The performers are singer Yifaat Asher and Cantor Randy Herman of the Chizuk Amuno Congregation & Schools in Baltimore, Maryland.
Enjoy, and Shabbat shalom!
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Blanc has been called the first and best voice actor. He made it an art. His career spanned vaudeville, radio, movies and television starting in the late 1920s and continuing to this day, 34 years after his death.
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After a series of theatrical
film shorts, also titled Candid Microphone,
Funt's concept came to television on August 10, 1948, and continued
into the 1970s.
The show involved concealing cameras filming ordinary people being
confronted with unusual situations, sometimes involving trick props,
such as a desk with drawers that pop open when one is closed or a car
with a hidden extra gas tank. When the joke was revealed, victims would
be told the show's catchphrase, "Smile, you're on Candid Camera."
Peter Funt joined the show professionally in 1987 when he became a co-host with his father. During this time the show was being broadcast on the CBS television network. In 1993, Allen Funt had a serious stroke, from which he never fully recovered. This required Peter to host the show full-time.
The show went through a few revivals. During his time on the show Peter was a producer, host and acted on the show. He also produced and hosted over 200 episodes.
In
this classic 2003episode set in a Department of Motor Vehicles office in California, Peter Funt plays the role of a DMV examiner asking people who are applying for their driver's license to identify road signs by their shape. But these are not ordinary road signs.
Enjoy!
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As Robert Berkvist wrote in The New York Times,
“Fiddler on the Roof” was more than a hit show; it was a phenomenon. It won nine Tony Awards, including one for its score. It was made into a hit movie in 1971, has been performed all over the world, and has had five Broadway revivals, most recently in 2015. (A Yiddish-language production was an Off Broadway hit in 2019 and played a return engagement in late 2022.)
In addition to “Matchmaker, Matchmaker,” the score included a number of songs that would soon be regarded as classics, including “Tradition,” “Sunrise, Sunset” and Tevye’s humorously wistful lament “If I Were a Rich Man” (“There would be one long staircase just going up/ And one even longer coming down/ And one more leading nowhere, just for show”).
As a tribute to Sheldon Harnick, we're sharing a video of an on-stage discussion with Jeffrey Lyons during the Florida Holocaust Museum's 2013 To Life event, when Harnick explained how the song If I Were A Rich Man evolved from a Hasidic nigun during the development of Fiddler on the Roof.
Enjoy!
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David Sasso has composed a number of works on Jewish themes. Beyond chamber works from his college years, David has recently composed a choral setting of modern poetry on biblical themes and two setting for soprano and piano of Yiddish poems, including his own Yiddish translation of Wordsworth’s “Daffodils.”
In 2023, David traveled to the island of St. Thomas to participate in a collaboration with local musician and fellow Interlochen Arts Camp alum Gylchris Sprauve, celebrating the many musical heritages of the US Virgin Islands, including David’s own personal ancestry in St. Thomas and his heritage of Sephardic Jewish music.
Also in 2023, David teamed up with Boston-based Jewish bluegrass group, Jacob’s Ladder, to record selections from his bluegrass setting of the traditional Friday night Shabbat liturgy, Sasson v’Simcha - Joy and Delight. This service was dedicated to David’s parents, Rabbis Dennis and Sandy Sasso, and premiered in May 2023 at the retirement celebration of Rabbi Dennis Sasso at Congregation Beth-El Zedeck in Indianapolis.
Enjoy, and Shabbat shalom!
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Enjoy!
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VIDEO.)
The show involved concealed cameras filming ordinary people being confronted with unusual situations, sometimes involving trick props, such as a desk with drawers that pop open when one is closed or a car with a hidden extra gas tank. When the joke was revealed, victims were told the show's catchphrase, "Smile, you're on Candid Camera." The catchphrase became a song with music and lyrics by Sid Ramin.
Today
we're sharing a classic episode from 1963 in which hotel guests were shown to their room when another unexpected "guest" wandered into the room.
Enjoy!
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Gibbs is starring as Sol Krupnick in “Meet Sol Krupnick,” “an on-stage, theatrical, one-man-show” about a “Jewish kibitzer of undetermined (old) age who shares fun stories about his crazy family, tells classic jokes and offers ‘unique’ observations about the world around him.”
Or, in other words, the 70-year-old Jewish grandfather is performing a one-man show as himself.
Gibbs, a longtime congregant at Shir Ami in Newtown who still attends events at the synagogue, opened his show with a recent performance at KleinLife in Northeast Philadelphia. About 200 friends and family members came to show their support. But really, they came to laugh. As Gibbs said of the night, “I portrayed the character; I told the stories and jokes; the audience laughed a lot.”
Gibbs calls himself the “Man of a Thousand Voices.” He does more than 100 celebrity impressions and has worked on more than 40,000 projects worldwide, according to his press release. He partnered with Billy Crystal, Julie Andrews and other celebrities on the “Love the Arts in Philadelphia” campaign to promote the city’s cultural institutions.
Today
we're sharing one of Sol's stories about the time his brother was starting to come out of anaesthesia after a hospital procedure.
Enjoy!
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The event was presented by Capital One City Parks Foundation SummerStage in collaboration with the National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene at the Museum of Jewish Heritage.
During the event, lyrics were projected on a giant screen, and made available on audience cellphones via QR codes, as the singers led the audience in an unprecedented community chorus, joyously celebrating our precious cultural legacy. The event included an unprecedented 4000-voice sing-along, celebrating the launch of YiddishSongs.org, home of The Yosl and Chana Mlotek Yiddish Song Collection.
Here is a video clip of the ensemble singing This Land is Your Land in Yiddish.
Enjoy!
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In 2023, David traveled to the island of St. Thomas to participate in a collaboration with local musician and fellow Interlochen Arts Camp alum Gylchris Sprauve, celebrating the many musical heritages of the US Virgin Islands, including David’s own personal ancestry in St. Thomas and his heritage of Sephardic Jewish music.
Also in 2023, David teamed up with Boston-based Jewish bluegrass group, Jacob’s Ladder, to record selections from his bluegrass setting of the traditional Friday night Shabbat liturgy, Sasson v’Simcha - Joy and Delight. This service was dedicated to David’s parents, Rabbis Dennis and Sandy Sasso, and premiered in May 2023 at the retirement celebration of Rabbi Dennis Sasso at Congregation Beth-El Zedeck in Indianapolis.
Tonight we welcome Shabbat with a Bluegrass version of Lecha Dodi from Jacob's Ladder's latest record.
Enjoy, and Shabbat shalom!
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Nye played the pretentious country-club braggart Gordon Hathaway, with his catchphrase, "Hi-ho, Steverino," that made him one of the favorites on Allen's show.
Louis Nye was born Louis Neistat in Hartford, Connecticut in 1914. Nye's parents were both Yiddish speaking Jews from the Russian Empire. Nye attended Weaver High School, but he was not a good student. "My marks were so low," he explained, "that they wouldn't let me in the drama club. So I went down to WTIC Radio, auditioned, and got on a show."
Here is a Man on the Street video clip from 1956. Enjoy!
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Candid Camera was a popular and long-running American hidden camera reality television series. Versions of the show appeared on television from 1948 until 2014. Originally created and produced by Allen Funt, it often featured practical jokes, and initially began on radio as The Candid Microphone on June 28, 1947.
The show involved concealed cameras filming ordinary people being confronted with unusual situations, sometimes involving trick props, such as a desk with drawers that pop open when one is closed or a car with a hidden extra gas tank. When the joke was revealed, victims were told the show's catchphrase, "Smile, you're on Candid Camera." The catchphrase became a song with music and lyrics by Sid Ramin.
Today
we're sharing a classic episode from 1965 in which comedian Joey Faye played the part of a golf caddy with an bad cold that made him sneeze loudly just as the golfer was about to take a swing.
Enjoy!
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Enjoy!
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Marshal (Mickey) Greenblatt received degrees from Columbia (BA and BS in Flight Sciences), a DC from Von Karman Institute (1963) and his PhD from Princeton in Aerospace Sciences. e worked as a researcher for NASA and the Naval Research Laboratory.
With four other scientists, he founded Fusion Systems Corporation, which invented microwave-powered UV lamps for drying coatings. He founded and served on the boards of technology companies and is active in volunteer work. He served on the executive committee of the Jewish Council for the Aging of Greater Washington for many years.
Mickey
also loves Jewish jokes and sent us this one to share with you. Here's
the setup: Harry and Philip were the ten-year-old Kronheimer twins. These twins were always getting into trouble. They drove everybody crazy. Finally their mother Shoshana decided to take the two kids to Rabbi Kaplan. And then...
Enjoy!
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The Mark Twain Prize recognizes people who have had an impact on American society in ways similar to the distinguished 19th century novelist and essayist best known as Mark Twain. As a social commentator, satirist and creator of memorable characters, Samuel Clemens was a fearless observer of society, who startled and outraged many while delighting and informing many more with his uncompromising perspective of social injustice and personal folly. He revealed the great truth of humor when he said "against the assault of laughter nothing can stand."
Billy delivered a memorable speech in which he used his impeccable sense of humor to express gratitude for the honor and also to give some insight into his personal life and special thanks to his wife and daughters.
Enjoy!
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Enjoy!
(A
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VIDEO IMAGE TO START THE VIDEO.)
Born Jacob Rodney Cohen on Long Island, Dangerfield (he took the name from a character in a skit on the Jack Benny Show) had a career that went beyond standup comedy to the movies and to his own comedy club, Dangerfield's, in Manhattan.
Here's Rodney delivering one of his classic routines on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1969.
Enjoy!
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Best known for his singing career with three of his brothers as The Ames Brothers, and his acting in the role of Mingo, a Cherokee tribesman in the TV series Daniel Boone, Ames was a committed Zionist and president of the California chapter of the Zionist Organization of America.
Ames also became known as an unintentional mohel after a guest appearance on the Johnny Carson Show.
As Dennis Hevesi wrote in The New York Times,
Mr. Ames played Mingo for the first four of the show’s six seasons, from 1964 to 1968. But his most memorable moment during those years did not come on “Daniel Boone.” It happened on April 29, 1965, when he was Johnny Carson’s guest on “The Tonight Show.”
In a segment that soon became a staple of “Tonight Show” highlight reels, Mr. Ames set out to teach Mr. Carson how to toss a tomahawk, using a rudimentary drawing of a sheriff on a wooden panel as his target. He threw the tomahawk across the stage. When it embedded precisely in the sheriff’s crotch, the audience reacted with loud, sustained laughter.
Mr. Ames tried to retrieve the tomahawk, but Mr. Carson grabbed his arm. As another roar of laughter subsided, Mr. Carson looked at Mr. Ames and said, “I didn’t even know you were Jewish.”
He was.
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Today we're sharing a video clip of Gold's appearance with James Corden on The Late Late Show where he performs for the Stage 56 audience. Topics include being a dad to teenagers, trying to take his kid to the doctor during the pandemic, and why everyone the past few years seems to be either asymptomatic or anti-Semitic.
Gibbs is starring as Sol Krupnick in “Meet Sol Krupnick,” “an on-stage, theatrical, one-man-show” about a “Jewish kibitzer of undetermined (old) age who shares fun stories about his crazy family, tells classic jokes and offers ‘unique’ observations about the world around him.”
Or, in other words, the 70-year-old Jewish grandfather is performing a one-man show as himself.
Gibbs, a longtime congregant at Shir Ami in Newtown who still attends events at the synagogue, opened his show with a recent performance at KleinLife in Northeast Philadelphia. About 200 friends and family members came to show their support. But really, they came to laugh. As Gibbs said of the night, “I portrayed the character; I told the stories and jokes; the audience laughed a lot.”
Gibbs calls himself the “Man of a Thousand Voices.” He does more than 100 celebrity impressions and has worked on more than 40,000 projects worldwide, according to his press release. He partnered with Billy Crystal, Julie Andrews and other celebrities on the “Love the Arts in Philadelphia” campaign to promote the city’s cultural institutions.
Today
we're sharing one of Sol's stories about the time his friend Sammy was sitting on the porch of his apartment in Boca Raton and saw a cloud of dust coming towards him. And then...
Enjoy!
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