The New Jewish Comedians: Meet Gianmarco Soresi, Birthright Israel Veteran and Standup Comic

Standup comedian Gianmarco Soresi is making new waves on the comedy scene, embracing his Jewish identity wherever he performs.

Last November Soresi made his debut on The Late Late Show with James Corden, immediately referencing his Jewish background and how it affects him in his everyday life.

As Kylie Ora Lobell wrote on the Aish.com website,

Since stepping into standup, in addition to appearing on James Corden, Soresi has also been a New Face at the Just for Laughs comedy festival in Montreal, a prestigious honor that has propelled many other comedians in their careers. He appeared with Tiffany Haddish and Billy Crystal in the movie “Here Today,” starred in his own special on Amazon Prime, and performs standup on the road 45 weekends a year.

“Doing standup is a real rush,” he said. “Everything is rockin’ and rollin’ and you feel the joy of getting laughter. When I’m offstage, my mind is always wandering, whether it’s because I’m ADD or OCD or just Jewish. When I’m on stage, I’m very present and alive and I’m in the moment.”

Soresi grew up in Potomac, Maryland, with a Jewish mother and an Italian father. However, he didn’t do much in terms of his Jewish practice.

When the comedian was 26, he went on Birthright to Israel, and today he’s dating a woman with more of a background in Judaism.

“She grew up Chabad, which has definitely brought me close to Judaism,” he said.

Soresi lives on the Lower East Side, a neighborhood that was predominantly Jewish around the turn of the 20^th century. He lives across from the Tenement Museum, a remnant of the Jewish history there, and he’s near Russ & Daughters, a legendary New York eatery that features top-quality smoked fish and lox.

Enjoy!

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Gal Gadot Tells Hebrew Joke to James Corden on The Late Late Show

Last week Israeli film star Gal Gadot was a guest on James Corden's Late Late Show. Corden played a game with Gadot called "Gal-Ga-Yes or Gal-Ga-No" in which she had to successfully complete four tasks. 

The first test was to throw a grape in the air and catch it in the air on her first try.

The next task was to tell a joke in Hebrew and make Hagar Ben-Ari, the band's bass guitarist, laugh.

She told the joke very quickly and Hagar laughed, but the joke was not translated into English.

If the joke went too fast for you to get, here's the translation: 

Why is a baby like instant coffee? It's easy to make and it keeps you up all night.

Enjoy the next two tasks and Gadot's success with them.

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Comedy Showcase: Elon Gold on the Late Late Show with James Corden

We've been following Elon Gold and posting some of his shtick on Jewish Humor Central for the last nine years. 

Elon is an American comedian, television actor, writer and producer. He starred in the television series Stacked.  He also starred in the short-lived sitcom In-Laws. 

 

Known for his impressions, including those of Jeff Goldblum, Howard Stern and Jay Leno, Gold was a judge on the ABC celebrity impersonation competition series The Next Best Thing. Gold was also in the movie Cheaper by the Dozen as a cameraman from the Oprah Winfrey show.

Gold attended the Westchester Day School in Mamaroneck, NY and the Marsha Stern Talmudical Academy (MTA)/Yeshiva University High School for Boys in Manhattan, NY. He is a practicing orthodox Jew.

 

Here's Elon in a recent appearance on The Late Late Show with James Corden. In this stand-up comedy routine he dives into the debate every Jewish person faces: food or money, and how sex is basically the same as parking. 

 

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.

 

Comedian James Corden Takes a Shift in a Kosher Meat Market

James Corden, the British actor and comedian who was tapped to replace Craig Ferguson as the host of CBS TV's The Late Late Show, has been featuring a segment called Take a Break, in which he takes over the job of a retail store worker for part of his shift to give the worker a break.

Of course the real reason is to give Corden an excuse to engage in some spontaneous fun with customers and other store employees.

Last week, Corden took over the job of a cashier at a Los Angeles kosher market for awhile, resulting in a hilarioius six-minute video of the event.

As Sarene Leeds wrote in The Wall Street Journal,

Corden, decked out in a blue yarmulke and tossing off Yiddish-isms like “kvelling,” made himself right at home behind the counter at Western Kosher. Despite it being a Friday afternoon, traditionally a very busy time for kosher outlets (and Corden knew why, instantly making a reference to that evening’s “Shabbat dinner”), the “Late Late Show” host kept his cool, even staging an impromptu, klezmer-inspired song and dance with the Western Kosher employee keeping an eye on him.

He also found time to put the store’s meat slicer to productive use – Corden put his wife’s credit card in the automatic blade’s line of fire. But nothing beats watching the comic actor doing doughnuts in a forklift, with his Western Kosher mentor holding on for dear life.

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.)