Hasidic Comedian Yisrael (formerly Christopher) Campbell on Why He Was Circumcised Three Times

Back in October 2009 when we started blogging at Jewish Humor Central, one of our first posts was about Christopher Campbell, a former Catholic who converted to Judaism, changed his name to Yisrael, and went into the stand-up comedy business. We have been following his career and met him briefly while doing research on Jewish humor in Jerusalem last year.

He turned the story of his conversion, especially the three circumsicisons that he underwent, into a one-man show and a documentary which have been performed and shown around the world at Jewish Film Festivals and most recently this month at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland.

When we attended and reported on the Jewish Week's Funniest Comedian contest last month, we were delighted to see that Yisrael was on the program as a guest comedian. With his permission, we will be running a few excerpts from that show over the next few months, starting with today's video clip in which he explains just why he had three circumcisions.

Enjoy!

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