stand-up

Laugh for good causes

Helen Schneiderman headlines and David Granirer emcees the Stand Up for Mental Health show at the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver on June 1. (photos from JCC)

“There are many comedy shows out there, but not many like this one,” Kyle Berger told the Independent. “I keep saying that this will be the ‘feel-good comedy of the year,’ but it really will be. These comics will show us that we can laugh at just about anything and feel inspired at the same time – with all proceeds going to incredible causes. I can’t wait!”

Berger is the sports coordinator at the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver and the delegation head of JCC Maccabi. He is also a stand-up comic and a producer with Rise of the Comics. It is in all these capacities that he is participating in the Stand Up for Mental Health comedy show at the JCC on June 1, 7:30 p.m.

A joint fundraiser for the Stand Up for Mental Health (SMH) Comedy Society and JCC Maccabi Vancouver, Berger is producing the event, with the support of Stand Up for Mental Health, and will be performing a set himself. “It will be a huge honour for me to share the stage with this crew,” he said.

“This crew” includes SMH founder, counselor and comedian David Granirer.

“Stand Up for Mental Health is my program teaching stand-up comedy to people like myself with mental illnesses as a way of building confidence and fighting public stigma,” Granirer explained. “We have been around since 2004 and have trained approximately 300 comics and done hundreds of shows for government, corporations, the military, correctional facilities, medical schools, etc.”

photo - Kyle Berger — Kyle Berger *(photo from JCC)*

Berger attended one of those performances last year, in which SMH Comedy Society showcased “their students’ incredible talents, and I absolutely loved it,” he said. “I knew some of the SMH Comedy board members from working together in the comedy scene and made the connection right away. They are always looking for venues and new audiences and I knew I wanted to do something with comedy as a JCC Maccabi Games fundraiser, so inviting them to team up seemed like a no-brainer to me.”

Also performing next week will be Helen Schneiderman, who headlines the show.

Schneiderman’s comic career began in 2018, when she took a comedy course at Langara College that was taught by Granirer. She said she did it, “mainly to get off the couch. I didn’t expect to love it so much, nor to continue doing it after the class. But, once I got my first few laughs, I was hooked. Over the past couple of years, I’ve gotten more comfortable sharing my experiences and perspectives, and I try to remember to always have fun up there.”

Being able to do stand-up comedy has influenced how Schneiderman navigates through life.

“I now see the world through ‘funny glasses,’” she said. “Every interaction and experience has the potential to be a joke – not always a good joke, but a joke nonetheless. My day job is delivering leadership training and so I get to have a captive audience, even at work.”

In addition to her day job and other involvements, Schneiderman has been on the board of SMH Comedy Society for four years, and board president for the past two years.

“I’m involved with the organization because it’s doing really important work to tackle the stigma of mental health,” she said. “It’s a fantastic program, and I am in awe of the comics who share their stories with so much vulnerability and smart humour.”

People can find out more about SMH at smhsociety.org. Post-pandemic, the society is once again holding live classes and shows, as well as continuing to put on Zoom shows. The pandemic, said Granirer, “made me realize that, by being creative on Zoom, we could reach people all over the English-speaking world. It also made me realize how much people need to have in-person contact in order to maintain their mental health.”

One of the reasons SMH is teaming up with JCC Maccabi Vancouver for this show, he said, is “because they’re a great organization and exercise is crucial to maintaining good mental health.”

The decision to partner was easy for Berger.

“As the delegation head for Vancouver’s JCC Maccabi squad, I am always looking for ways to raise money for scholarships so that anyone who wants to participate in the JCC Maccabi Games experience can do so,” he said. “At the same time, producing and performing stand-up is another hobby and passion of mine, so it always makes sense to me to raise money through laughter. I always love the opportunity to work with other causes or charities, and this one was a match made in heaven.”

The June 1 Stand Up for Mental Health show is being presented by JCC Maccabi Vancouver and Life is Still Funny, which Berger described as “a group of local comedians who might be considered, well, not particularly young, but still quite young at heart! Made up of locals like Helen, Ray [Morrison], as well as recent Canada’s Got Talent contestant Syd Bosel. They are all involved with SMH Comedy Society.”

In addition to Schneiderman, Berger and Granirer, Morrison will perform, as will a few SMH students. Tickets are $20 (plus fees) and are available at eventbrite.ca. There will be a cash bar and a raffle draw at the show. Berger said half of the proceeds will go to SMH Comedy Society and half to JCC Maccabi Vancouver.

The comics rise again on Feb. 20

Kyle Berger, left, and Scotty Aceman, co-producers of Rise of the Comics. (photo from Rise of the Comics)

The outer limits of the laugh-o-meter will be tested on Feb. 20 at the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver’s Rothstein Theatre, when a group of Canada’s top funny people step on stage for A Night of Shticks & Giggles, presented by local comedy producer Rise of the Comics. This will be the third Shticks and Giggles show to raise money for the JCC Maccabi Games.

Headlining the event is Julie Kim, a two-time Canadian Comedy Award nominee for stand-up, who has performed at comedy festivals around the continent and appeared on CBC’s The Debaters and Laugh Out Loud. Her YouTube videos have amassed millions of views and, in 2018, she released her debut comedy album, Outside Voice.

Among other topics, Kim’s routine delves into modern parenting and various cultural issues, sometimes involving life seen from an Asian perspective. Yuk Yuk’s comedy club co-founder Mark Breslin called her “smart, funny, with enough self-awareness to deconstruct her life in a very sophisticated way.”

Other acts in the show, which Rise of the Comics describes as its “best line-up to date,” include Robert Peng, who bills himself as “an unemployed engineer who turned to stand-up comedy out of desperation”; New Zealander Sophia Johnson, “the one who keyed your car but probably shouldn’t have told you that”; Sean McDonnell, who Canadian comedy star Norm MacDonald has praised as “a fantastic talent”; and Brett Nikolic, a maven on Mountain Dew-flavoured weed.

Rise of the Comics is the brainchild of Vancouver stand-up comedian Scotty Aceman, who will also be on stage at Shticks & Giggles. Starting off as a weekly 30-minute program on Shaw Cable with the same name in 2015, the show has highlighted the work of many stand-up comedians who got their start on the local scene, such as Dino Archie and Ivan Decker, who has appeared on Late Night with Conan O’Brien.

Aceman, a University of British Columbia and B.C. Institute of Technology graduate, switched to comedy five years ago, after a 20-year stint in a sales job with Rogers in the corporate wireless phone department.

“Leaving the cellphone business after 20 years was a tough call,” he said. “But you have to chase your dreams. People would ask me, ‘What about my dignity and respect?’ I’d say dignity and respect went out the window the minute I had a Thursday morning bar mitzvah!”

In 2019, Aceman brought in Kyle Berger as co-producer of Rise of the Comics. Berger, sports coordinator at the JCCGV, will be the master of ceremonies for the Feb. 20 Shticks & Giggles.

Before joining the crew, Berger, in his role as JCC Maccabi Games delegation head, had hired Rise of the Comics for a fundraiser. He credits Aceman for allowing him to get his stand-up feet wet, with a debut performance at the Charqui Grill in Kitsilano in 2018.

“Stand-up was one of those things on my bucket list to do by the time I turned 40,” Berger told the Independent. “Scotty (and my then-girlfriend, now fiancée) were both big helpers in getting me up there on stage for a five-minute routine. My fiancée had had enough of me saying I was going to do it.”

Berger said, “Scotty’s reputation within the local comic community is a great asset. Nowadays, Rise of the Comics does all sorts of things, including parties in people’s living rooms. And, last year, we were hired by the Chutzpah! Festival to put on a show.”

Rise of the Comics currently works with a roster of more than 50 stand-up performers of all styles and experiences, and tailors its shows to any situation. They have created performances at such diverse venues as Hy’s Steak House, the Jericho Arts Centre and Ronald McDonald House, among others. Their gigs can cover everything from clean to dirty, social commentary to observational, but always, they say, with an emphasis on the funny.

Berger promises that he and fellow Shticks & Giggles comedians are likely to make mention, in one way or another, that their show is backed by the foundation created by Dr. Neil Pollock, a leading Vancouver male sexual health and circumcision expert, and his wife Michelle.

The show starts at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $20 and can be purchased at m.bpt.me/event/4499277. For more information about Rise of the Comics, visit riseofthecomics.com.

Sam Margolis has written for the Globe and Mail, the National Post, UPI and MSNBC.

Loves making people laugh

Esther Povitsky performs at the Biltmore Cabaret on Feb. 22 as part of JFL NorthWest. (photo from JFL NorthWest)

Chicago-born comedian, actor and writer Esther Povitsky is one of several Jewish community members performing in the Just for Laughs NorthWest comedy festival, which takes place around Metro Vancouver Feb. 13-25. Her credits include being co-creator and star of the show Alone Together, a recurring role on Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, parts on programs such as Brooklyn 99 and Parks and Recreation, stand-up on The Late Late Show and Comedy Central, as well as host of the podcast Glowing Up. The Jewish Independent spoke with her in advance of her Feb. 22 show at the Biltmore Cabaret.

JI: When did you first start doing stand-up and what motivated you to do it?

EP: I love comedy. I love watching it, I love laughing and making people laugh. I also liked the idea of being able to do something creative where I only relied on myself.

JI: Before you started stand-up, what were you working toward education- or career-wise?

EP: I thought I was going to be a professional dancer, and majored in dance in college.

JI: What is it about performing that you most enjoy, in stand-up and in acting?

EP: Having an excuse to drink too much coffee.

JI: When did you move to Los Angeles, and was it for a specific job or more opportunity for work in general?

EP: I did not have any specific jobs lined up! I moved here to pursue stand-up and worked as a babysitter, worked at a gym, a juice bar, and other random gigs.

JI: You describe your stand-up as just being you. Being Jewish on your dad’s side, where/how/does Judaism, Jewish culture or community fit into that, or your comedy series?

EP: I feel that I was raised very culturally Jewish and it’s a big part of my personality and who I am.

JI: In an interview you talk positively about the immediacy of seeing what works and what doesn’t onstage. How do you handle the highs and lows of comedy?

EP: I try to keep busy, stay active, spend quality time with friends and family, do puzzles, watch TV. I try to really focus on doing as many “normal” things as possible.

Povitsky’s Vancouver show is 19+. For tickets and the JFL NorthWest lineup, visit jflnorthwest.com.

Hoffman’s new Crave special

Comedian Robby Hoffman in action. (photo from Bell Media)

Onstage, her energy is barely contained. She delivers lines in a clipped, almost angry fashion, sporting a tight bun and dark clothes. From contemplating pizza’s puzzling popularity, to sharing how one customs officer saw the fire in her that she never knew she had, to musing about what it’s like to be the seventh of 10 children, the fashion choices of antisemites, her sexual prowess and the cost of duotangs, Robby Hoffman is very funny. It is no wonder that Robby Hoffman: I’m Nervous is among the new stand-up comedy specials Bell Media released last month on Crave.

Produced with Just for Laughs and Counterfeit Pictures, Robby Hoffman: I’m Nervous was filmed last September at Toronto’s Longboat Hall during the JFL42 comedy festival.

“It’s huge deal. It was always a dream of mine to have a special, to have a TV special specifically, and to do an hour,” L.A.-based Hoffman told the Independent in a phone interview from London, England, where she was doing gigs, and visiting her girlfriend, writer and director Ally Pankiw, who was there for work. In contrast to her stage persona, Hoffman was relaxed and chatty on the phone.

A lot of comedians self-produce amazing albums or routines in smaller increments of time, said Hoffman, but, “for me, in stand-up, it always felt like the pinnacle to have an hour…. It was a really great way to cap off all the work I’ve been doing since I started, and, to have an hour that was sharp, it felt like everything. And to do it with Just for Laughs, name of all names, it was everything and it was incredibly fun.”

Hoffman’s numerous writing credits include The Chris Gethard Show on TruTV, which just wrapped up last year, episodes of PBS’s Odd Squad (which has won an Emmy for writing), and CBC’s Workin’ Moms and Baroness von Sketch Show. Most recently, she wrote for eight episodes of the series Mind Fudge. The Crave special allowed her to jump back into stand-up full-time.

“To be doing stand-up night after night until this hour was great. And I had never recorded the hour all at once,” she said. “I was doing it in small increments of 10-minute spots, 15-minute spots, seven-minute spots, so when I recorded the hour, it was the first time I had done that hour. I had to nail it, working through all the themes … making sure it all cohesively worked, even though I only really worked on it in portions. So, agonizing over the different portions coming together and working on the transitions from different themes so that they flowed.”

And they do flow, somehow, despite the vast diversity of topics. She said that (apparent) randomness is a signature of hers. She uses it both to take audiences off guard, but also as part of the joke. As well, she uses it to prepare people for what’s coming. For example, she drops hints along the way to warn the audience well in advance that she will be talking about the Holocaust, so that, when she gets there, they will have been with her for some time. Then, she said, when “we’re really in the thick of it together … I’ll reward you with hand-job material or whatever.”

While Hoffman said she doesn’t have any red lines when it comes to comedy, she said, “I talk through my own experiences only. I’m never going to step into a territory that I don’t feel is mine to speak about. But, beyond that…. If it’s something within my realm of what I could talk about and you tell me not to talk about it, that’s what I want to talk about more. For instance, the Holocaust is taboo, and some people are really offended by [jokes about] it. I feel, as a Jew, I’m reclaiming it and, if you’re telling me not to talk about it, I’m going to.”

She said, “I think that Jewish people can talk about Jewish experience. I think black folk can talk about black experience. I don’t think there’s anything off limits within the Jewish community for me. I do think everything is off limits to me with regards to communities I’m not a part of or I don’t have a firsthand experience. My comedy is very firsthand – I’m not doing observational humour that are these one-liners that can relate to anyone. My comedy is unique, such that I’m the only person who could say my comedy…. You hear of big comedians having writers – I don’t feel like that would work for me simply because my comedy is so personal. I’m the only person who can write my own comedy.”

And Hoffman’s background is unique, indeed. Born in Brooklyn, she grew up in Montreal, where her mother raised her and her nine siblings as a single parent, having divorced Hoffman’s father and having left the Chassidic community. Hoffman came out as lesbian in her late teens, left home at 18 and kept kosher until about the same time. She started her working career as an accountant.

“I wanted to have a Plan B,” she explained, “and I knew that the arts was always something free, that if I wanted to do it, I could do it on my own, and I could find a way that wasn’t with the structure of school to do it. But a financial backup plan was not something as easily attained for me, so I went into accounting. I thought, well, I can always get a good job.”

With a laptop from her employer and a regular paycheque every two weeks, Hoffman said, “I felt like a billionaire. I can’t even explain what it was like…. It was just the best to be able to sleep at night. Being worried about money is not something a lot of my peers thought about. I felt very alone in that sort of stuff.”

Once she “felt safe and comfortable,” that’s when her “creative juices went wild,” she said, and that’s when she discovered stand-up.

“I didn’t grow up with it, I wasn’t somebody who had the albums and all this stuff, but, once I knew about it, I immediately thought, ‘Oh, I feel like I could do that.’ I don’t mean to say, ‘Oh, it looks easy.’ A lot of people think they could do it – I felt like it was me. I felt, ‘Oh, my God.’ It felt like me already. And I got started immediately.”

Thinking that all stand-ups wrote, she started writing. Noting that it was only later that she realized how little comedians also write, she said, “I wrote a pilot and, even though it never got made, it did get me rep and it got me writing on other shows and it started my writing career. But it’s amazing how many times I’ve been the only active stand-up and writer in a writers’ room, which I didn’t know.”

Hoffman is driven by her love of the work.

“What’s so incredible about doing what I do and making a living doing what I do is … I never imagined it possible. I didn’t know these careers as careers. I didn’t know writing was even a thing, let alone what you got paid for a script, nothing like that. But waking up and not dreading where I go to work every day is still something I don’t take for granted.”

She started as a writer’s assistant. “I was first one in, would get there early, have my coffee, enjoy. I was last one out. I was never more motivated – and it’s still to this day. I would have to be literally on death’s door not to go into work because I love it so much.

“I’m also really lucky in that the shows that I do work on, I choose to work on them for a certain reason. There’s something about them that either gives me growth or it gives me a challenge or I really just love it. And it’s a pleasure to work creatively all day, every day, and to be valued for it.”

As for what lies ahead, Hoffman said, “I have so many goals. Think of the biggest goal you can imagine, and that’s what I have for myself. Yes, my own show. Yes, who knows, my own studio. I don’t even know where it could go. I just want to try for the biggest, best thing. I want my life to be as much as I want it to be. There’s no limit on wanting that for yourself. There shouldn’t be a limit on dreaming. I never want to lose that.

“I almost, for a second, lost my childhood curiosity and dreaming and spirit, for a second, because, when you are poor and you want to be normal, and you want to make ends meet, you do give up a lot, and I was never somebody who was able to dream. We weren’t told to dream, we weren’t taught to dream, we weren’t taught we could be anything we wanted to be, almost nothing. There was not a lot of encouragement, so I gave that all to myself…. I always want to tell myself to reach for the biggest, best, whatever that is, and that changes for everyone. Within my career and within my capabilities, I want to continue growing forever.”