{"id":47719,"date":"2025-10-10T01:53:51","date_gmt":"2025-10-10T08:53:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=47719"},"modified":"2025-10-08T14:59:54","modified_gmt":"2025-10-08T21:59:54","slug":"find-the-funny-in-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2025\/10\/10\/find-the-funny-in-you\/","title":{"rendered":"Find the funny in you"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/i>In Irwin Levin\u2019s upcoming Jewish Humour Playshop, participants will discover and\/or build upon their own creativity and sense of humour through improv games, written and spoken exercises.<\/p>\n

With a background in stand-up comedy and improvisation, Levin is a man with a message: \u201cEveryone is funny!\u201d He encourages community members (18+) to join in his three-hour \u201cplayshop\u201d at the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver on Oct. 19, starting at 10:15 a.m.<\/p>\n

\u201cCome as you are, ready to play and have some laughs!\u201d he told the Independent<\/i>, adding, \u201cI\u2019m looking forward to teaching fellow members of the tribe at this unique event, where we can let loose and be the funny people we know we are.\u201d<\/p>\n

Featured exercises will include Wisdom from Chelm, Mensch on the Bench, and Jokes from Jewish Entertainers.<\/p>\n

\"photo<\/a>
Irwin Levin encourages community members to join his Oct. 19 improv playshop at the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver. \u201cCome as you are, ready to play and have some laughs!\u201d he said. (photo from Irwin Levin)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Levin has had what he calls \u201ca wicked sense of humour\u201d since childhood.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing funny is very important to me,\u201d he said. \u201dI hated school because of problems with focus, and I didn\u2019t bond well with other kids. My solace was making kids, teachers and others laugh, but, most importantly, I made myself laugh \u2013 like when I was 17 and accidentally reversed my dad\u2019s car instead of going forwards, thus making a hole in the side of the garage and then crashing through the back onto our back lawn. After being very upset, I had the thought that we have the only three-door garage on the block \u2013 that made me laugh and helped me a lot.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe point is, sometimes it helps to look at the funny side of life. Laughter is very healthy and sometimes necessary, especially in a stressful world. That doesn\u2019t mean you shouldn\u2019t take life seriously, but it\u2019s always nice to find someone to laugh with or on your own.\u201d<\/p>\n

Over the last five years, Levin has taken improv classes from David C. Jones, stand-up comedy classes with David Granirer and sketch comedy classes at Blind Tiger Comedy. He has performed at China Cloud Studios in Vancouver and is currently teaching a three-month improv series at Carousel Theatre with his wife, Cass Freeman.<\/p>\n

\u201cI started taking stand-up courses before improv, to see if that was something I wanted to do for a living. Around that time, I started dating Cass and she was into improv and got me interested. This was in the mid-\u201990s,\u201d Levin said.<\/p>\n

\u201cImprov can relieve stress, reduce stage fright and improve self-esteem,\u201d Freeman told the Independent in an interview a few years ago about the theatrical form. (See jewishindependent.ca\/many-reasons-to-learn-improv.)\u00a0 <\/span>\u201cImprov games encourage creativity, quick thinking and communication skills, and are a great tool for breaking the ice, having fun and building team spirit,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen taking classes, improv is mostly playing games and doing short scenes,\u201d Levin explained about what people can expect at his upcoming playshop. \u201cThere are no mistakes in improv! In improv, you aren\u2019t trying to say funny things \u2013 you say things funny. The comedy just comes organically in a scene.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe games in my playshop will be low pressure, because a lot of the exercises will be written, so that participants can take their time with coming up with answers and read out in a circle. Also, they don\u2019t have to participate in any game that they won\u2019t be comfortable playing.\u201d<\/p>\n

The cost to attend Levin\u2019s Jewish Humour Playshop is $30 or pay what you can. People can register by texting Levin at 778-862-4638.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In Irwin Levin\u2019s upcoming Jewish Humour Playshop, participants will discover and\/or build upon their own creativity and sense of humour through improv games, written and spoken exercises. With a background in stand-up comedy and improvisation, Levin is a man with a message: \u201cEveryone is funny!\u201d He encourages community members (18+) to join in his three-hour […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9991],"tags":[7699,7323,24386,24385,22659],"class_list":["post-47719","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized-en","tag-humour","tag-improv","tag-irwin-levin","tag-jewish-humour-playshop","tag-workshops"],"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\/47719","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=47719"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47719\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47719"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47719"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47719"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}