comedy

All right in what goes wrong

Zander Eke, Ben Elliott, Scott Bellis, Genevieve Fleming and Andrew McNee in The Play That Goes Wrong, playing at Arts Club’s Granville Island Stage until Aug. 16. (photo from Moonrider Productions)

Collapsing sets, misplaced props, missed cues, forgotten lines, unconscious actors, on-stage pyrotechnics, botched entrances and exits, and crew members popping in and out of the wings to deal with technical issues – what else could possibly go wrong? Apparently quite a lot in the British farce The Play That Goes Wrong, now at the Arts Club Granville Island Stage until Aug. 16. This is the Three Stooges meets Monty Python, on steroids. Nonstop laughter is what audiences will receive for the price of their tickets.

Written by Henry Lewis, Henry Shields and Jonathan Sayer, the play had its debut in a London pub in 2012 and quickly moved to the West End, then on to Broadway and elsewhere, winning awards and megafans along the way.

In a nutshell, in this play within a play, an amateur drama group, the Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society, is presenting a production of The Murder at Haversham Manor, a 1920s mystery set in a manor house. In a clichéd opening, as the curtain rises, a body is found in the study lying on the chaise lounge, and Inspector Carter arrives to investigate. The usual suspects are rounded up (the butler, family members, lovers) and, eventually, after two hours of slapstick physical comedy, with everything breaking and/or falling down, the perpetrator is unmasked.

Community member Josh Epstein helms this rollercoaster of a comedy with a wealth of veteran actors in the cast, including Scott Bellis (Perkins, the Butler), Andrew McNee (Thomas) and Ben Elliott (Charles, the corpse). This is a technically demanding production requiring tight timing and choreography in the chaos of the disintegrating set, and kudos must be given to the entire team, both on and behind the stage.

The JI interviewed Epstein after opening night.

JI: How did it come about that you were selected to direct the show?

JE: I think my background across a few different worlds landed me here. Producing for independent film requires a specific kind of precision and technical focus, and mixing that with my experience in big technical theatre and high-speed comedies seemed to be the right recipe. This show is a massive, multi-layered machine, and you need to understand how all those moving parts, the mechanics, the timing and the heart, work together.

JI: What is it like to direct such a physical production?

JE: Directing this much physicality is like choreographing a high-stakes dance where the floor might actually fall out from under you. We protect the actors through “stunt-grade” preparation, everything from secret padding in the costumes to reinforced gussets and custom-built furniture that takes the hit so the actor doesn’t have to. As for the energy, we keep it fresh by reminding ourselves that we aren’t playing a comedy; we are playing a high-stakes murder mystery. The exhaustion is real, but the medicine is the audience. When you hear that level of laughter, it fuels the engine for the next round.

JI: What are the technical requirements needed to ensure safety on the set?

JE: The safety requirements are immense because the set is effectively the antagonist of the play. It has to look like it’s failing dangerously while being under complete, rigorous control behind the scenes. We have built-in redundancies for every major collapse, fail-safes on every moving part, and a crew that is as finely tuned as the cast. It’s all about creating the illusion of a misstep while being mathematically certain of where every foot and hand is going to land.

JI: You are working with some seasoned veterans, all of whom have themselves directed. What is it like to direct directors?

JE: Honestly, it’s a gift. Directing directors means you’re working with people who understand the big picture and the architecture of a scene. They aren’t just thinking about their own lines; they’re thinking about the rhythm of the entire stage. There is a shorthand and a level of trust that allows us to skip the basics and get straight to the nuanced, complicated work. They know exactly how to hold the tension that making this show work requires.

JI: What was your vision for the show?

JE: My vision was to lean into the earnestness of the Cornley drama society. I didn’t want a parody of a bad play; I wanted a production of a high-budget, ambitious, amateur company that has done everything in its power to be professional, only to have the world conspire against them. The set is beautiful, the costumes are classy and the intentions are pure. The comedy isn’t that they are incompetent – it’s that they are desperate to succeed in the face of total disaster.

JI: Some critics think the show is too over the top. Your thoughts on that?

JE: I think over the top is exactly where the joy lives in a piece like this. It is a celebration of the resilience of theatre. There is something deeply human and universal about watching people refuse to give up when everything is going wrong. It’s supposed to be an assault on the senses. If we aren’t pushing the boundaries of the ridiculous, we aren’t doing justice to the spirit of the show.

JI: Why should people come and see the play?

JE: Because it is pure, unadulterated joy. In a world that often feels quite heavy, there is something incredibly healing about sitting in a room with hundreds of strangers and laughing until your ribs ache. You’re seeing world-class performers do something incredibly difficult to make it look effortless and disastrous at the same time. It’s a night where you can just leave it all at the door and watch a group of people try, and hilariously fail, to solve a murder.

For tickets, go to artsclub.com or call the box office at 604-687-1644.

Tova Kornfeld is a Vancouver freelance writer and lawyer.

Beth Tikvah celebrates 50th

The delayed celebration of Beth Tikvah’s 50th anniversary takes place April 19, with a night of comedy headlined by Juno Award-winning comedian Jacob Samuel. (photo from byjacobsamuel.com)

Beth Tikvah, the Conservative synagogue in Richmond, was founded in 1973. That placed the 50th anniversary in 2023, and a celebration was planned for October. Then the catastrophe of 10/7 occurred, and the event was indefinitely postponed.

Now that all the hostages are home and the war that began that day has ended (though a different one continues), the congregation thought it was not just appropriate to come together to celebrate the milestone of their community, but necessary.

A communal celebration – with laughter – is something the community needs, Rabbi Susan Tendler told the Independent.

“People just really need to laugh,” she said, and to find strength in community.

Tendler herself arrived as Beth Tikvah’s spiritual leader at the height of another collective crisis – the COVID pandemic. Her family was greeted warmly, but from a distance, as intense social isolation rules were still in place.

Six years later, she is effusive in her love for her role and her adopted community. Beyond the immediate Beth Tikvah and Richmond communities, she said, the relationship among Metro Vancouver’s rabbis is extremely unusual, with deep ties across denominations. Tendler is currently chair of the Rabbinical Association of Vancouver, the main conduit for that tight union.

Jews at Beth Tikvah, in British Columbia and worldwide are resilient but tired, she said.

“We are fierce and we are resilient, and we are strong and we are agile and we are constant,” she said. “But we all can feel the weariness from it.”

Coming together to celebrate is necessary, she said, noting that Purim this year seemed to unleash a collective wellspring of joy.

The delayed celebration of Beth Tikvah’s 50th anniversary takes place April 19, with a night of comedy featuring Juno Award-winning comedian Jacob Samuel and emcee Kyle Berger, himself a funnyman of some repute.

Berger’s brother, Tadd Berger, is the synagogue’s president, as was older brother Ryan and mother Marilyn before him.

The Bergers were not founding members of the congregation, said Tadd Berger, but they showed up more than four decades ago.

“Beth Tikvah is a special place,” he said. “It’s always been a special place for me. I was bar mitzvahed at Beth Tikvah, I was married at Beth Tikvah. It has always been a centrepoint of my person, of my growth, of my community. A lot of who I am today is a result of opportunities and programs and events and things that I had at Beth Tikvah.”

He called his leadership role at this moment in the history of the shul and the community a responsibility, an honour and a privilege.

While the celebration next month caps a half-century of growth, Berger is looking to the future.

“Our membership has been growing the last several years,” he said. “I think that we will continue to grow. We’ll continue to find more ways to connect with and service and support the larger Jewish community, especially the Richmond Jewish community.”

Beth Tikvah is the only Conservative synagogue south of Fraser River, Berger noted, so he views the shul as serving a larger geographic region, stretching southward.

He is also proud of the range of programs the community delivers, including food security programs and services for youth and seniors, which are open to members and non-members.

“We see ourselves as Richmond’s synagogue and here to support the whole community,” said Berger. “That’s how we want to continue and, [in] the coming 50 years, I hope that that gets us embraced more and more by the community. “

The solemnity of the period since Oct. 7, which occurred just as the world was emerging from the COVID pandemic, means it has been a long time since a festivity of this type has occurred, according to one of the organizers.

“The event is the first big fundraiser we’ve had in a long time,” said Alisa Magnan, who is co-chairing the celebration with Mindy Zimmering. “We’re raising badly needed funds for programs and it’s a great chance to support the community and get together and have some fun.”

Magnan echoes the rabbi in noting that it is time for the community to kick back and have a good time amid the many challenges.

“I wanted to be able to get together and celebrate our community and find some joy after such difficult times,” she said.

In addition to the anticipated guffaws (induced, the PR promises, by “smart, clean humour”), the event will include a 50/50 draw in addition to food stations featuring pasta, barbecue, salads, Mexican cuisine and crêpes for dessert. Tickets and more information for April 19’s Eat, Laugh, Schmooze: A Night of Comedy & Connection are at btikvah.ca.

Dylan Akira Adler part of JFL festival

Jewpanese comedian Dylan Akira Adler performs Feb. 18-19 at Revue Stage. (photo from Jewpanese Project)

“Soy vey” and “mazel tofu” are just two of the word mashups created by Jewpanese comedian Dylan Akira Adler, who is coming to Vancouver’s Just for Laughs with his show Haus of Dy-Lan, Feb. 18-19 at Revue Stage. He will likely open for Atsuko Okatsuka’s Feb. 21 performances at Queen Elizabeth Theatre as well, also part of JFL, which runs Feb. 12-22.

Born in 1996, Dylan grew up in a predominantly white San Francisco neighbourhood, where both he and his identical twin brother thought they were Asian Buddhists, until his mom explained they were also Jewish, like their dad.

Adler’s obaachan (Japanese grandmother) didn’t experience incarceration during the Second World War, but her uncle’s family was sent to Heart Mountain in Wyoming. At 14, Adler’s ojiichan (Japanese grandfather) had signed up to be a kamikaze pilot, but the war ended a month before he was old enough to enlist.

Adler’s mom was born in Tokyo, but, because of the air pollution, the family moved to California, where they grew carnations. Meanwhile, his dad was born in Los Angeles into a Polish and Ukrainian Jewish family that fled the 1800s pogroms. His parents met at University of California, Berkeley, “where Jews and Asians procreate to make kids who put on one-man shows about being biracial,” as Adler jokes.

Adler was interviewed for the Jewpanese Project in October 2022. At the time, he was a writer on James Corden’s show, where he also had his late-night stand-up debut. Since then, he has been touring as the opening act for Okatsuka, as well as with his own show. The Canadian tour of Haus of Dy-Lan includes stops in Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal. I caught up with Adler this month, in anticipation of his Vancouver visit.

CT: On Dec. 1, 2025, I dropped a 68-page report on the Jewpanese American experience, one finding of which was: “The two most common ways for Jewpanese couples to meet were through either academic settings or chance encounters, often with the help of mutual friends.” How does it feel to now have one of your most popular jokes backed by research?

DAA: It makes me feel very good and scholarly…. I just know a lot of other Asian and Jewish couples who met at UC Berkeley because my parents are friends with them. They’re like my secondary aunts and uncles and their half-Asian and -Jewish kids are like our cousins.

CT: How does your Jewpanese identity inform your comedy? And how has it evolved over time?

DAA: My Jewpanese identity definitely informs my comedy. I love talking about the difference between spending time with my mom’s family and my dad’s family. But I also love to subvert expectations. My mom and her family don’t behave like a typical “Japanese” family because they are very loud and crazy.

CT: In your 2022 interview with me, you mentioned that you had yet to go to your ancestral homelands (Japan, Poland and Ukraine) and that you hadn’t been out of the United States at that point. Where are you now on that journey?

DAA: I’d never been out of the country until 2025 and, that year, I went to 20 different countries. It completely changed my life. I’ve officially caught the travel bug. This year, in April, I’m going to go to Japan with my family and meet relatives I’ve never met before. I’m truly so excited. We’re going to Kyoto, Osaka and Tokyo. I don’t have plans to go to Eastern Europe yet, but would absolutely love to.

CT: Tell me more about Haus of Dy-Lan. Who is this show for? What should we expect?

DAA: I will be performing parts of my solo show Haus of Dy-lan along with some newer material during this tour. There will absolutely be material about being half-Japanese and -Jewish. I love talking about my racial identity because some people are already trying to figure it out when I walk onstage, so it addresses that curiosity. In the audience, you can expect there will be Asians, mixed-race baddies, queers and some straight women who forced their boyfriend to come to the show.

CT: Atsuko Okatsuka, who is an incredibly hilarious Japanese-Taiwanese-American comedian, is a major mentor in your comedic career right now. What Jewish influence do you also have guiding you in your journey?

DAA: Atsuko is the absolute best. She is so brilliant and kind and I truly am so grateful to have her as a friend and mentor and even surrogate mother. When it comes to Jewish influences, I’ve always admired Joan Rivers, Chelsea Perretti and Rachel Bloom, to name a few.

CT: Do you remember when you shared with me that you made contact with your Jewish ancestors, while on a healing psychedelic trip on bufo (toad venom)? Have you been in contact with them since? How is that work coming along?

DAA: I was actually just thinking about that this morning. It’s true, in 2022, I did a toad venom psychedelic trip, and I woke up in a village in Eastern Europe and felt my ancestors’ inherited trauma but also their light and resilience. I haven’t done it since, and I am still on a healing journey for myself. But I’ve always been very interested in ancestors and how we are profoundly affected by people who we may have never met in our lifetime. I want to continue that work and figure out a way to incorporate it into a creative project in some way.

For tickets to one of Adler’s JFL shows and/or for Okatsuka’s performances and those of other Jewish community members, go to jflvancouver.com.

Carmel Tanaka is the creator of the Jewpanese Project, an international community initiative at the intersection of being Jewish and Japanese. Check out the archives of oral history interviews and a research report on the Jewpanese American experience at carmeltanaka.ca/jewpanese-project-archives. She is still collecting interviews from Jewpanese Canadians.

Telling the story of an icon

Ronnie Marmo brings his one-man show I’m Not a Comedian … I’m Lenny Bruce to the Chutzpah! Festival Nov. 18. (photo from dorensorellphotography.com via Chutzpah!)

In 2017, with the expectation of a six-week run, creator and performer Ronnie Marmo and director Joe Mantegna brought I’m Not a Comedian … I’m Lenny Bruce to the stage. Now, celebrating eight years and 468 performances, Marmo told the Independent, “we can not wait to bring it up to Vancouver for 469!”

I’m Not a Comedian … I’m Lenny Bruce is part of this year’s Chutzpah! Festival, which runs Nov. 12-23. It’s being presented on Nov. 18, 7:30 p.m., at the Rothstein Theatre.

Bruce, a groundbreaking standup comedian and satirist, was born Leonard Alfred Schneider in Mineola, on Long Island, NY, in 1925. He consistently pushed social and legal boundaries, being arrested more than once for what was considered obscenity in his day, including a conviction in 1964 for a performance he gave at Café Au Go Go in New York City. Bruce died two years later, at age 40, from an accidental overdose. He was bankrupt, basically not having been employable after the conviction. It would be 37 years before he was posthumously pardoned, by then-governor George E. Pataki.

In I’m Not a Comedian … I’m Lenny Bruce, Marmo told the Independent, “We bookend the show with the final moments of his life and take you on a journey through his first performance all the way to his demise. We learn about his family, we see his charm and success, his struggle with addiction, his long-standing fight with the judicial system. We don’t hold back. You really get a full theatrical experience of his entire life.”

Bruce is one of Marmo’s heroes.

“What inspires me about Lenny is how ahead of his time he was and how passionate he was about his pursuit of the truth. I have so much respect for someone who is willing to sacrifice everything and put it all on the line just to make sure he didn’t fall into suit with everyone else. I’m proud to be entrusted by the family to be the one to tell his story to the next generation.”

Marmo landed on the title for the show after hearing Bruce say, in an audio clip, “I’m sorry I wasn’t funny tonight … I’m not a comedian, I’m Lenny Bruce.” For Marmo, that comment resonated. “He wasn’t a comedian – he was so much more than that,” said Marmo of Bruce. “He was a satirist, a social commentator and a true advocate for the freedom of expression.”

The show has evolved a lot since its creation.

“As the writer, I am always tinkering with the script,” said Marmo. “For example, I removed the famous ‘N-word’ bit when we came back after the pandemic. I felt as though, even though the bit itself was in support of removing power from words so we don’t give them the chance to harm us, I knew that people might have a hard time hearing what Lenny was actually trying to say. Plus, even though I loved the impact it had on an audience, it kept me up at night thinking about it even before events like what happened to George Floyd. I have a responsibility as an artist to tell the absolute truth but also to not be tone deaf to the world around me. I don’t believe Lenny would have done that bit today.

“I also had long discussions with Kitty [Bruce, Lenny’s daughter] and my director, Joe Mantegna, who both agreed that it was best to remove it. So, I replaced it with ‘The Meaning of Obscenity,’ which, in my opinion, supports the show even more. So, I’m happy to make the switch, knowing it is not only the best fit culturally in this climate but also the strongest choice for the show overall. As a performer, my portrayal of Lenny evolves as I explore my own life and how I tell his story resonates differently depending on where I am in my life. I think it takes passion, dedication and an openness to watch it grow and evolve along with me.”

While I’m Not a Comedian … I’m Lenny Bruce premiered in 2017, Marmo said, “I’ve actually been with Lenny since 2005, when I did another show about him, called Lenny’s Back and Boy is He Pissed. On stage, I don’t separate us – it is my job as an actor to find where we meet in the middle. I try to focus on all the similarities that I identify with for Lenny. It is easy to keep it fresh because it is such an emotional ride and massive performance. I don’t feel like I ‘have it’ yet, which is refreshing, because it always feels just slightly out of reach.”

When Marmo did Lenny’s Back, which was brought to him by comedian Charlie Brill, he became “intimately involved with Lenny Bruce and his life.

“In getting to know him, I realized that there was so much of his story we weren’t telling. I wanted to get into the nitty gritty, I wanted to do his bits,” said Marmo. “So, I set out to write my own show.

“We initially started the show anticipating a six-week run,” he said. “This thing has caught fire in the most incredible way. It is a testament to just how relevant Lenny is today – perhaps even more than he was over 60 years ago! It truly has been a perfect storm: free speech, first amendment, cancel culture and not to mention the success of the Amazon series The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. They really helped catapult Lenny’s name back into pop culture and have sold thousands of tickets for us. We have, in some ways, come very far and, in others, not far at all.”

Marmo described Bruce as “a very proud Jewish man,” who often incorporated Judaism and his Jewish heritage into his material. “He openly incorporated his Yiddish vocabulary into his bits and there is quite a bit of familiar references sprinkled throughout the show,” said Marmo. “His relationship with religion overall was complex but, rather than hiding his heritage, he celebrated it.”

As for what he thought gave Bruce the courage to run up against the country’s obscenity laws, Marmo said, “The truth. He held a mirror up to society and asked questions that everyone wondered about but never found any resolution to. He also fervently believed in our judicial system and always believed that it would prevail and he would be redeemed – something that he, unfortunately, didn’t see in his lifetime, but did come to fruition with his posthumous pardon in 2003 – the first in New York history, in fact. He spoke out loud what everyone whispered to themselves and his popularity was proof of how profound he was.”

Even though Bruce wasn’t alive to receive the pardon, Marmo still believes it was an important action.

“It was a landmark symbolic victory for free speech,” he said. “I think it was redemption. It was validation that Lenny had something to say to this society and that we are free-thinking creatives entitled to our artistic expression.”

For tickets to I’m Not a Comedian … I’m Lenny Bruce or any other Chutzpah! show, go to chutzpahfestival.com or call 604-257-5145.

Granirer returns to Carnegie

From Oct.31 to Nov. 8, the Heart of the City Festival features more than 100 events – music, stories, poetry, theatre, ceremony, film, dance, readings, workshops, discussions, art talks, history walks and more – all rooted in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside (DTES). Among the performers is award-winning counselor and stand-up comic David Granirer, founder of Stand Up for Mental Health, which teaches stand-up comedy to people with mental illness as a way of building confidence and fighting stigma.

photo - Counselor and stand-up comic David Granirer will perform, with other comedians from Stand Up for Mental Health, on Nov. 5, as part of the Dowtown Eastside Heart of the City Festival — Counselor and stand-up comic David Granirer will perform, with other comedians from Stand Up for Mental Health, on Nov. 5, as part of the Dowtown Eastside Heart of the City Festival. (photo from Heart of the City Festival)

On Nov. 5, 4 p.m., at Carnegie Community Centre’s theatre, Granirer, with comedians from Stand Up for Mental Health, will look at the lighter side of taking meds, seeing counselors, getting diagnosed and surviving the mental health system.

The festival kicks off on Oct. 31 at Carnegie’s theatre with a Halloween event. Dress in costume, walk the red carpet, enter the costume contest to win a prize, and gear up for disco-ball dancing with DJ Maxi and crew spinning tunes. Hosted by Lance Lim of the Pigeon Den Art Collective, there will be masquerade magic and community fun for friends and families alike, refreshments provided.

Some other highlights in the upcoming festival are:

• Gerardo Avila’s theatrical performance Spirit Encounters celebrates Día de Muertos and features shadow puppetry, comedy, flamenco and Mexican dancing and music.

• Indigenous Cultural Exhibition with dancing, drumming and community, featuring Two-Spirit grass dancer Larissa Healey and Powwow dancer Pavel Desjarlais.

• Finding My Own Voice, a new folk opera work-in-progress presentation by Beverly Dobrinsky.

• Theatre in the Raw presents staged readings of two award-winning plays from their Biennial One-Act Playwriting Contest.

For more about this year’s festival, visit heartofthecityfestival.com.

– Courtesy Heart of the City Festival

Chutzpah! opens on Nov. 12

Lorin Sklamberg, left, Sasha Lurje and Craig Judelman close the 10-day festival of comedy, music, theatre, dance and storytelling on Nov. 23 with Yiddish Songs of Social Change. (photo from Chutzpah! Festival)

The Chutzpah! Festival returns for its 25th anniversary with a mix of festival favourites and new discoveries in a lineup of performances Nov. 12-23, showcasing music, theatre, comedy, dance and storytelling through a multicultural Jewish lens.

“This Chutzpah! Festival is one of collaboration and celebration, combining past artistic managing director Jessica Gutteridge’s vision and my own,” said the festival’s new artistic managing director, Shayna Goldberg. “Chutzpah!’s legacy over the last 25 years has been to share diverse work from a multitude of Jewish perspectives, and the offerings this year are just as thrilling and exciting as any other. For 10 days this November, come and experience the best of what Canadian and international artists have to offer.”

photo - Israeli-American comedian Modi Rosenfeld brings his Pause for Laughter Tour to Vancouver on Nov. 12 to open the festival — Israeli-American comedian Modi Rosenfeld brings his Pause for Laughter Tour to Vancouver on Nov. 12 to open the festival. *(photo from Chutzpah! Festival)*

The festival opens Nov. 12, 8 p.m., at the Vogue Theatre with Modi Rosenfeld, presented in partnership with MRG Live. The Israeli-American comedian brings his Pause for Laughter Tour here for the festival.

Erik Angel, also an Israeli-American comedian, brings his project Comedy for Peace to Chutzpah! on Nov. 22, 7:30 p.m., at the Rothstein Theatre. Aimed at uniting communities through humour and mutual understanding, Comedy for Peace brings together stand-up comedians – Jewish, Christian, Muslim – for a show of “no politics. just laughs.” Joining Angel will be Ashley Austin Morris, Natan Badalov and Zara Khan. (See jewishindependent.ca/comedy-can-unite-and-heal.)

Chutzpah presents the West Coast debut of 8 Gays of Channukah: The Musical (Canada) at the Rothstein Theatre Nov. 13, 7:30 p.m. Blending Broadway-style musical numbers with comedy, drag artistry and Jewish joy, eight stories are brought to life by show creators Gila Münster, Sarah Freia and Yan Simon. The show includes an opening act by a local artist and there will be an 8 Gays of Channukah Shuk, featuring the work of local artisans, where you can pick up some gifts for the holidays.

Lea Kalisch’s Shtetl Cabaret (Switzerland/United States/Canada) is a night of collaborations featuring Tobias Moss and local Vancouver artists including Mike Braverman and Jason Overy. This show, which takes place Nov. 19, 7:30 p.m., at the Beaumont Studios (19+ venue), presents Jewish music, from forgotten melodies to original songs, and mashups from rap to rumba and folk to feminism.

Yiddish Songs of Social Change (United States/Germany/Latvia), presented by the Golden Thread Septet, explores Yiddish music as a tool for and reflection of social change, and features Lorin Sklamberg and Sasha Lurje, with arrangements by Craig Judelman. Judelman has arranged the Yiddish and English songs in a style that reflects the context of the songs themselves and honours the centuries-old tradition of using all these influences to inform the creation of new Yiddish music. In addition to the performance on Nov. 23, 7:30 p.m., at the Rothstein, Sklamberg, Lurje and Judelman will lead a free workshop about Yiddish music and dance that same day, at 2 p.m. Come explore both traditional and contemporary versions of Yiddish music and learn how you can dance along.

Back by popular demand, Chutzpah! and Vancouver Opera present Ne. Sans Opera & Dance’s Take This Waltz: Celebrating the Music of Leonard Cohen (Canada/Israel). This operatic and contemporary dance performance inspired by Canadian singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen was originally presented in 2022 as a Chutzpah! Plus event. Created by local choreographer Idan Cohen and bass-baritone Daniel Okulitch, it features Okulitch alongside dancer/musician Ted Littlemore and a virtuoso live ensemble of strings and accordion. Take This Waltz is at the Rothstein Theatre Nov. 15 and 16, 7:30 p.m. (See jewishindependent.ca/celebrating-leonard-cohen.)

On Nov. 20, 7:30 p.m., at the Rothstein Theatre, Chutzpah! presents the North American premiere of Common Place (Australia/Israel) by power-duo dancer/choreographer Omer Backley-Astrachan and multiple-award-winning dancer Jana Castillo. Common Place is a physical exploration of belonging and togetherness, delving into shared action, collaboration and synchronization.

Deb Williams returns to Chutzpah! with the Flame, an evening of storytelling, on Nov. 17, 7:30 p.m., at the Rothstein Theatre. The Flame is a grassroots series where real people share their personal, true stories in front of an audience under Williams’s direction. This edition will feature a multicultural group including Karen Segal, Dhana Musil and others. Williams will also host an in-depth weekend workshop prior to the event (Nov. 15 and 16, at the Post at 750) to help storytellers hone their craft.

On Nov. 18, 7:30 p.m., at the Rothstein, Chutzpah! presents I’m Not a Comedian … I’m Lenny Bruce (United States), a one-man show exploring the life and battles of one of the most groundbreaking comedians of all time, Lenny Bruce. Created and performed by Ronnie Marmo and directed by Tony Award-winner Joe Mantegna, this show threads Bruce’s original comedic bits with insights from his writings.

Other workshops and talkbacks with festival artists, facilitated by members of the Vancouver arts community, will run throughout the festival. Visit the festival website for updates and registration information.

Most single tickets for Chutzpah!’s live performances are offered at a pay-what-you-will price, with the levels at $18, $36, $52 and $70 (+ gst/sc). I’m Not a Comedian … I’m Lenny Bruce is $40 (students/seniors), $54 (general) and $72 (VIP) (+gst/sc). ChutzPacks are also available, for $136: see four different regular-price shows of your choice. Tickets for Modi can be purchased through admitone.com/events. For tickets to any of the performances and more information about any of the events, visit chutzpahfestival.com or call 604-257-5145.

– Courtesy Chutzpah! Festival

Campaign launch nears

Comedian Elon Gold will perform a full show of comedy at the launch of the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver’s annual campaign on Sept. 11. (photo by Limor Garfinkle)

Comedian Elon Gold helps the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver launch its annual fundraising campaign on Sept. 11.

The last time the Jewish Independent spoke with Gold, in 2019, he was driving from his home in Los Angeles to Las Vegas, with his family, for a Jewish National Fund event. This time, he had returned home from New York, where he performed gigs all over the East Coast, from DC to Jersey to the Catskills.

It’s a tradition for Gold and his family – wife Sasha and their four children – to spend summers in New York, though, this year, his oldest son, 24, has a job, so had to stay in Los Angeles.

“We all have really fun summers together because both of our families are from New York,” said Gold. All their oldest friends are also in New York, he added. “So, it’s like a summer of recharging, with our roots and our family and all that.”

Amid performing at various venues, working on a film, writing a TV series and creating a new comedy special, among other things, Gold gets great joy from doing shows for Jewish organizations.

“My motto is, ‘everything matters and nothing matters.’ That’s how you should look at life, and that’s how you should look at gigs,” he told the Independent.

The nothing matters isn’t about being “lackadaisical and lazy and dismissive,” he said, but more about reducing the stress level.

“It doesn’t really matter, it’s just a gig. If it doesn’t go well, I’ll have another one tomorrow, whatever, it’s fine. It takes the pressure off,” said Gold. “But everything matters is also a big part of it, because everything does matter, and every gig, to me, is important.

“It’s important for myriad reasons. The whole community is getting together and to let them down would be very upsetting, not just to them, but to me,” he said. “I always call these nights of community, unity and comedy. So, it does matter that you not just do well, but I try to hit it out of the park every time.”

photo - Elon Gold performs in Vancouver Sept. 11 — Elon Gold performs in Vancouver Sept. 11. *(photo by Limor Garfinkle)*

Since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attacks on Israel, community gatherings like the Federation’s campaign launch, are especially important, said Gold.

“We need these nights more than ever before,” he said. “We need these nights to forget that the world hates us, which also is perception, not reality…. The world doesn’t really hate us – there’s far too many people who do hate us, but the world as a whole?

“I was talking to my friend in Israel – I’m writing a TV series in Israel that we’re going to film there, hopefully in the spring – and he was saying he just went to Greece. All you see on social media is they hate the Israelis, [but] everyone we met said, ‘Oh, you’re Israeli? Wow, welcome,’ and gave us hugs.”

That being said, Gold acknowledged we’re living in a frightening time and antisemitism is prevalent.

“But it’s not omnipresent, it’s not everywhere,” he said. “It’s groups of people. There have always been groups of people who hate us, and I always say to Jews, don’t take it so personally. Usually, those groups hate other groups. It’s not just us that people hate. Racism doesn’t start and end with us, but, for some reason, we seem to be the favourite scapegoat of humanity and a lot of it is on us. And, again, I’m not dismissing antisemitism – it is so real.”

Referencing the Jewish man in Montreal who was beaten in front of his children, calling it “disgusting,” Gold said, “It’s really a constant, whether it’s Colorado or DC or wherever you look, there’s another attack, so that’s why we have to be strong and vigilant and stay safe, but also we can’t live our life through the prism of everybody hates us and everything’s terrible. The truth is, a lot of people have always hated us, and whether it’s, ‘they are drinking the blood of Christian children’ to ‘they’re starving Palestinian children,’ they’re blood libels. This is the latest iteration of a blood libel that gives the haters an excuse to hate.”

Gold pointed to inaccurate reporting by the media, including the New York Times’s use on its cover of a photo of a sick, emaciated child in Gaza, wrongly claiming the child was starving.

“It turns out it’s a genetic disease that he has,” said Gold, “and so many of the pictures have been falsified and misrepresented as starvation, when they are children with diseases, which is tragic in its own right, but to blame Israel … and to put that on the cover of the New York Times, that incites and emboldens the haters to hate us and attack us even more. So, it’s all based on lies. The only truth is that there is a war that Israel didn’t start or want and must fight to the end or there’ll be Oct. 7 every day until the last Jew standing. So, we shouldn’t apologize for defending ourselves ever again – but we do have to clarify all the mistruths out there that are representing the Jewish state, and thereby the Jewish people, in the worst light.”

After Oct. 7, Gold needed to step back from work. “For the first few weeks, I found no humour, I was in a state of shock and traumatized, like everybody,” he said. “I actually canceled gigs, I couldn’t do them.”

But one gig he wasn’t allowed to cancel was emceeing a Jewish Federation of Los Angeles event that happened in the shadow of Oct. 7.

“Steven Singer from the Federation in LA said, ‘No, no, we’re insisting that you do it, and that you do open with 10 minutes of comedy in a respectful way. We really need this and … even though we’re still mourning, we have to start healing…. It was the first time I went back on stage, almost a month in,” said Gold.

The terror attacks and the hostages are continually on his mind, he said, but he must pull himself back from those thoughts.

Fortunate to have had an “average to normal childhood,” with parents who “are amazing and brought us up in a loving, happy house … my comedy doesn’t come from pain,” he said. “And now, I’m in more pain emotionally than I’ve ever been with everything going on, but I push it away because, if I delve in too much for too long, I won’t be able to come out of it, I won’t be able to be the funny guy.

“And it’s not just my responsibility,” he said. “In life, I’m fulfilling my purpose by being light and fun and funny, and bringing that to other people, so I can’t get too into it because my rage for what happened and what’s happening and how the world is denying or excusing Oct. 7, the way the world’s demanding the end to the existence of our ancestral homeland – it’s so infuriating and so depressing. If I focus and harp on it too much, I won’t be able to deliver the goods.”

And delivering the goods is something he is compelled to do, by his very nature. When COVID-19 hit and the forecast was that it would last only a few weeks, Gold said his first thought was that he’d catch up on every TV streaming service, binge on shows he’d never been able to watch with four kids and a job that is pretty much 24/7. But, by Day 2 of the pandemic, he was doing a daily show on Instagram Live called My Funny Quarantine.

“Every day at 6:13, which is the number of mitzvahs in the Torah, I would do an 18-minute show, which is also, again, significant, 18 is chai [life],” he said. Most of Gold’s Instagram followers are Jewish, so the show had a lot of Jewish themes, though the guests were wide-ranging, including comedians from Jim Gaffigan to Bill Burr to Tiffany Haddish, Jay Leno and Michael Serra.

Gold’s friend, screenwriter and director Jeremy Garelick, loved My Funny Quarantine and suggested Gold do a Jewish dating show every Saturday night.

The Bachor (bachor is Hebrew for young man, guy) ran for a couple of years. “I made two shidduchim [matches],” said Gold.

“It was a way for people to connect, and no one was doing anything, no one could go anywhere, and I had so many people watching live,” he said.

Gold also did Zoom stand-up shows and outdoor performances during the pandemic. More recently, he worked on the film The Badchan, spending a month in Israel for it. He’s been to Israel four times in the last two years, he said, doing shows.

“Badchan is like a wedding jester,” Gold explained. The film was written by Shuli Rand and Gidi Dar, who did the 2004 film Ushpizin (Guests) together.

“To me, every decade has a seminal cultural Jewish film, like Yentl or Fiddler or The Chosen or their Ushpizin,” said Gold. “And I think this is going to be that film of this decade. It’s going to come out in November, hopefully.”

Gold is currently developing a new hour-long comedy special, which will come out sometime near the end of next year perhaps.

“It’s really exciting,” said Gold, “because Chris Rock, one of my comedy mentors, he said every special should be like a thesis and I have the thesis for this one, and I already have been closing for 20 minutes with this thesis. And so, now I’m just building it out, and I think it’s going to be very fun and relatable, because I’m getting more personal in my comedy.”

He said, “The more you reveal, the more they relate.”

“Little arguments with the wife, little stories that happen, when you share them, I have not just men but women coming over to me going, oh my God, are you in my house? How do you know this happens? I’m like, because it happens to me…. The comedian’s job is to relate and connect, to have this shared experience where you’re taking observations about human behaviour … and laughing about it.”

As for Gold’s performance here on Sept. 11, it represents more than just a good many laughs.

“I think everyone should come out,” he said. “I think we all need nights like this event, and supporting your local community and your local Federation, that’s one of the best ways to help us all get through these tough, insane times where the world feels upside down. I’ll try to turn the world right side up for even just a little bit, even just for one night.”

For tickets ($36) to Gold’s show on Sept. 11, go to jewishvancouver.com/faco25.

Jacob Samuel’s new special

Jacob Samuel self-produced his newest comedy special, Big Talk. (Chelsey Stuyt Photography)

Jacob Samuel’s second comedy special, Big Talk, premiered on YouTube last month and already it has racked up more than 20,000 views. The Vancouver-based comedian filmed the 52-minute special in front of live audiences at the city’s China Cloud Studio. In addition to writing and performing, Samuel gets producing, directing and editing credits.

Much of the material in Big Talk was worked out over five years, a period punctuated by Samuel’s winning a 2021 Juno Award for best comedy album for his first special, Horse Power. And that win was not the first time the comedian was recognized for his work.

At 25 years old, Samuel submitted some of his original single-panel cartoons to The New Yorker magazine, which published some of them – a notable achievement, especially at such a young age. Several other publications have featured his humorous illustrations, as well, including the Jewish Independent. He has published two books of single-panel cartoons.

Samuel has been performing stand-up for years – at clubs, on stages, television and radio, at festivals. He’s a regular on CBC Radio’s The Debaters.

His drive to perform started early in life.

“Honestly, I’m still trying to convince myself I can competently tell a joke,” he told the Independent. “Growing up, my parents and their friends revered clever comedians. I always felt that being funny was a difficult thing that people valued. As far as I can remember, I have always been driven to get up and talk in front of people even though I wasn’t naturally great at it – when I was young, I had some minor speech impediments.”

As for his gutsy New Yorker submissions, he said, “It seemed like a fun thing to try. I’ve always had a certain misplaced confidence about going after things … I’m not sure why. I think I was blessed with a certain level of obliviousness and an audacity to go for things that I found interesting/exciting.”

Samuel’s new special shows off his rapid delivery and finely honed comedic timing, and the material supports his affable relationship with the audience. The jokes in Big Talk run the gamut, covering the joys and challenges of welcoming a new puppy, the mental health benefits of knitting, the absurdity of the Honda Odyssey, being newly married (Big Talk’s jokes are “officially approved” by his spouse), and other very funny bits.

Being successful requires more than just comedic writing talent and good timing.

“Being a comedian now is like running a small business,” he said. “I have a manager now, but I still manage much of my booking, touring, and sometimes I even produce my own shows. So, I spend just as much time doing ‘comedy admin work’ as I do writing and performing material. You can’t really advance your career now by being exclusively an ‘artist.’ I maintain many comedy spreadsheets, which maybe sounds like an oxymoron.”

Even after all the commercial elements have been satisfied, there are still obstacles to confront. Being an artist who is driven to perform does not mean there are no pre-show jitters, Samuel shared. “The fact that people are coming to see me now actually makes me a bit nervous because I hope I’m as good as what they expect.”

Big Talk feels more personal than Samuel’s previous work, while also featuring plenty of material about everyday human struggles and absurdity.

“I still feel like my comedy is pretty observational but maybe I’m digging more into my personal life subconsciously now,” he acknowledged. “I think maybe I’m gravitating towards more personal material because that is what people tend to connect with more. Maybe I’m getting more inspired to do personal material because, as I get older, I think I’ve gotten a better sense of myself. I think it’s a natural part of maturing, to go from observing the world around to becoming more self-conscious. Having said that, I still love observational comedy. I think my favourite type of comedy weaves both together.”

The use of social media has its benefits, like building an audience, but it comes with costs, too.

“The pressure to produce more content has grown exponentially…. Many of the comedians who are now gaining the most fans are just churning out content,” said Samuel. “So, I do feel more pressure to do that, to keep up, but I’m pretty good at keeping it to a reasonable level so as to not burn out. I need to make sure I’m still having fun writing and performing, so I limit how much I’m going to indulge those pressures.”

But he can’t completely avoid them, as social media has the power to make or break projects in this era.

“The benefits of social media are pretty enormous, in that you can gain an audience without having to go through any gatekeepers,” said Samuel. “The risk is that you start ‘creating for the algorithm only’ and start trying to make content based on what you think will go viral as opposed to what you find funny. Then I think you just end up sounding like other comedians who are doing the same.”

Asked about the potential impacts of artificial intelligence, Samuel said. “If you asked me this a year ago, I would say I was not at all afraid of AI. It seemed that it would write jokes that were very basic, crude and pretty unfunny. However, since then, it’s gotten a lot better. I think AI can be useful in comedy but I’m also pretty worried about it. I was playing around with AI a few weeks ago and it’s getting pretty good at writing comedy that is formulaic or follows a basic structure. I’ve heard of some other comedians using it to see if their idea is creative enough – if the AI can think of it, then it’s not. It could also be useful as a brainstorming tool. I think AI will change comedy, but I don’t think it will put comics out of business because people crave human connection. Will it make comedy worse or better? It could go either way.”

AI is not the only complexity these days.

“I don’t think any topics are beyond the pale … but some are a lot harder to make an audience laugh at than others,” said Samuel. “When people complain that certain topics should not be joked about, it’s often that the jokes they’ve heard about that topic just were not clever or nuanced enough. I think the more intense and heavier the world is, the more important comedy is…. Comedy is a great way to cope with uncertainty, but I’m also concerned about the increasing amount of comedy that is just feeding off of and confirming disinformation and catering to specific groups’ political views rather than challenging them.”

Asked about what it is like to be a Jew in comedy, particularly during the events of the last couple of years, Samuel said, “I’m not sure I have a great answer…. I don’t think it’s really impacted my career. It has impacted how I feel about being a Jewish performer. I do think that it’s more important now to talk and joke about being Jewish. I definitely feel like a form of antisemitism that was previously contained has now been unleashed in several forms. My only response to that as an individual is to find more ways to joke about being Jewish on stage and not to shy away from talking about being Jewish.”

Big Talk is dedicated to the memory of Samuel’s mother, who passed away in 2021.

“It probably wouldn’t surprise people to know that my mom was my biggest supporter,” he said. “I’m sure she would’ve become a full-time press agent for this special. When I published my second book of cartoons, in 2017, she managed to get a copy to the prime minister somehow (true story). Justin Trudeau sent me a signed letter about it – he was more popular then….

“My mom made a significant professional contribution to Canada’s Jewish community,” added Samuel. “She was the executive director of Toronto’s Jewish affordable housing agency for two decades and was very proud of her work and the impact it had on helping people access affordable housing.

“When I won the Juno Award, I was in the midst of dealing with my mom being very ill. It was the most difficult thing I’ve ever had to deal with. Although I don’t talk about it explicitly, I developed most of the material for this special in the wake of losing my mom. Building this act was something I could work on to process my grief. There’s also something about losing a family member that makes you want to take action in life. It definitely contributed towards my drive to produce this show as an actual comedy special and take the risk of self-producing and self-releasing it.”

Big Talk can be seen on YouTube, which is “the only place to watch [it,] unless someone reading this owns a streaming network and wants to make a deal,” Samuel said.

As for the near future, Samuel has another “special” to produce.

“My wife and I are expecting our first child very soon,” he shared. “So, I’m going on a hiatus from touring and performing for a few months. After that, I will probably be back on the local circuit, likely with some new material about how relaxing it is to have a new baby.”

Bringing joy to people

Ira Pettle, middle, with actors Dave Francis and Cedar Lynn Dobbin. (photo from Ira Pettle)

Laugh Out LIVE! will be hitting the road in the fall. On the list of cities and towns it will be visiting are Pemberton, Squamish, North Vancouver and Bowen Island, with classes on the North Shore coming this winter.

Known as a children’s entertainer for the last 25 years, Ira Pettle began producing Laugh Out LIVE! in December 2021 in Whistler with funny woman and partner, Rebecca Mason.

“Comedy has always been on my radar. Laughter is the best medicine and it lights me up to bring joy to others. Being raised on SNL, In Living Color, and a countless number of comedy films, TV shows, actors and the like, I feel like I’ve always known this was one of the paths for me,” Pettle recently told the Jewish Independent.

Currently, Laugh Out LIVE! brings stand-up, improv and sketch comedy shows to packed houses at various venues in Whistler, including the Maury Young Arts Centre, Rainbow Theatre, Whistler Conference Centre, Dusty’s Bar & BBQ, and the Garibaldi Lift Co. Bar & Grill (GLC). Pettle performs in all three shows.

The Marquee Variety Show is devoted to a mix of different comedic acts and can involve improv, sketch, musical comedy, film and parody. The Improv Battle pits teams against each other weekly “to claim unscripted victory,” and Stand-Up Standoff is a monthly competition where the best comics win $500 in prize money. There are also opportunities for writers, theatre technicians, stage managers and filmmakers on the show’s website.

Pettle began his improv and sketch career at the Second City Conservatory program in Toronto but was drawn to comedy from an early age.

“As a kid, I was always drawn to and fascinated by comedy. Watching The Carol Burnett Show, and SCTV (Second City Television) with John Candy, Eugene Levy, Andrea Martin, Catherine O’Hara, Rick Moranis … those were the most influential comedy shows for me as a young, aspiring performer,” said Pettle, who lists Jerry Seinfeld, Mel Brooks, Gene Wilder, Adam Sandler and Bob Einstein as the Jewish comics he has been most influenced by.

Pettle has a master’s of education and has taught improv, acting and music to thousands of kids, teens and adults. In 2022, his debut children’s album, A Little Bit, co-written with Juno Award-winning singer/songwriter Norman Foote, was nominated for children’s artist of the year at the 2023 Western Canadian Music Awards. His next record is slated for release this winter.

Known as “DJ Ira” throughout the Sea-to-Sky Corridor, Pettle is a sought-after family entertainer. As a key player in the BC performing arts scene, he was named the 2019 Champion of Arts and Culture at the Whistler Excellence Awards, with another nomination at the 2023 awards.

“I discovered very early in my life that I was a performer,” he said. “An entertainer. I remember as a kid, the joy I felt bringing a smile to someone or soliciting a laugh. In those early days, it was my coming to the dinner table on all fours, pretending I was an ape, making my mom giggle, or going to the Blue Jays baseball game when I was 14 with my buddies and pretending to fall down the stadium stairs, getting 500 people sitting in the stands to simultaneously gasp.”

Today, when he’s not entertaining children or performing comedy, Pettle leads a number of improv, stand-up comedy, public speaking and presentation workshops. He uses improvisation as a tool to “release tension, awaken joy and return to the present moment.”

Many of the performers on his improv stage started out taking classes with him.

Pettle grew up in Toronto and says that learning about Judaism was a huge turning point in his life.

“Having been raised Reform, and being the grandchild of a Holocaust survivor, I was always told how important my Jewish roots were,” he shared. “But, because my family’s religious practices were very surface level, I was confused and became deeply confronted by what I was told versus what I was doing in my daily life as a ‘Jew’ and, through a series of divine interventions, became committed, for the first time, to seeking out a deeper understanding of my Jewish roots.”

Pettle eventually found out about the yeshivah Ohr Somayach and studied with them in Israel.

“I felt ready (and passionately interested) in making a clear choice on whether to declare myself Jewish definitively and pursue/develop a more conscious connection to Judaism, or allow my Jewish roots to remain as is, or simply fall by the wayside/disappear. I needed to dive deep into the learning at the source.”

Pettle’s connection to Judaism was affirmed and, with a renewed and more solid understanding of his cultural roots and heritage, he remains, he said, “very honoured to be Jewish.”

To contact Pettle regarding his work as a kids entertainer, go to irapettle.com. For Laugh Out LIVE! inquiries, contact him via laughoutlive.com.

Cassandra (Cass) Freeman is a Vancouver improviser and journalist.

An almost great movie

Coexistence, My Ass! follows Israeli activist and comedian Noam Shuster Eliassi as she develops her show of the same name. (photo from DOXA)

Coexistence, My Ass!, directed and produced by Amber Fares, is almost a great documentary. But it fails to ask at least two key questions that would have made for a more in-depth portrayal of an interesting and complex human being.

Coexistence, My Ass!, whose May 4 screening at the DOXA Documentary Film Festival already has sold out, is about comedian Noam Shuster Eliassi, who was born in Wahat Al-Salam / Neve Shalom / Oasis of Peace, a village in which Jewish and Palestinian Israelis have chosen to live together. It has been considered a model of coexistence and Shuster Eliassi grew up amid the idealism it represented, and speaks Arabic fluently. She and her best friend (to this day), Ranin, a Palestinian Israeli living in Oasis of Peace, were among the kids trotted out as the generation who would bring peace.

Shuster Eliassi’s mother is Jewish Iranian and her father is Jewish Romanian. The couple met in high school (in what country is not revealed), so basically grew up together. They decided to live in Oasis of Peace and became, says Shuster Eliassi in her act, what most Israelis love to hate most: woke, progressive leftists. “They believe in the radical idea that Israelis and Palestinians deserve the same equal human rights! Crazy. So radical.”

It seems important to know why Shuster Eliassi’s parents left their respective countries to live in Israel, but especially her mother. With Iran as the main funder of Hamas’s – and other terrorists’ – murderous activities, and the fact that tens of thousands of Jews had to flee after the 1979 revolution, it seems that Shuster Eliassi’s mother’s experience is crucial to understanding Shuster Eliassi. But this question, if ever asked, doesn’t make it into the film.

Shuster Eliassi is an intelligent and accomplished person. By age 15, she had graduated, so to speak, from being one of the kids giving flowers to visiting celebrities (who would often mistake her, because of her dark skin, for being Palestinian – and with such good Hebrew!) to speaking around the world about coexistence and the possibilities for peace. At 21, she got a full scholarship at Brandeis University for being a peace activist. She even met the Dalai Lama, who, she quips, didn’t think she was Palestinian – “He just thought I was Indian.”

At 25, Shuster Eliassi landed a “peace worker’s dream job” – a position at the United Nations. We don’t learn much about what her job entailed, but there are clips of her speaking about the West Bank and Gaza as being the biggest prisons in the world, and how “the occupation” affects Palestinians and Israelis. Career-wise, she was on a wave of success, she says in her show, when she saw Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s TV program, made before he was elected, about a comedian who becomes president. Zelenskyy, of course, then did become president, so Shuster Eliassi observes that, if she wanted to take her political career seriously, she needed to start writing jokes.

photo - Comedian Noam Shuster Eliassi in performance — Comedian Noam Shuster Eliassi in performance. *(photo from DOXA)*

This takes us to where the film begins, with her at Harvard in 2019, where she’s been asked to deliver a peace-building project. She tells them that Coexistence, My Ass! will be that project, and she’s accepted.

In the documentary, we see the development of Coexistence, My Ass! and how Shuster Eliassi’s views change as the political situation in Israel deteriorates and the violence increases. Her parents are often her sounding board, as are friends and fellow comedians. We witness the results of a hate crime – the school in Oasis of Peace was set on fire in September 2020. We see moments of happiness, most unexpectedly, perhaps, when Shuster Eliassi returns to Israel from the United States with COVID and must be quarantined in a hotel, where sick Jews and Palestinians are being isolated from the general population.

“And everyone is radically getting along. This is a 5-star oasis of peace. If they continue getting along, my comedy career is over. Just kidding, you’ve read the news, I have material for years. Netanyahu has my back,” says Shuster Eliassi in her act. “Somebody give him a beeper,” she adds sheepishly, referring to Israel’s taking out of Hezbollah with exploding pagers in September 2024.

Months before Oct. 7, 2023, Shuster Eliassi was disillusioned and would get into yelling matches with Jewish Israelis protesting the Netanyahu government and dangers to democracy because their protests didn’t also explicitly call for equal rights for Palestinians. Whereas pre-COVID, she says, “My biggest responsibility is to speak to my people…. The Jewish audience is where we have to work,” the purpose of Shuster Eliassi’s comedy ceases at some point to be a way to encourage peace and becomes a form of resistance.

After Oct. 7, when some of Shuster Eliassi’s family and friends abandon their belief in coexistence because they feel peace with Palestinians isn’t possible, Shuster Eliassi goes the other way, giving up on coexistence because she feels – though doesn’t state explicitly – that peace with Jewish Israelis is not possible.

Moria, a comedy writer, advises Shuster Eliassi that people need to hear what Shuster Eliassi has to say, but it can’t just be “genocide, genocide!” The role of a comedian, says Moria, is “to bring people together. To unify. We can’t stop the killing, but we can unify people. To get people to see the world through your eyes.”

“No, that’s not what I’m doing,” responds Shuster Eliassi, who explains that her goal isn’t to unify, it’s “to voice resistance to this insane show of force that has swept everyone up blindly.”

Shuster Eliassi’s friend Ranin reluctantly retains hope for coexistence because, otherwise, she tells Shuster Eliassi, there is no place for Palestinians and Arabs within Israel. For Shuster Eliassi, though, by the end of the film, there seems to be no place for Jews in Israel. She only sees fault with Israel, and somehow thinks that Hamas wouldn’t want to kill all Jews if Israel had dealt with “the occupation.”

If memory serves, Hamas is only mentioned once in the documentary, in a clip from Shuster Eliassi’s show, where it is part of a joke, perhaps one told before 2023, it’s not clear. Why Hamas plays little or no role in Shuster Eliassi’s view of the evolving situation is the second of those two key questions that would have made Coexistence, My Ass! a better film.

While Shuster Eliassi laments that Israelis – even the coexistence crowd – are not able to meet Palestinians where they’re at, she is unable to meet her fellow Jewish Israelis where they are at. While she is comfortable performing at a Palestinian festival where she’s greeted by a man wearing a “Palestine vs the world” T-shirt that, on the back, has a Palestinian flag over all Israel, she isn’t comfortable with Israelis who would fill out that same map with no Palestinian territories. While she is correct that peace is only possible between equals, she only sees one oppressor – Israel. Not Hamas. Not any other international party, like Iran. Just Israel.

Many of the people at the sold-out screening of Coexistence, My Ass! will think it’s the most amazing film ever because, despite attempting to be fair – and it seems like Fares honestly did try to present multiple sides – it ultimately heralds their anti-Zionist beliefs and justifies them. Others will be disappointed that Coexistence, My Ass! ends up being just another anti-Israel film, which will, no doubt, win more awards than it has already, despite its critical flaws.