Israeli Comedy Showcase: Shahar Hason on Israeli Avocados and Flattened Bagels

Shahar Hasson is one of the leading stand-up comedians in Israel, appearing on Israeli stages for over 25 years, He is a graduate of Yoram Levinstein's acting school. 

Shahar is an entertainer who paved his way through the best entertainment programs in Israel: Eretz Nehederet, Zahirut TV, TV at its best, Laughter from Work, Limited Edition, Fun Night, Express Hearts and more.

In this performance before a live audience, Shahar carries on about worshiping the avocado as the god of sandwich and Israelis flattening bagels into a packaged snack.

Enjoy!

Comedy Showcase: Rabbi Bob Alper is Back With More Stand-up Comedy

Bob Alper is an ordained 78-year-old Reform rabbi from Vermont who served congregations for fourteen years and holds a doctorate from Princeton Theological Seminary.

But he's also a stand-up comedian with a thirty year comedy career. He presents wonderfully unique material in a way that's intelligent, sophisticated, and 100% clean.

Since 2010 we have posted more than two dozen video clips of his stand-up routines. For the last two years, his standup performances have been limited to Zoom sessions because of the Covid pandemic. Now that it's over, he is back on the comedy club circuit with a recent appearance at  the Don't Tell Mama cabaret in New York City.

Enjoy!

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Comedy Showcase: Alex Edelman on Millennials

Alex Edelman grew up in an Orthodox Jewish family and, following high school, spent a year in a yeshiva in Jerusalem. During his time, he helped to establish the city's first comedy club -- Off the Wall Comedy. 

In 2008, he moved to New York City to study English at New York University. He graduated in 2012. During college, he continued to perform stand-up and later joined Upright Citizens Brigade. 

His first show, Millennial, won the Edinburgh Comedy Award for Best Newcomer, the first show by an American to do so since 1997. 

In this video clip, Edelman tells the comedy club audience about the difficulties faced by millennials.

Enjoy!

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Comedy Snapshot: Benji Lovitt on Israelis Shopping in America

Standup comedian Benji Lovitt got started in Texas, moved to Jerusalem and then to Tel Aviv. He's been living in Israel for 13 years now. He performs for audiences in Israel and the US.

We keep running into him when we travel to Israel, the latest encounter having been during the week of Passover in April.

Benji’s observations on Israeli society, combined with his lifelong involvement in Jewish education, create a hilarious narrative that has brought smiles to faces all over the world.

Since making aliyah in 2006, Benji has been called on by Jewish organizations to share his hilarious insights into cultural differences as he translates both the challenges and marvels of life in Israel.

In this short video clip, Benji shares his observations about Israelis shopping in America.

Enjoy!

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Coming in June: The Jewish Week's Annual Funniest Jewish Comic Contest

Every year The Jewish Week, New York's  Jewish newspaper, sponsors a contest over a four week period to find the funniest Jewish comic of the year. This year, the stand-up comedy shows will take place on June 3, 12, 17, and 29 at the Broadway Comedy Club in New York City.

The contest, produced by Geoff Kole, offers new and established stand-up comedians over $250 in cash/prizes, a writeup in the Jewish Week and a paid spot at the Broadway Comedy Club.

To get in the mood for four evenings of stand-up Jewish comedy, we're sharing a video clip of a performance by Moishie Gamss at the 2017 competition.

Enjoy!

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Comedy Showcase: Introducing Standup Comic Ari Ginsberg

Ari Ginsberg is an accountant from Teaneck, New Jersey, who likes to make people laugh. He has performed at New York's Gotham Comedy Club and in area synagogues.

As Cecilia Levine wrote in the Teaneck Daily Voice,

Comedy allows Ginsberg to better express himself.

"I talk about my childhood," he said. "I was so bad at sports I got picked last — and I went to the Jewish school."

"I have a cynical type of view on some of the things in the Orthodox world. The materialism bothers me, so this is an outlet to be more expressive in a humorous way."

Here's Ari at the Gotham Comedy Club. Enjoy!

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Comedy Showcase: Orthodox Comic Eli Lebowicz at Standup NY

We last posted a stand-up comedy routine by Eli Lebowicz in 2012, when he was a senior at Yeshiva University. Since then, Eli has been performing at comedy clubs in New York City, college campuses along the East Coast, synagogue dinners, Passover programs, and Jewish events where there's food.

Eli's comedy is becoming popular with audiences that are looking for funny but clean humor, a combination that's becoming harder to find these days. He will be performing this Saturday night, February 2, at a Chabad of Orange County Comedy Night in Goshen, New York.

Here's Eli performing recently for a Jewish audience at the Stand Up NY Comedy Club. Enjoy!

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Comedy Showcase: Stand-up Comedy With Modi on How to Combat Terrorism

Modi (Mordechai Rosenfeld) is one funny guy. We've featured his stand-up routines and performances as a character actor a few times on Jewish Humor Central.

Born April 29th, 1970 in Tel Aviv, Israel, Modi Rosenfeld moved to New York City with his family when he was 7. Before entering comedy, he was a Wall Street international banker. He now goes solely by the name Modi and is known for creating accents and characters.

In this set, at the Comic Strip Live Club in New York, Modi starts out by making fun of his mother's overly cautious travel advice, and quickly segues into Mohammed jokes, anti-semitic cartoons, terrorist reaction, and the best Jewish alternatives to blowing up buildings in response to editorial insults.

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.)

Meet Cory Kahaney and Her Politically Incorrect and Funny Stand-Up Comedy

Cory Kahaney is a major presence in the Jewish comedy scene. A stand-up comic in her own right, Kahaney has produced one-woman shows, tributes to the brilliant Jewish comediennes who paved the way for all women in stand-up, and HBO specials. She was featured at the Just For Laughs festivals in Montreal in 1998, 2001, and 2005. 

She is the recipient of the ‘BACKSTAGE’ Bistro Award for best Comedian in NYC and Manhattan Association of Cabaret Award for 'Outstanding Female Comedian'.

But stand-up comedy is her specialty, and so is political incorrectness. In this video clip, Kahaney tells how she explains the difference between Democrats and Republicans to her children, and relates an incident in which she turned a criticism of her joke using a Chinese accent into a teaching moment on what does and what doesn't merit taking offense at the use of dialect in comedy.

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.)