Thursday, June 30, 2011

Aaron Friedman Wins Jewish Week's Funniest Jewish Comedian Contest



The Jewish Week of New York City has been sponsoring Jewish Comedy contests for the past twelve years, and this year was no exception. The competition for Funniest Jewish Comedian was held on four Monday nights this month at the Broadway Comedy Club, with the final round concluding this week.

The event was covered by Amy Spiro in Tuesday's on-line edition of The Jewish Week. Here are some excerpts from her full report:
The first-place winner, 28-year-old Aaron Friedman, mines his years as a Hebrew school teacher and b’nai mitzvah tutor for his act. He lamented the difficulties of being a Jew on Christmas. “We try to convince ourselves Chanukah is better,” he said. “They get one day, we get eight days. They get one day of presents, we get eight days of presents. They get one Xbox, one iPod, we get eight ... pairs of socks.”
But for Friedman, redemption comes on Passover, when Jews eat matzah, “the Costco version of the communion wafer,” he said. “When they see us eating matzah, they must be thinking, ‘your Jewish God must be huge!’”
Friedman, a Philadelphia native who now lives in New York, has been doing comedy for several years, performing at college Hillel houses and participating in sketch comedy troupes both here and in Israel, where he lived for a year while his wife attended rabbinical school. Last year Friedman, along with his friend Andrew Davies, started “The Bible Players,” an improv children’s show covering Jewish topics.
The comedians were judged on three criteria-presentation, orginality and audience response-by David Goldman, Joe Franklin, Gloria Nadel and Geoff Kole, who produced the event. The winner received $175, and second and third place $100 and $50 respectively.
In addition to the competitors, the 75 audience members heard from previous winners Michael Salloway, and Freddy Seltzer, who emceed the night. Dick Capri, co-star of “The Catskills on Broadway” opened the show, and Modi, a prolific Jewish comic, closed the night.
"I only date Jewish girls,” said Modi, “because it is written in the Torah that self torture is mandatory.” But dating Jews can be tough, he said. Non-Jewish girls think it is exciting to date a comic, but Jewish girls, “they say, ‘is that all you do?’”
As for Friedman, he says he would love to pursue stand-up, but “it would be nice to make a living. I would love to fulfill the Jewish stereotype and have some money.”
If you missed out on attending the finals, here's your chance to get a sampling of the content and delivery of some of the contestants. Enjoy!

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