{"id":17699,"date":"2016-03-11T00:10:33","date_gmt":"2016-03-11T08:10:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=17699"},"modified":"2016-03-10T16:15:44","modified_gmt":"2016-03-11T00:15:44","slug":"saying-what-he-wants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2016\/03\/11\/saying-what-he-wants\/","title":{"rendered":"Saying what he wants"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ari Shaffir was in Vancouver Feb. 18-20 as part of Just for Laughs NorthWest. (photo from Ari Shaffir)<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Ari Shaffir is a long, long way from his yeshivah. The 42-year-old stand-up comedian and actor who lives in New York and Los Angeles appeared in Vancouver Feb. 18-20 as part of Just for Laughs NorthWest and entertained packed audiences with his deep baritone and casual conversation, drawing plenty of laughter.<\/p>\n

Shaffir grew up Orthodox and shomer Shabbat in Kemp Mill, Md., attending Hebrew academy and the Jewish day school before spending two years at Beth Midrash HaTorah, a now defunct yeshivah in Jerusalem. When he returned, he enrolled at Yeshiva University in New York. That was the year he lost his religion.<\/p>\n

\u201cMostly it was inward reflection that caused me to turn away,\u201d he said. \u201cI was doing these religious things because I was expected to, and I was succeeding, but I\u2019d never stopped to think why I was doing them. When I really thought about it, I didn\u2019t see a belief inside me. It just wasn\u2019t there.\u201d<\/p>\n

At 20, he left Yeshiva University for the University of Maryland, taking arts courses like English and screenwriting. His parents and friends were dismayed by his change in lifestyle. \u201cMy friends tried to talk me out of it,\u201d he said. \u201cThey would be happier if I were dating a Jewish girl who was a completely worthless human being as opposed to Mother Teresa. When I thought about it, I started feeling mad and decided this is not the way I should live my life.\u201d<\/p>\n

When a friend moved to California, Shaffir decided to join him. \u201cI\u2019d done stand-up once in college and had always thought about it, because I was one of the funnier guys at school, but it didn\u2019t seem like a legitimate career,\u201d he said. \u201cInitially, I tried to find a fun regular job, but couldn\u2019t, so I did an open mic one time in California and that was it. I was totally focused.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shaffir\u2019s career has been on an upward swing in recent years. His stand-up album Revenge for the Holocaust<\/em> was released in 2012 and went to No. 1 on iTunes and amazon.com the week of its premi\u00e8re. His show Passive Aggressive<\/em> premi\u00e8red on chill.com in 2013 and on Comedy Central in 2015, while his weekly storytelling series This is Not Happening<\/em> premi\u00e8red on Comedy Central in 2015. Season 2 of This is Not Happening<\/em> will air this year, and it was recently picked up for a third season on Comedy Central. He hosts the podcast The Skeptic Tank<\/em>, a weekly interview show that averages more than 100,000 downloads per week, and he just shot a feature film, Keeping Up with the Joneses<\/em>, slated for release this spring.<\/p>\n

He didn\u2019t completely lose his cultural identity, if his performance on Feb. 18 was anything to go by. In one part of his show, he joked about visiting Germany and urinating outdoors anywhere he could, hoping to pee on Hitler\u2019s grave. \u201cIf anyone tried to stop me, I\u2019d play the Jew card,\u201d he said. (The part about urinating outdoors was no joke, he admitted in a telephone interview. \u201cI did that.\u201d)<\/p>\n

Shaffir says the Bible is now his least favorite book: \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of holes in the story.\u201d<\/p>\n

He enjoys using material he learned in his religious life in a completely opposite way than how it was intended. \u201cI get joy out of that,\u201d he said. \u201cFor example, the Torah says if someone is coming to kill or rob you, you\u2019re allowed to defend yourself up to the point of killing them. A child cost $500,000 to raise and they\u2019re going to take that from you, so the Torah would tell you to kill them to protect your income.\u201d<\/p>\n

Defying his parents\u2019 expectations and leaving the community of Kemp Mill wasn\u2019t easy, and there are still things Shaffir misses from that life. \u201cIt took my parents years to get over it. My mother was more concerned with me losing the culture of Judaism, the songs on Pesach, the camaraderie. My dad was angry. He had swayed from religion for a little while, but I swayed way further. Years later, he realized he didn\u2019t want to lose me as a son and we were able to move on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shaffir\u2019s casual, unassuming storytelling style accounts for his popularity. His stand-up routine is peppered with sex and toilet jokes, rants on why he hates kids and anecdotes from his travels. Throughout his routine, he appeared relaxed and at ease, and his hour-long performance went by quickly.<\/p>\n

If he has any remaining link to his Jewish life, it\u2019s cultural, Shaffir said. \u201cWhen I hear a news story come on about Israel, my ears perk up a little more than they would about another country. Otherwise, I have nothing left to do with the religion. But I miss the community I had in Kemp Mill, where everyone knew me. You had this gigantic family that you\u2019d see in synagogue every weekend. To lose all that \u2013 now I\u2019m on my own and I\u2019m just floating. You lose those friends. You can\u2019t go to restaurants with them because we\u2019re into different things. They\u2019re into family and religion, I\u2019m not into either.\u201d<\/p>\n

A page on his website is called Shroomfest and, on it, Shaffir has taken time to write everything he feels others should know about mushrooms. \u201cThat\u2019s not a joke, it\u2019s real, and I do it a few times a year,\u201d he said. \u201cI took a lot of time to write that and it helps a lot of people take mushrooms the right way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shaffir described feeling free on stage to say what he wants, but when it catches up with him in a private setting, he feels some guilt and embarrassment. \u201cI feel guilty about all sorts of stuff, not committing to women, not being monogamous. If I\u2019m at a dinner party and it comes up that I had a threesome last week, then, yes, I\u2019m embarrassed.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m proud that I\u2019m a free comedian,\u201d he reflected. \u201cI say and do what I want, what I feel is correct creatively, and both criticism and praise are irrelevant to me. I\u2019m living as a stand-up comedian! It\u2019s one of the coolest jobs in the world and I have an apartment I pay for, just by doing that!\u201d<\/p>\n

For a link to his podcast visit arishaffir.com\/category\/podcast<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Lauren Kramer<\/strong>, an award-winning writer and editor, lives in Richmond. To read her work online, visit laurenkramer.net<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ari Shaffir was in Vancouver Feb. 18-20 as part of Just for Laughs NorthWest. (photo from Ari Shaffir) Ari Shaffir is a long, long way from his yeshivah. The 42-year-old stand-up comedian and actor who lives in New York and Los Angeles appeared in Vancouver Feb. 18-20 as part of Just for Laughs NorthWest and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17660,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[785],"tags":[5278,5310,5493],"class_list":["post-17699","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-performing-arts","tag-comedy","tag-just-for-laughs","tag-shaffir"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17699","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17699"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17699\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17660"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17699"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17699"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17699"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}