than 2,000 people sat down for the largest Shabbat dinner ever in Hangar 11 of the Port of Tel Aviv. 

Sponsored by the White City Shabbat organization, the event attracted people of every age and from every religious stream.

As Steve Lipman wrote in The Jewish Week,

With a waiting list of more than 3,000, the dinner – which featured 800 bottles of wine, 80 bottles of vodka, 2,000 challah rolls, 1,800 pieces of chicken and 1,000 pieces of beef – was sold out for two weeks.

In the seats at the June 13 event, which was co-sponsored by Chabad and a wide range of religious, political and other organizations, were many prominent members of the Jewish community. Among them: Tel Aviv Chief Rabbi Yisroel Meir Lau, Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz, Israeli basketball legend Tal Brody and Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai.

The dinner conformed both to Jewish law (all the food was kosher) and the regulations of the Guinness certifiers (everyone had to be seated and served within five minutes, the dinner had to last an hour).

At 11 p.m. that night, Pravin Patel, a Guinness adjudicator who flew in from London for the event, ruled that White City Shabbat had established a record. “This is my first time visiting Israel and experiencing a Shabbat dinner,” Patel announced. “It has been officially amazing.”

“The jubilation in the room when Guinness World Records announced the official results was palpable,” White City Shabbat co-director Deborah Danan said in a statement. “We are witnessing the transformation of Tel Aviv as being the new capital for Jews — not just for those with professional impetuses but also for those who want to see the revival in Jewish life continue. Shabbat shouldn’t just be in the domain of the religious.”

Enjoy the video and Shabbat Shalom!

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Comedy Showcase: Introducing Tal Solomon in "How to be an Israeli"

Tal Solomon is a Tel Aviv-based young Israeli stand-up comedian whose shows are presented in Hebrew. But earlier this year he did a round of stand-up sessions in a Tel Aviv hotel in English.

Tal's show is called How to be Israeli. In his one hour program, he explains how a tourist can survive in the Holy Land by learning all of the stereotypical characteristics of Israelis.

Here's a short excerpt from Tal's show, in which he touches on Egypt's pyramid scheme and Israel's expertise in the Olympics.

Enjoy!

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Unexpected Traces in Jewish Places: A Yiddish Parody of "California Dreamin'"

When The Mamas and the Papas recorded California Dreamin' in 1966, we're sure they never expected that 48 years later a Yiddish parody of this classic pop song would appear.

But last week the Jewish People's Philharmonic Chorus posted their rendition of Kalifornyer Kholem on YouTube. The chorus is part of a modern Yiddish renaissance -- more than forty members strong, from students to retirees, a good number of whom speak or are learning Yiddish. 

Their repertoire spans a century -- exciting oratorios and operettas, labor anthems, folksongs, and popular tunes -- all in Yiddish. Committed to strengthening Yiddish as a living language, they have commissioned and premiered new Yiddish choral works by half a dozen composers.

The JPPC shares the rich legacy of Yiddish song by performing year-round for old and young of all faiths at community centers, universities, K-12 schools, museums and places of worship throughout NYC's 4-state region. They have also performed at Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, at Ground Zero and the West Point Military Academy, as well as at the North American Jewish Choral Festival. 

They also annually give a NYC spring concert at Symphony Space, open to the public, with highlights from that season's choral repertoire.

Enjoy!

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If you don't remember the original, here is a little bit of nostalgia:

Lack of Yiddish Translators Leads to Mistrial in New York Bribery Case

As we have said many times, you just can't make this stuff up.

A shortage of Yiddish translators has resulted in a New York judge declaring a mistrial in a bribery and wire fraud case involving Democratic State Senator Malcolm A. Smith, who is alleged to have offered cash to Republican leaders to allow him to run for mayor on the Republican ticket.

So how does Yiddish get farmished (mixed up) in all this? It seems that the defense claims there is evidence contained in 28 hours of wiretapped Yiddish recordings that would prove the innocence of the defendant.

But according to a report in yesterday's Wall Street Journal by Hilary Potkewitz, even the few available Yiddish translators are not able to translate the Hasidic Yiddish dialect spoken by the Satmar Chasidim who figure in this case.

The New York State Unified Court System has one full-time interpreter who speaks Yiddish and Hebrew, and four on-call Yiddish interpreters. The court used a Yiddish translator 37 times in the first half of this year and 83 times in all of 2013, according to David Bookstaver, the system's director of communications.

Rockland County family court had the greatest need for the interpreters, he said, followed by Brooklyn family and supreme courts.

In Mr. Smith's case, "a number of translators we reached out to said the speech wasn't comprehensible to them," said Agata Baczyk, founder of Legal Interpreters LLC.

The recordings involve members of the ultra-Orthodox Satmar sect, a group that tends to speak a form of Yiddish often referred to as "Hasidic Yiddish." It is a speech pattern laced with religious references and Aramaic phrases, explained Prof. Joel Berkowitz, director of the Sam & Helen Stahl Center for Jewish Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

An interpreter who was an Orthodox Jew might have had a better chance understanding the recordings, Mr. Berkowitz said. But the bulk of the translation happened over the weekend, and Orthodox Jews observe the Sabbath.

In Mr. Smith's case, defense attorneys said they needed weeks to analyze the transcripts of the recordings, and too many jurors said they couldn't serve through the delay in the trial. On June 17, the judge declared a mistrial. Mr. Smith, a Democrat, will have another trial beginning in January.

The video below gives a brief summary of the case as jury selection began for the trial.

As the New York Times headlined on June 12, Oy Gevalt!

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A Joke to Start the Week - "Dating Advice From the Rabbi"

Today is the first Monday of summer and it's time for another joke to start the week. We started summer a week early with a trip to the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania where we entertained a group of vacationing seniors with an hour of some of the funniest Jewish Humor Central posts.

We're returning there in August to do a show for another senior group. And next week we'll be at Camp Hazak in the Catskills with two more hours of funny videos (see column at left).

We're not going to tell you that today's joke is a new one, because when is the last time you heard a new Jewish joke? It's an oldie but goodie from the archives of Old Jews Telling Jokes and we hope it will still make you laugh.

Today's joke teller is 65-year-old Marty Adickman, a dentist and keyboardist for "The Alta Rockers."

Here's the setup: It's Friday night in the synagogue, and during the course of the service, the rabbi is standing in the pulpit looking out toward the back of the congregation. In the very back he sees a young man who has his head in his hands for the entire service. He's very concerned about this, and then...

Enjoy!

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Jay Leno Delivers a Funny Monologue in Israel at Bloomberg Award Ceremony

Last month former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg was honored with the first annual Genesis Prize, which has been dubbed "the Jewish Nobel Prize."

The prize included one million dollars, which Bloomberg donated to a global competition with 10 prizes of $100,000 available to entrepreneurs ages 20 to 36 with big ideas based on Jewish values, to better the world.

Comedian Jay Leno, visiting Israel for the first time, was the host of the award ceremony, and delivered a nine minute monologue that skewered politicians in the USA and in Israel, sparing no one.

As David Caspi wrote in The Hollywood Reporter,

Leno's mostly political quips included references to ongoing media reports about the tenuous relationship between President Obama and Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, reminding the audience that May is Jewish American Heritage Month in the U.S., with Obama "calling it an opportunity to renew our ‘unbreakable bond with the nation of Israel.’ And he knows it’s unbreakable, because he’s been trying to break it for the last five years.”

Leno also joked about U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry’s role in trying to broker peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians in recent months, explaining he did some research ahead of his visit: “According to the Central Bureau of Statistics, here in Israel the most popular boys name is Noam. Noam is the most popular boy’s name in the country. The least popular boy's name? John Kerry.”

Leno also familiarized himself with local indicted headline makers for his monologue, taking shots at former Israeli president Moshe Katsav, who is currently serving a seven-year sentence for rape, indecent acts, sexual harassment and obstruction of justice, saying “Israel had some great leaders: David Ben Gurion, Golda Meir, Menachem Begin, Yitzhak Rabin. People were really touched by them. Well, of course, not as many people as were touched by former President Katsav.”

A more recent aim was former prime minister Ehud Olmert, sentenced earlier this month to six years in prison on two counts of bribery. “You guys are tough,” quipped Leno. “You sentenced your former prime minister to six years in prison -- did you hear Olmert’s defense? Not the best strategy. He blamed the whole thing on the Jews.”

Enjoy! 

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Adon Olam - Musical Prodigy Dovid Moskovits Gets His Tefilin in a Music Video

12-year-old Dovid Moskovits was the 2012 winner of the Jewish Star International Music Competition. After the competition, he released a music video of the award-winning song, Adon Olam.

The video captures Dovid on a journey -- spiritual and practical -- to meet the Sofer (scribe) who did the intricate calligraphy on the parchments enclosed in the tefillin.. The story follows Dovid from his house in Kew Garden Hills, NY through the streets of ethnic Williamsburg as he journeys to the Sofer's workshop. The shots of the Sofer working diligently at his task tell the story of an ancient and mystical craft.

The moving film captures the spirit of a 12 year old boy on a quest to achieve manhood and prepare for his Bar Mitzvah. 

Dovid, a yeshiva student in Queens, was born in Jerusalem and has been singing since the age of 3.

Linguists among our readers will notice how Dovid's Hebrew pronunciation changes from Israeli-Sefaradit to Ashkenazis as he walks the Brooklyn streets and back to Sefaradit at the conclusion of the song.

Enjoy!

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Jewish Traces in Unexpected Places: A Hindi Version of Fiddler on the Roof in New Delhi

Parampara! What, you don't speak Hindi? Parampara is Tradition in the Hindi language. As we continue to collect videos of international productions of Fiddler on the Roof in its 50th year, we came across an Indian version of the now classsic production that made its debut in New York City in 1964.

As Ben Frumin reported ont the New Delhi production in an article in the Forward in 2008,

“The character is so universal, he could be an Indian for all that it matters,” said Rakesh Gupta, the 48-year-old civil servant who plays Tevye in the production. The issues facing the play’s protagonist are of enormous importance in India, a nation where most marriages are still arranged, where families commonly save for their entire lives to afford dowries, and where many communities still place taboos on interfaith and intercaste marriages.

“It’s a very Indian thing,” Gupta said. “The problems being faced by Tevye, the problems being faced by the family about traditions, these challenges are faced by all people, all families. It sounded very familiar.”

Enjoy!

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Laugh Until You Cry - A Survey of Jewish American Humor

Laugh until you cry (Lakhn Biz Trern in Yiddish) is the title of a 21-minute- long survey of Jewish American humor produced by Micaela Saperstein, a student at St. Joseph's University in Philadelphia, for a course titled Serious Comedy and Social Justice. 

Since it was posted last December it has been viewed 140 times, but when we spotted it, we thought you'd like to see this funny survey of Jewish American humor and boost the view count.

Using clips from TV shows and films, the video starts with a Neil Diamond excerpt from the film Keeping Up With the Steins and ends with the classic scene from Blazing Saddles with Mel Brooks as an Indian chief reacting in Yiddish to the sight of an African-American wagon train.

Along the way, we see bits by Carl Reiner, Sid Caesar, Joan Rivers, Rodney Dangerfield, Groucho and Harpo Marx, Jack Benny, Victor Borge, Henny Youngman, and Phyllis Diller.

Enjoy!

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Sunshine - A Matisyahu Music Video Showing the Beauty of Israel

Did you know that Israel has its own YouTube channel? We didn't until we discovered it today.

Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs has been collecting short videos that show aspects of the country that would surprise even its regular visitors. 

It's dedicated to promoting diplomatic relations, economic growth and friendship between the State of Israel and the world.

We're adding this collection to our list of sources of fun videos to share with you, our growing family of subscribers. From time to time, we'll include some of them in our mix of jokes, funny incidents, nostalgic memories, satire, musical pleasures, and support for our belief that Israel is a Funny Country.

Matisyahu, the very popular Jewish reggae singer (with or without his beard and Chasidic garb) had a big hit with his song Sunshine. It's been picked up and redone with Israelis from all walks of life singing, dancing, and lip-synching its words as they demonstrate the variety and beauty of Israel, its sites and its people.

Enjoy!

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Seven More Jokes from a Toronto Coffee Shop to Start the Week

For the last few Mondays we've been sharing jokes from Toronto, where Jewish joke telling is very much alive and well. 

We're glad that the Jewish Folks Telling Jokes show was a big success, and also delighted that they had the foresight to capture a few joke telling sessions related to the show.

You asked for more, so here is another video clip with seven jokes. We can't promise that you haven't heard them before, but since there's no such thing as a new Jewish joke, we might as well share this oldies but goodies. They make us laugh whenever we hear them, and we hope you will too.

These Monday joke days have proven to be our most popular posts. If you enjoy them, e-mail a link to our site to your friends and help to spread the laughter around the world.

Enjoy!

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The Forward Reports on a Primer for Yiddish Sex Talk

Most Jews (and some non-Jews) understand and speak a bissel Yiddish (a few Yiddish words and expressions.) 

But it's unlikely that many of those who can pronounce and define kvell, nachas, mensch, and chutzpah also know the Yiddish equivalents of quickie, French kiss, sugar daddy, and one-night stand.

But the Jewish Daily Forward this week reports on the work of someone who knew them, and many, many others as well. It's the Yiddish linguist and lexicographer Mordkhe Schaechter, who collected Yiddish vocabulary on every aspect of human life, including one that has been mostly left out of the lexicography -- sex.

As Jordan Kutzik writes in this week's edition of The Forward describing Dr. Schaechter's work,

He conducted his lexicographic research by working as both a collector and a detective; when he encountered a Yiddish word that interested him, he wrote it down on a note card along with the sentence in which it had been used. Afterward, he put the note card in a box organized by category and filed it alphabetically according to its English translation.

In these boxes, Schaechter would also insert short clippings from articles in English and other languages, using underlined terms and concepts for which he wanted to find (or create) Yiddish equivalents.

All these words, carefully sorted in Schaechter’s files, were written on more than a million note cards. He had planned to publish a dictionary of Yiddish terminology for the 21st century based on his massive lexicographic collection but he did not live to complete the project. The inheritors of his linguistic legacy, led by his daughter Gitl Schaechter-Viswanath, Paul Glasser and Chava Lapin, will soon publish the first edition of this long-awaited dictionary through the League for Yiddish.

Although Schaechter’s note cards will disappoint those looking for the most obscene Yiddish words, they do include numerous Yiddish words and expressions found in Yiddish literature that were excluded by most dictionaries. Two such Yiddish expressions are “tsu zayn a knak in bet” (to be good at sex — literally, “to be a bang in bed”) and “tsushteln a baykhl” (literally, “to deliver a belly”), which Schaechter translated as “to knock up.”

For “French kissing,” Schaechter provides a citation for the curious Yiddish verb “parizeven” (literally, “to Paris”). Other terms for which Schaechter provides a clear citation from a Yiddish source are “libe-feter” (literally, “love-uncle”) for “sugar daddy,” “zi hot farflokhtn a koyletsh” (literally, “She braided a challah”) for what Schaechter translates as “He’s not getting any” and “erotoman” for a sex addict.

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A Comedy Classic: The Hilarious Humor of Yakov Smirnoff

Yakov Smirnoff, the Soviet-born American Jewish comedian, actor and writer, was a big name on the comedy circuit after emigrating to the United States in 1977. When he was born in Odessa, the Ukraine, in 1951, it was still part of the Soviet Union.

He reached the height of his success in the mid-to-late 1980s, when he also appeared in several films and television shows, including his own 1986-87 sitcom, What a Country!. His comic persona was of a naive immigrant from the Soviet Union who was perpetually confused and delighted about life in the United States.

His humor combined a mockery of life under Communism and of consumerism in the United States, as well as word play caused by misunderstanding of American phrases and culture, all punctuated by the catchphrase, "And I thought, 'What a country!'"

The collapse of Communism starting in 1989, and especially the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, brought an end to Smirnoff's widespread popularity, although he continued to perform. In 1992, he bought his own theater in Branson, Missouri, where he still performs and hosts. In the late 1990s, prompted by his own divorce, he retooled his stand-up act to focus on the differences between men and women, and on solving problems within relationships.

Smirnoff is also a professor at Missouri State University and Drury University where he teaches "The Business of Laughter."

We happened to come across Smirnoff's classic stand-up routine while surfing the waves of comedy on the Internet, and, laughing out loud, just had to share it with you. This act was performed at Dangerfied's in New York, with Rodney introducing him.

Enjoy!

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Jewish Traces in Unexpected Places: Fiddler on the Roof's "To Life" in Japanese

They had us at Sharom! The Japanized greeting expressed with a handshake between Tevye and Lazar Wolf in this video signaled that this would be no ordinary production of Fiddler on the Roof.

That's the only word we recognized in the Japanese version of L'Chayim! To Life! from Fiddler on the Roof. We knew that the show had been produced in Hebrew, Yiddish, French, and Spanish, but Japanese? It turns out that cultural similarities made the show resonate with audiences in Japan.

As Miri Ben-Shalom wrote in All About Jewish Theatre News,

Fiddler on the Roof is a timeless hit because it appeals to everyone, everywhere – not only to Jewish audiences. It is reflected in Stewart Lane’s anecdote: “When the first Japanese production of Fiddler was produced, the composers Harnick, Bock and Stein went to Japan. They were all very nervous.

‘How’s a New York interpretive Jewish musical is going to work in Japan? During production they are all anxiously biting their nails. At the end the Japanese producer comes over to them and says: I don’t understand, I don’t know how this piece can work so well in New York. It’s so Japanese!”

Enjoy!

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Jerry Lewis Celebrates 50th Anniversary of "The Nutty Professor"

Jerry Lewis was honored in Hollywood last month on the 50th anniversary of the release of his classic funny film The Nutty Professor. The film is a parody of Robert Louis Stevenson's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

Interviewed on the CBS weekday TV show The Talk, the 88-year-old Lewis revealed the details of the character and script development that went into the film. The 50th anniversary 4-disc DVD set was released last week and is available on Amazon.com and on Netflix.

Lewis, born Joseph Levitch in Newark to Russian Jewish parents, also talked about his secret friendship with President John F. Kennedy and Robert Kennedy. The president hosted him eleven times in the White House without the press knowing that he was there.

On one visit to the Oval Office, Kennedy gave Lewis a plaque for his office containing a motto that he quoted without hesitation on The Talk:

"There are three things that are real: God, human folly, and laughter. Since the first two are beyond our comprehension, you must do the best you can with the third."

Judging from the successes of his long show business career, it would seem that Jerry Lewis listened very carefully to this advice to the delight of audiences everywhere.
 
Enjoy!

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Fiddler on the Roof Turns 50 With Town Hall Celebration

In celebration of the 50th anniversary of Fiddler on the Roof, Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning lyricist Sheldon Harnick was honored last night at New York's Town Hall with the largest-ever reunion of original, revival and film cast members as part of an all-star benefit concert for The National Yiddish Theatre - Folksbiene.

The musical opened on Broadway in 1964. The original cast included Zero Mostel as Tevye the milkman, Maria Karnilova as his wife Golde (each of whom won a Tony for their performances), Beatrice Arthur as Yente the matchmaker, Austin Pendleton as Motel, Bert Convy as Perchik the student revolutionary, Gino Conforti as the fiddler, and Julia Migenes as Hodel. 

Joanna Merlin originated the role of Tzeitel, which was later assumed by Bette Midler during the original run. Carol Sawyer was Fruma Sarah, Adrienne Barbeau took a turn as Hodel, and Pia Zadora played the youngest daughter, Bielke. Both Peg Murray and Dolores Wilson made extended appearances as Golde, while other stage actors who have played Tevye include Herschel Bernardi, Theodore Bikel and Harry Goz (in the original Broadway run), and Leonard Nimoy. 

Mostel's understudy in the original production, Paul Lipson, went on to appear as Tevye in more performances than any other actor, clocking over 2,000 performances in the role in the original run and several revivals. Florence Stanley took over the role of Yente later in the run. The production earned $1,574 for every dollar invested in it.

Last week, Harnick and cast members from the various productions got together to reminisce about their experiences with the show. The following video shows them recalling their favorite lines and lyrics. For a taste of nostalgia, we're also including a video of the opening sequence of the 1971 film starring Chaim Topol as Tevye.

Enjoy!

(A SPECIAL NOTE FOR NEW EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS:  THE VIDEO MAY NOT BE VIEWABLE DIRECTLY FROM THE EMAIL THAT YOU GET EACH DAY ON SOME COMPUTERS AND TABLETS.  YOU MUST CLICK ON THE TITLE AT THE TOP OF THE EMAIL TO REACH THE JEWISH HUMOR CENTRAL WEBSITE, FROM WHICH YOU CLICK ON THE PLAY BUTTON IN THE VIDEO IMAGE TO START THE VIDEO.) 




Opening sequence of the 1971 film version - "Tradition"

Eight Jokes to Start the Week - At Toronto Coffee Shop

Jewish Folks Telling Jokes is the title of a show that was performed in Toronto last month. We've been running multiple jokes from the show for the last couple of weeks and you've been requesting more. 

We're glad to report that we haven't run out of clips from Toronto, so you'll be seeing them for next few weeks. Today's session was filmed on location at an Aroma Espresso Bar in Toronto. 

In today's segment there are eight jokes. We hope you enjoy them and get your week off to a  laughing start.

(A SPECIAL NOTE FOR NEW EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS:  THE VIDEO MAY NOT BE VIEWABLE DIRECTLY FROM THE EMAIL THAT YOU GET EACH DAY ON SOME COMPUTERS AND TABLETS.  YOU MUST CLICK ON THE TITLE AT THE TOP OF THE EMAIL TO REACH THE JEWISH HUMOR CENTRAL WEBSITE, FROM WHICH YOU CLICK ON THE PLAY BUTTON IN THE VIDEO IMAGE TO START THE VIDEO.) 

"Gefilte Fish Chronicles" Documentary Becomes a Musical in New York This Week

Three years ago we reported on a documentary called "The Gefilte Fish Chronicles," a film showing how the Dubroff sisters went about preparing a Passover seder for their very large family. 

The film focuses on  shopping for the perfect fish and meat through the cooking of enormous quantities of gefilte fish, cholent, and matzo brei, and celebrating the seder. It has been shown on PBS in the Pesach season for the last few years and has gotten rave reviews whenever it's shown on TV.

Whether or not you've seen this funny piece of nostalgia, you have another opportunity to see it in a new form, a musical, that was performed last year at the White House in honor of Jewish American Heritage Month. It's coming to New York this week, and will be performed at the JCC in Manhattan on Wednesday evening, June 11, at 8 pm.

As Ted Merwin writes in the current edition of The Jewish Week,

With music and lyrics by Matty Selman, the buoyant show begins in the present and then flashes back to family seders in the 1940s and ’50s. One of the non-Jewish actors, Iris recalled, “never expected the show to pack such an emotional wallop.” Then again, she reflected, “People feel comforted by Jewish tradition; it makes them feel safe. They want to know the recipes, the music, and the stories from the past.”

Here's a preview of the show, with commentary by executive producer Iris Burnett and lyricist Matty Selman.

Enjoy!

(A SPECIAL NOTE FOR NEW EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS:  THE VIDEO MAY NOT BE VIEWABLE DIRECTLY FROM THE EMAIL THAT YOU GET EACH DAY ON SOME COMPUTERS AND TABLETS.  YOU MUST CLICK ON THE TITLE AT THE TOP OF THE EMAIL TO REACH THE JEWISH HUMOR CENTRAL WEBSITE, FROM WHICH YOU CLICK ON THE PLAY BUTTON IN THE VIDEO IMAGE TO START THE VIDEO.)

Politically Incorrect Stand-up Comic Bobby Slayton Joins Comedy for Koby Israel Tour

Bobby Slayton has been performing politically incorrect stand-up comedy for over 30 years. In comedy clubs and on TV shows, he has been know as the "Pit Bull of Comedy" and "Yid Vicious."

This week Slayton is in Israel as one of four comedians performing on stages in Gush Etzion, Raanana, Modiin, Tel Aviv, Beit Shemesh, and Jerusalem in the bi-annual Comedy for Koby tour organized by Los Angeles comedian Avi Liberman. The tour has been operating in Israel since 2002, with new stand-up comedians performing every year.

Comedy for Koby has become a fundraising vehicle to support the Koby Mandell Foundation, which was started in 2001 by Rabbi Seth and Sherri Mandell, the parents of Koby Mandell, who with his friend Yosef Ishran was brutally murdered by terrorists near their home in Israel.  

The foundation provides a Jewish response to the impact of terror and tragedy— helping bereaved mothers, fathers,widows, orphans and siblings re-build their lives, and create meaning out of suffering. 

Programs bridge the isolation children and adults experience after the loss of a loved one.  The emotional, physical, and spiritual healing process in the program engenders a support network for grieving families.

Here's a preview of Slayton's stand-up comedy that will be seen by audiences throughout Israel between June 5 and June 12.

Enjoy!

(A SPECIAL NOTE FOR NEW EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS:  THE VIDEO MAY NOT BE VIEWABLE DIRECTLY FROM THE EMAIL THAT YOU GET EACH DAY ON SOME COMPUTERS AND TABLETS.  YOU MUST CLICK ON THE TITLE AT THE TOP OF THE EMAIL TO REACH THE JEWISH HUMOR CENTRAL WEBSITE, FROM WHICH YOU CLICK ON THE PLAY BUTTON IN THE VIDEO IMAGE TO START THE VIDEO.)  

Comedy Flashback: Buddy Hackett as Lou Costello in "Who's on First" Routine

When the producers of the Abbott and Costello planned the film biography Bud and Lou - Comedy is No Laughing Matter in 1978, they picked two Jewish comedians to play the roles of comedy legends Bud Abbott and Lou Costello. Harvey Korman was cast as Abbott, and Buddy Hackett as Costello.

Hackett and Korman appeared on Dick Clark's Live Wednesday show that year to perform the "Who's on First" routine on the Dick Clark Show. It was a live rendition of the same routine that they did in the film

The "Who's on First" routine is probably the most viewed of all comedy skits. So which version do you think is funnier, the film biography version or the original? We located both versions and we're sharing them below. Take a look and let us know which you think is funnier.

We won't be posting on Wednesday and Thursday because we're taking a couple of days off to observe the holiday of Shavuot, which includes attending a series of lectures all through the first night of the two-day yom tov, and consuming copious quantities of cheesecake to make the learning go down more smoothly.

Enjoy, and we'll see you again on Thursday with the usual mix of jokes, impossible but true anecdotes, and lots more.

(A SPECIAL NOTE FOR NEW EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS:  THE VIDEO MAY NOT BE VIEWABLE DIRECTLY FROM THE EMAIL THAT YOU GET EACH DAY ON SOME COMPUTERS AND TABLETS.  YOU MUST CLICK ON THE TITLE AT THE TOP OF THE EMAIL TO REACH THE JEWISH HUMOR CENTRAL WEBSITE, FROM WHICH YOU CLICK ON THE PLAY BUTTON IN THE VIDEO IMAGE TO START THE VIDEO.)