Comedy Showcase: Rabbi Bob Alper Headlines Comedy Show at Borscht Belt Festival

The Borscht Belt Festival in Ellenville, New York, is in its third year. Last weekend, Catskills fans from all over descended on the festival at the Borscht Belt Museum for a dose of nostalgia, Jewish comedy, and classic Jewish food as it was served in the hotels of Sullivan and Ulster Counties.

Entertainment for the weekend featured standup comedy headlined by 80-year-old Rabbi Bob Alper who has been performing standup for more than 30 years in addition to his rabbinical duties in Philadelphia and Vermont, where he lives.

In this excerpt from his comedy routine, Rabbi Bob reminisces about his first pulpit and the funny encounters he had with children when he was first ordained in Buffalo and teaching in Hebrew school.

Enjoy!

Borscht Belt Street Festival Comes to Ellenville in the Catskills

Hundreds of visitors poured into the Borscht Belt Museum in Ellenville last weekend for a trip down memory lane highlighting hotels, food, culture, and comedy beloved by generations of Jewish families. 

Jeff Fox used to live in Loch Sheldrake and the museum brings back many memories for the resident who now lives on Long Island. “I think it's great. A lot of memorabilia. Love the signs. I remember them all. There’s great memories and food outside at the fair,” said Fox. 

Museum-goers spilled out onto Canal Street to sample a two-day celebration of Jewish food and culture including the star of the show-- Borscht--a creamy, slightly sour soup made from beetroot. “It's like the ultimate comfort food, but it's also healthy. Like you feel better after you eat it. Like it's like my grandma would make it, but it's not like fried food. Like, it's delicious, but also comforting,” said Kathryn Levy of Brooklyn.

Throwback Thursday Comedy Special: Jerry Lewis Reminisces About His Days as a Borscht Belt Busboy

Jerry Lewis' gift of comedy lasted about 85 years, from his stage debut at age 5 in the Catskills until his death in 2017. Over the years we have posted video clips of some of his best shtick. But Jerry also left behind a collection of interviews in which he reminisces about parts of his career that aren't widely known.

On October 27, 2000, Jerry was interviewed by Sam Denoff in San Diego, California. In this excerpt, he talks about the Borscht Belt, working as a busboy at Brown's Hotel, and how it launched him into the world of comedy and entertainment. 

Enjoy!

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  #Throwback Thursday     #TBT

From the Catskills to TV: A Nostalgic Look-Back at Lou Goldstein and His "Simon Says" Game

 

If you spent any time in the Catskill Mountains of New York back in the twentieth century, especially if you were lucky to be at the Grossingers Hotel in Liberty, you must remember the Simon Says game that Lou Goldstein played with guests almost every day during the summer season.

 

Born in Poland in 1921, Goldstein performed his shtick at Grossingers from 1948-1986. He also did the half-time shows for NBA teams all over the country. Likewise the NHL and baseball games all featured his nationally known "Simon Says". He enjoyed doing these shows at all the Catskills Resorts, including the Pines, Concord, Nevele, Paramount, Granit, Swan Lake, and the Raleigh. 

 

Later, Goldstein brought the game to television and the ABC show Superstars. It was amazing to see how quickly he took control of the audience and used his rapid-fire instructions to get most of the players out.

We enjoyed watching this bit of nostalgia from the Borscht Belt era and hope that you will too.

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The Concord and Grossinger's Are On Their Way to Reopening in the Catskills

Artist's Rendering of the New Resorts World in Kiamesha Lake

The glory days of' the Borscht Belt and the Catskill Hotels in New York came to a sad end in the 1980s. Now, 30 years later, signs of hope are beginning to appear.

Current plans don't envision the return of the Concord and Grossinger's Hotels as the kosher getaways that flourished from the 1940s to the 1980s, but activity is picking up on the site of both hotels.

Construction of a new Resorts World casino hotel on the site of The Concord in Kiamesha Lake is well underway with a planned opening in March 2018. Meanwhile, 13 miles away in Liberty, the sleeping giant of Grossinger's is stirring, crumbling buildings and all.

As Sarah Maslin Nir reported in The New York Times last week,

In the spring, Louis R. Cappelli, a Westchester-based real estate developer who has owned the complex for two decades, applied to the State Department of Environmental Conservation requesting that a portion of the property be designated a brownfield, or contaminated site. The former resort is now a hodgepodge of scores of crumbling buildings on hundreds of acres, land he says is laden with chemicals spilled by dry-cleaning and machine repair shops. Such a designation would make the property eligible for state funds to help with remediation of the soil and groundwater, a necessary first step, Mr. Cappelli says, to bring back the world-class resort.

Mr. Cappelli, who bought the place in 1999, more than a decade after the Grossinger family had ceased operations, envisions a grand future: a conference center, housing, spa and chalet-style lodging. It is a bet that piggybacks on the crowds that he hopes will come to the Resorts World Casino, a $750 million complex opening next year in another former borscht belt destination, the Concord Resort Hotel in nearby Kiamesha Lake.

Here are two videos, one depicting the high hopes of area residents when the casino license was awarded to the hotel being built on the Concord property, and another report from a local TV station on the current state of the Grossinger's property.

Here's hoping!

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Throwback Thursday Comedy Special: Mal Z. Lawrence on Atlantic City, Florida, and the Catskills

Mal Z. Lawrence probably holds the record for most stand-up comedy routines performed in Catskills hotels. When the hotels started to disappear, Mal simply moved his shtick to the casino hotels of Atlantic City and the playhouses of Century Village and other residential communities in Florida.

And as old as the jokes are, and no matter how many times the audiences heard them, they still laugh their heads off when Mal strides onto the stage and starts his delivery.

We featured Mal back in 2010 doing a few minutes of his routine on a stage in Florida and in a 2013 performance in Los Angeles. We think it's time to bring him back in a longer version of his act for our readers who have been asking for more of him and for our newer and younger readers who are not familiar with his humor. This video is a 25 minute performance on stage in Atlantic City. 

The secret of Mal's popularity is his uncanny sense of timing, irony, and exaggeration. The subjects covered in this routine include hotels and buses in Atlantic City, and the bountiful food of the Catskill hotels.

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.)


 
#Throwback Thursday #TBT  

Robert De Niro Tells Standup Jokes to Promote Catskills

Actor Robert De Niro has a home in New York's Catskill Mountains, and last month he joined New York Governor Andrew Cuomo in promoting tourism in the region that gave birth to standup comedy.

As Jon Campbell wrote for the Gannett Newspapers,

The actor used his time to launch into a Borscht Belt-era comedy routine, delivering a series of one-liners in tribute to comedians like Rodney Dangerfield and Joan Rivers who used to headline lavish Catskill resorts that are now largely out of business.

"OK," De Niro said as he took the podium. "So a man goes to a psychiatrist. The doctor says, 'You're crazy.' The man says, 'I want a second opinion.' The doctor says, 'OK, you're ugly, too.'"

De Niro, who has previously lent his voice to a series of New York tourism advertisements, spoke fondly of the Catskills, calling it his "unspoiled paradise."

In a few minutes, De Niro retold 11 jokes that have been told by most of the famous Jewish comedians. We're sure you've heard them all, but it's always good to hear them again.

Enjoy!

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The Great Jewish Comedians: Freddie Roman, King of the Catskills

Freddie Roman has had a long successful career as a stand-up comedian in the Catskills and in Las Vegas. He has been the Dean of the Friars Club for more than 20 years.

Roman was born Fred Kirschenbaum in Jamaica Queens, New York in 1937. He got his start in the Borscht Belt after working in his father's shoe store and then sold life insurance for a few years before making comedy his full-time job.

Starting out as social director at the Homowack Lodge in Spring Glen, New York, worked his way through the Catskill mountain resorts and got to know all of the comedians who performed in the hundreds of hotels situated 90 miles from New York City.

We met Freddie last June at the finals for The Jewish Week's Funniest Comedian contest and had a delightful conversation about his stand-up routines and his role in the recent documentary Welcome to Kutsher's.

He is still active and is now appearing in the Amazon Prime sitcom series Red Oaks, together with Jennifer Grey, Paul Reiser, and Richard Kind.

Here's a great example of the stand-up comedy that Freddie Roman has been performing for more than 55 years.

Enjoy!


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Revisiting the Borscht Belt - A Nostalgic Return to the Cradle of Jewish Humor

(A note to our readers: We were invited to submit a guest post about the Borscht Belt on the website of the Israel Forever Foundation. It's an engagement organization that develops and promotes experiential learning opportunities to celebrate and strengthen the personal connection to Israel as an integral part of Jewish life and identity. Here's the complete article, including two video clips, that was posted yesterday at Israel Forever.) 
 

Have You Ever Visited the Borscht Belt?

by Al Kustanowitz

Just as Israel has been called the cradle of world civilization, Sullivan County, a quiet rural area in upstate New York, has earned its reputation as the cradle of Jewish humor.

Sullivan County (and part of Ulster County) are the location of the Catskill Mountains, in whose rolling hills and valleys scores of resort hotels were built in the first half of the twentieth century.

These hotels, catering to Northeastern Jews hungry for fresh, cool air and bountiful portions of traditional Jewish cuisine, flocked to the hotels for recreation, entertainment, comedy, and unlimited portions of brisket, kugel, herring, gefilte fish, and borscht. This classic soup, served hot or cold, with sour cream at dairy meals or with meatballs at meat meals, is the source of the name that describes the summer scene in the mountains – The Borscht Belt.

The names of the hotels are now legendary – Grossingers, The Concord, Kutsher’s, The Granit, The Pines, Homowack Lodge, The Nevele, Brickman’s, Brown’s, The Fallsview, and others too numerous to mention. Kutsher’s was the longest lasting of the group, succumbing to a lack of interest by a younger generation more inclined to travel abroad. It lasted until its 100th anniversary year, and was the subject of a nostalgic film about it and its peers. Welcome to Kutsher’s was released last year. Here is the trailer for the film, which is still being shown at Jewish film festivals:


 
The food served at all of the Catskills hotels was legendary. At breakfast, lunch, dinner, and between meals in the tea room, guests would order everything on the menu and the waiters would accommodate every request. Guests, sometimes embarrassed at ordering so many portions of food would ask for multiple main courses as “a side of stuffed cabbage” or “a side of brisket” and the waiter would bring trays loaded with full main courses for each of the “sides” requested. Since all food was included in the cost of the room, the cost of each dish was never a concern.

Here are breakfast, lunch, and dinner menus from The Concord, Grossinger’s, and Kutsher’s to give you an idea of how many dishes were consumed on a typical day. Just note the five different types of herring and two types of sardines offered as breakfast appetizers.

Most of the hotels are gone now, along with most of the generation that clogged the highways all summer long en route to the resort hotels. But what remains is the comedy and the comedians who started out as waiters, busboys, and tummlers (slapstick entertainers) and made their way to become the most famous funny men and women of films and television. Almost all of them were Jewish.

The list is very long: Milton Berle, George Burns, Sid Caesar, Red Buttons, Danny Kaye, Jerry Lewis, Joey Adams, Shelley Berman, Joey Bishop, Fanny Brice, Carl Reiner, Mel Brooks, Eddie Cantor, Jack Carter, Myron Cohen, Irwin Corey, Billy Crystal, Bill Dana, Rodney Dangerfield, Phyllis Diller, Totie Fields, Buddy Hackett, Mickey Katz, George Jessel, Alan King, Alan Sherman, Phil Silvers, Henny Youngman, Jonathan Winters, Freddie Roman, etc, etc, etc.

The rise and fall of the Borscht Belt hotels was chronicled in a CBS Sunday morning segment that you can watch below:


 
The Catskills are trying to make a comeback as a resort destination with the old hotel sites being rebuilt as spas, golf clubs, and casino resorts, but without the kosher food and amenities that attracted a generation of Jewish guests.

If you visit the Borscht Belt today, you’ll find two of the old hotels that have been converted to corporate retreats, a few spas under construction, and many bungalow colonies populated by Orthodox and Haredi families.

But if you’re nostalgic for an all-inclusive vacation with unlimited food, you’ll find it in the hotels all over Israel. Instead of ordering lots of “side dishes” from a menu and being served by a waiter, you’ll have to serve yourself from the bountiful buffets served around the clock. It may not be the Borscht Belt, but the Shakshuka Belt can be just as delightful.

Al Kustanowitz founded Jewish Humor Central in 2009, to bring a daily dose of fun and merriment to readers who would otherwise start the day reading news that is often drab, dreary, and depressing. In 2012, Al wrote a series of seven interactive books with the series title Jewish Humor on Your Desktop. Israel is a Funny Country, now in an expanded second edition, is one of the books in the series. For more info, click HERE or send an email by clicking HERE.

The Flagler Hotel: Following the Borscht Belt Trail from Palm Beach to South Fallsburg

We just returned from a month of Jewish humor lectures and programs in South Florida, which included visiting local tourist attractions. 

One of the picturesque sites that we enjoyed was the Flagler Museum in Palm Beach, which once housed a hotel. It was the home of Henry Morrison Flagler, one of the richest men in America, who with John D. Rockefeller, founded the Standard Oil Company.

Our curiosity was piqued by a recollection that before Grossinger's, the Concord, and Kutsher's, there was a Flagler Hotel in South Fallsburg, New York, at the center of the Borscht Belt. Could there be a connection between Flagler's hotel building spree in Florida and one of the first Catskills hotels?

It didn't take much Googling to discover that there was indeed a connection. Although Flagler did not build the Catskills hotel, his Florida properties were the inspiration for the design of the first lavish resort that kept Jewish vacationers happy for many summers.

After Kutsher's, the last of the kosher Catskills hotels, was demolished last year to make way for a new spa hotel, and documented in Welcome to Kutsher's, a film now playing nationwide, we thought that anyone who treasures Catskills memories would enjoy this video explaining the Palm Beach - South Fallsburg connection.

Enjoy!

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Remembering Van Harris, Veteran Borscht Belt Comedian at the Pine View Hotel

Catskills comedy lovers lost another one of their favorites last Friday when comedian Van Harris died at the age of 88. 

Harris, who performed at many Borscht Belt hotels, was social director and resident comedian at the Pine View Hotel in Fallsburg for many years.

As Jay Levin reported in The Record, 

Manuel Harris was born in Brooklyn to Yiddish-speaking parents, a housewife and a beverage deliveryman. He graduated from Thomas Jefferson High School and entered show business around 1945. By then he was set to marry Shirley Vinitzky. They met as youngsters and had their first date in Coney Island, on the Cyclone roller coaster.

His family said Mr. Harris' decision to put family before career cost him a wider audience. But that decision kept the family close. Every summer, Van and Shirley and their four children relocated to the Catskills from their home on Merrison Street in Teaneck, New Jersey.

"He was one of the last guys working the Catskills," said the couple's son, Andrew.

Mr. Harris found new venues after the Borscht Belt dried up. His last gig was two years ago at an adult community in Florida.

Besides his work in the Catskills, Harris appeared in nightclubs, hotels, and cabarets in New York City, Miami Beach, Atlantic City, Lakewood and elsewhere, and benefit performances in North Jersey and beyond.

He also performed on The Ed Sullvan Show and Johnny Carson's Tonight Show. Here is the only video clip we could find of his comedy, in an appearance on the Tonight Show in the early 1960s.

Enjoy!

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"When Comedy Went to School" Hits Florida Theaters This Weekend

DELRAY BEACH, FLORIDA, Feb. 12 --We've been following the 77 minute documentary When Comedy Went to School from the time its first showing was announced, and we attended the premiere in New York last July 30. 

Now, as we're finishing up a ten-day tour doing Jewish humor shows and lectures in South Florida we found notices in the Sun-Sentinel, the local newspaper, that the limited release film is finally coming this weekend to Boca Raton, Delray Beach, Fort Lauderdale, Lake Worth, and Aventura.

We recommend the film, narrated by comedian Robert Klein, and feauring interviews with Jerry Lewis, Sid Caesar, Jackie Mason, Mort Sahl, Dick Gregory, Jerry Stiller and others. It's a must see for anyone who treasures memories of the Catskills and its comedy lineups.

The Jewish population of South Florida has been growing rapidly, and according to an article in The Jewish Daily Forward, it's now America’s third-largest Jewish metro area behind only New York and Los Angeles. If you add in the smaller Jewish communities elsewhere in Florida, one of every 10 American Jews resides in the Sunshine State

Many Jewish Humor Central readers live in Broward, Palm Beach, and Dade counties and have been eagerly awaiting the film's release here. So Florida readers, here's your chance to see it. Following the trailer is a list of the theaters in the area and links to their websites.

Enjoy!

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Movies of Lake Worth

Lake Worth

FL

starts 2/14 +

Movies of Delray

Delray Beach

FL

starts 2/14 +

Regal Shadowood

Boca Raton

FL

starts 2/14 +

Livingroom Theaters

Boca Raton

FL

starts 2/14 +

Gateway 4

Ft. Lauderdale

FL

starts 2/14 +

AMC Aventura

Aventura

FL

starts 2/14 +

"O" Cinema

Miami Shores

FL

starts 2/14 +

Kutsher's Comedians Revisited: Sid Caesar Eats at a Health Food Restaurant

Last month we wrote about the sale of Kutsher's Country Club in the Catskills, and lamented its decline as a center of Jewish comedy. 
We promised to feature a series of nostalgic videos of the many comedians who either got their start there or visited repeatedly after achieving comedic fame on radio and television. 

Sid Caesar, who later became famous for his weekly Your Show of Shows, and who recently celebrated his 91st birthday, made his first Catskills appearance on the stage at Kutsher's.

Caesar is a master of comedy and together with his colleagues Carl Reiner, Imogene Coca, and Howard Morris, produced and acted in some of the funniest skits shown on TV.

Here's a gem from the old days, in which Caesar and his wife, played by Coca, enter a health food restaurant. Caesar, a meat eater, is perplexed by the vegetarian choices suggested by Reiner in the role of the waiter. This sketch was shown in the days when vegetarian restaurants were uncommon, and the encounter between carnivore and flower patch gets funnier every minute.

Enjoy!

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A Joke to Start the Week - "A Mynah Bird for Mother"

Another Monday. Another Joke to Start the Week. Another trip back to Kutsher's Resort in Monticello, New York, the Borscht Belt, the Catskills, where we recorded a lot of Jews telling their favorite jokes in the lobby between meals this summer.

We could use some more jokes and jokers for the coming months, so if you're interesting in bringing our shows to your synagogue or club, just invite us for a comedy evening or comedy brunch. We'll be there with one or more of our hour-long romps through the funniest Jewish videos on the Internet, and bring along a video camera and tripod to record your funniest jokes. For more information, use the contact form in the left column of this page.

Today we're bringing back 80-year-old Sheldon Horowitz, the retired attorney and adjunct professor, to tell his joke for this week.

Here's the setup: There are three Jewish brothers. One of them is a successful doctor, one of them is a successful lawyer, and the third guy runs a delicatessen. He's not so successful. Their mother is down in Florida and her birthday is coming up. So...

Enjoy!

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CBS Sunday Morning Celebrates the Catskills and Jewish Humor

A few months ago, the weekly CBS television news magazine Sunday Morning had a funny and poignant report on the Rise and Fall of the Borscht Belt. We usually watch the show every week but somehow missed this one. So we were delighted to find the segment on YouTube and wanted to share it with our joke-loving and Catskills-loving readers.

In the segment, Richard Schlesinger of 48 Hours reports on the Catskills phenomenon. Comedian Stewie Stone reminisces about his days at Grossingers, the Concord, and Kutsher's. Photos of the hotels in their heyday are shown followed by views of the now empty land where they once stood. Of all the hotels, only Kutsher's survived, and its owner Milton Kutsher recalls the old days when Wilt Chamberlain was hired as a bellhop before he became famous as a basketball player.

The segment highlights a revival of the jokes as performed in the New York off-Broadway show Old Jews Telling Jokes, which recently ended its long run and moved on to Chicago. You can't do a report like this without showing the jokes, and if you watch the video you'll get eight of them at no extra charge.

Enjoy!

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Live, From the Catskills...It's Jeff Krolick at the Keyboard

The Catskills may not be as active as they were in their heyday, but that's not stopping the surviving hotel from entertaining its guests with lively shows. We're talking about Kutsher's Resort, which seems to be the only hotel left still operating as it did years ago, although on a somewhat smaller scale.

On Wednesday night we performed our sixth show of the summer at Kutsher's, bringing the jokes and funny videos of Jewish Humor Central to the audience in the Stardust nightclub. We shared the big stage with Jeff Krolick, a veteran performer with many years of Catskills entertainment behind him.

In addition to the 9pm to midnight entertainment, the daily activities sheet for Wednesday included Aerobics, Arts & Crafts, Pilates, Line and Folk Dancing, Tai Chi, Musical Quiz, Jewelry Making, Chair Yoga, lectures on parenting and Jewish topics, as well as Daf Yomi, Shacharit, Mincha, Maariv, and of course, three meals.

Jeff spent many years as the musical director and entertainment director at the Nevele Hotel in Ellenville, which closed its doors in 2009.

You may have seen him in Florida, in the Poconos, or performing with renowned singers. If not, you have probably heard his music performed by dozens of other talented artists for whom he has arranged and written unique works. Last night, he showed how to create a musical arrangement, and played his condensed version of Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue and a medley of Yiddish and Hebrew songs.

Here is a sampling of what Jeff has been bringing to the Catskills.

Enjoy, and Shabbat shalom!

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Comedy Classic: Rodney Dangerfield Stand-Up 40 Years Ago

Rodney Dangerfield was an American comedian and actor, known for the catchphrase "I don't get no respect!" and his monologues on that theme. He is also remembered for his 1980s film roles, especially in Easy Money, Caddyshack, and Back to School.

It's hard to believe, but it's true that it's been 40 years since Rodney delivered a stand-up routine on the Dean Martin Show.

In this episode, Rodney delivers most of his famous comedy lines.

Enjoy!

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A Catskills Oldie But Goodie: Jay Jason, the Comedian's Comedian

If you were a guest (or waiter or busboy) at the Concord, Grossinger's, Nevele, Kutsher's, Raleigh, Pines, the Laurels, the Granit, or Tamarack Lodge during the 1950's to 1990's, you probably saw Jay Jayson entertaining on the big stage in the hotel nightclubs.

Jason, who changed his name from Jonas Levy after spending two years at the University of Rochester, became a regular comedian at all the big Catskills hotels. Jason's humor had self-deprecating aspects, and all subjects were grist for his comedy routines. 

He also impersonated celebrities such as Alfred Hitchcock, Jackie Mason, Jack Benny, Maurice Chevalier, Rudolph Valentino, Jimmy Stewart, the Hunchback of Notre Dame, Arthur Godfrey, and Franklin Roosevelt, and he also did voice-overs for cartoon characters.

In this 12 minute segment from his 90 minute routine, we see Jason in folksy conversation with the band leader, showing his talent as a ventriloquist, delivering some classic jokes and one-liners, and doing some of his impersonations, including Jackie Mason and Jack Benny.

Enjoy!

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A Joke to Start the Week: "The Revival Meeting"

Another Monday, another joke to help start the week off with a laugh. 

Here in the northeast US, we're happy just to have normal weather back after a blistering heat wave that ended yesterday. But we're even happier to share a joke that we recorded up in Kutsher's in New York's Catskill mountains a few weeks ago.

Today's jokester is 82-year-old retired businessman Sy Harnik. After our performance in Kutsher's Stardust nightclub, we heard Sy telling jokes to friends in the lobby. So we invited him into a quiet corner and videotaped his delivery of this joke.

Here's the setup: There's a revival meeting on the top of a mountain. And everybody was whipped up in a frenzy. And the fellow who was in charge said...

Enjoy!


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Comedy Classic: Sid Caesar and Nanette Fabray Act Out Argument to Beethoven's 5th Symphony

Sid Caesar got his start in the Catskill Mountains in 1936 at the age of 14 as a saxophone player. While playing in the dance band at the Vacationland Hotel in Swan Lake, he appeared in sketches and learned the art of comedy.

In 1954, on the TV show Caesar's Hour, Sid performed a classic routine with Nanette Fabray known as "Argument to Beethoven's 5th" in which they pantomime the argument of a married couple. 

They provide the action in complete silence in synchronization with the soaring music of the first movement of Beethoven's famous symphony.

Watch it a few times and it will forever change the way you listen to this symphony.

Enjoy!

(A SPECIAL NOTE FOR NEW EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS:  THE VIDEO IS NOT VIEWABLE DIRECTLY FROM THE EMAIL THAT YOU GET EACH DAY.  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.)