Remembering Ed Ames: Singer, Actor, Ardent Zionist, and Inadvertent Mohel on Johnny Carson Show

Ed Ames, the singer, actor, and ardent Zionist, died in Los Angeles on May 21 at the age of 95.

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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Throwback Thursday Comedy Showcase: Dennis Wolfberg and "The Double Bris"

In the 1980s, stand-up comedian Dennis Wolfberg headlined at comedy clubs across the country as well as working in Las Vegas and Atlantic City on a regular basis. He was twice named America's top male comic in votes by clubgoers and owners nationwide. In 1990 he won an American Comedy Award as best male standup.

Wolfberg appeared twice on The Tonight Show. In addition, he was a frequent guest on The Merv Griffin Show, The Pat Sajak Show and The Arsenio Hall Show. He starred in his own half-hour comedy special on HBO in 1990.

His talented comedy career was cut short when he died of melanoma in 1994, at the age of 48. Though he battled cancer for at least two years, he continued to work through the end of August 1994. At the time of his death, he was negotiating a deal for his own TV show.

We're lucky to have some of his routines that were captured on video and posted on YouTube. Here is one of his appearances at Comic Strip Live in which he describes in graphic detail the bris of his twin sons who were born seven weeks before his performance.

Enjoy!

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#Throwback Thursday    #TBT

House Speaker Paul Ryan Discovers His Jewish Roots; Stephen Colbert Offers Him Bris

While participating in the taping of an upcoming episode of the PBS show Finding Your Roots, House Speaker Paul Ryan found out that genetic testing confirmed that he is 3% Jewish.

As CNN reported,

The show's host, Henry Louis Gates Jr., shared the Wisconsin Republican's reaction to discovering his roots during a panel on Tuesday.

"You could have knocked him over with a feather and then he was very proud of it," Gates, who also serves as an executive producer on the show, said during the Television Critics Association press tour in Los Angeles. 

A publicist for the show confirmed Gates' comments during the panel, and Ryan's upcoming appearance on the show, in an email to CNN.

"We don't know who that Jewish person was, but we know it was on his mother's German line, which makes sense," Gates continued. "So somebody who was a Christian German slept with a Jewish German person and that's where that came from."

In a tweet on Wednesday, Ryan, who is Catholic, seemingly hinted at finding out about his roots.

 "Guess I need to start saying 'L'Chaim' now, too!" he tweeted, attaching a GIF of himself holding up a drink. He did not reference the show itself in the social media post.

Late night talk show host Stephen Colbert rushed in to offer Ryan a "Bris-Stravaganza" with mohels standing by. Here's the Colbert video clip. Enjoy!

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Throwback Thursday Comedy Special: SNL Commercial for Car Smooth Enough for a Bris

On this Throwback Thursday we're sharing one of our favorite Saturday Night Live commercial parodies, the one for the 1978 Royal Deluxe II luxury car with a ride so smooth, a rabbi could perform a circumcision in the back seat. 

Well, we found the video, featuring Dan Ackroyd and Gilda Radner, with Garret Morris as the driver, and you'll see it below.

Enjoy, and Mazal Tov to all!

(We apologize for the short commercial that precedes the fake SNL commercial, but that's the only way we could show you the video.)

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#Throwback Thursday  #TBT

Throwback Thursday Sitcom Showcase: Seinfeld and the Mohel

In one of the few explicitly Jewish episodes of the Seinfeld sitcom, Elaine and Jerry help friends find a mohel to perform a bris on their newborn son.

When the mohel shows up at the apartment, he's not exactly what they expect. In fact, he's eccentric, somewhat shaky, and manages to cut Jerry's finger in the process.

Here's a compilation of clips from within the episode. Enjoy!

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Comedy Flashback - Singer Ed Ames Performs a "Bris" on The Johnny Carson Show

Ed Ames, the lead singer of The Ames Brothers, was a pop star back in the 1950s. Together with three of his brothers, his top hits included Rag Mop, You You You, It Only Hurts for a Little While, and The Naughty Lady of Shady Lane.

Ames, now 87, was born in Malden, Massachusetts to Jewish immigrants from Ukraine. After the singing group disbanded in the 1960s, he pursued an acting career. Because of his dark complexion and facial bone structure, he was often cast in Native American roles, including that of Mingo, a Cherokee tribesman, on the NBC television series, Daniel Boone, with Fess Parker.

While playing Mingo on television, Ames developed some skill in throwing a tomahawk. This led to one of the most memorable moments of his career, when he appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson on April 29, 1965. During the course of the show, Ames and Johnny Carson were discussing Ames' tomahawk throwing abilities. 

When Ames claimed that he could hit a target from across the room, Carson asked Ames if he could demonstrate this skill. Ames agreed, and a wood panel with a chalk outline of a cowboy was brought on to the stage. As the studio band played, Ames proceeded to throw the tomahawk, which hit the "cowboy" square in the groin with the handle pointing upward. This led to a very long burst of laughter from the audience, which has been called the longest sustained laugh by a live audience in television history. 

After a moment, Ames proceeded to walk toward the target to retrieve the tomahawk but Carson stopped him and allowed the situation to be appreciated for its humor. Carson ad-libbed: "I didn't even know you were Jewish!" and "Welcome to Frontier Bris." Ames then asked Carson if he would like to take a turn throwing, to which Carson replied: "I can't hurt him any more than you did." The clip became a favorite of Carson's own yearly highlight show and subsequent blooper television specials.

(Special thanks to Marnie Winston-Macauley, Aish.com's humor columnist, for finding this gem and including it in a collection of "Jewpers," bloopers with Jewish content published this week at Aish.com.)

Enjoy!

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Lipa Schmeltzer's Music Video "Mizrach" Supports Jewish Unity

Lipa Schmeltzer is an American Hasidic singer and composer. He is a headliner within Hasidic and Haredi communities worldwide and has been called "the Jewish Elvis" and the "Lady Gaga of Hasidic music." Schmeltzer has released ten solo albums. In 2008 he was named to the Forward 50 of most influential Jews.

Now Schmeltzer is using his celebrity status as a springboard for the greater good, with the release of a music video that uses a hit song to promote solidarity among Jews worldwide, no matter what their background or religious leanings.

The video features the dance sensation Mizrach, one of the most popular tracks from Lipa's recent Leap of Faith album and shows the bespectacled icon singing and dancing with a group of Israeli soldiers, members of the noted Netzah Yehuda Battalion of the Nahal Haredi. Part of the Kfir Brigade of the Israeli Defense forces, Netzah Yehuda was created to give religious Israeli soldiers the opportunity to serve in the army while maintaining a strict adherence to their religious convictions.
 
With the expiration of the Tal Law one month ago, the Israeli army has been the subject of much media scrutiny as yeshiva students who were previously exempted from military service are now facing the possibility of joining their fellow countrymen in the army. Thousands of Israeli yeshiva students are expecting to receive draft notices in the upcoming future, further widening the division between Israel's secular and ultra-Orthodox communities.

With the release of the new video which clocks in at just under five minutes long, Lipa hopes to help bridge the gap between the two groups, with the clear message of unity amongst all Jews expressed in the lyrics of the song.

"There are chareidim serving in the army and we should value their service" explained Lipa, who has strong ties to the Nahal Haredi. The singer is a close friend of David Hager, a staunch supporter of the religious battalion, who just recently donated an Aron Kodesh to Lipa's Airmont Shul.

Directed by producer Danny Finkelman, the video was shot in various locations around Israel and features the outspoken singer, who is known for his unabashed love of Jews of all affiliations and support of countless Jewish causes, dressed in army fatigues as he dances in a Jerusalem square with Israeli soldiers and with six Israeli teenagers in several other spots across the country.

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In Israel, a Bris Party to Remember, With the Guest of Honor Arriving by Remote Control Car

With a bris on our mind (we're attending a friend's grandson's brit milah today -- Mazal tov, Joyce, Amy, Noah, and Ruby) -- we just happened to come across a new YouTube posting from Israel that features a bris party like we've never seen before and we're unlikely to see again.

We think it's fun to celebrate simchas even if we don't know the celebrants, especially if there are some unusual and unexpected aspects. In this video, the celebrant arrives at the reception in style, in a remote controlled car. From the baby's size and alertness, we think that the party took place not on the day of the brit milah, but a few days later. But hey, you never know.

Watching the baby arrive in the car, we couldn't help remembering one of our favorite Saturday Night Live commercial parodies, the one for the 1978 Royal Deluxe II luxury car with a ride so smooth, a rabbi could perform a circumcision in the back seat. Well, we found the video, featuring Dan Ackroyd and Gilda Radner, and you'll see it below, just after the bris party video. Enjoy, and Mazal Tov to all!

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