Simon Brodkin and Ashley Blaker perform at The Chosen Comedy Festival in London
Seven Jewish comedians took to the stage in London for an evening of comedy and music
Louisa Walters is Features Editor at the Jewish News and specialises in food and travel writing
It started with a message of hope in the form of a stunning rendition of Somewhere over the Rainbow sung by Emma Kingston, on a night off from her role as Elphaba in Wicked (a must-see, by the way).
But this wasn’t a musical night – this was a comedy evening, and some of the best Jewish comedians from the UK, Israel and South Africa did everything in their power to lift the mood in what has been another difficult week for the community. Judging by the laughter and the feel-good ambience they did just that.
This was the first UK Chosen Comedy Festival, following successful events in New York, LA and Miami. It is an initiative pioneered by New Yorker Dani Zoldan as an extension of his Stand Up NY comedy club.
Debra Tammer, compering, talked about life as a mother of young girls and how her own mother hasn’t learnt the art of brevity when texting. Mike Maier had the audience in stitches describing how Jews acknowledge each other round the pool on holiday with just a nod of the head and did an all-too-realistic demonstration of shulgoers at a kiddush.
Much-loved Israeli social media star Shahar Cohen appeared as his alter ego Nofar teaching us all the three most important things we need to learn if we want to live in Israel – do not queue, do not be polite in emails and always be suspicious.
Zach Margs had everyone laughing when he talked about his father’s comments on his Instagram posts, and showed us a little of his cheeky Israeli persona. Ever on the hunt for a girlfriend, he encouraged a little audience participation asking us to put our hands up if we were Jewish, then down if we were married, in a relationship, in a ‘situationship’, male…. and then he could spot the single ladies.
South African Gilly Apter told a hilarious story about being at a party with Oscar Pistorius and queuing for the bathroom. He was ahead of her and when it was his turn he offered her to go first. “Errr… no thank you!”
A flight to Israel full of Orthodox Jews provided hilarious anecdotes for Ashley Blaker, who also said that if El Al actually got the full story from passengers about which shul they belonged to and why, no-one would ever get on the plane in time for it to take off.
Simon Brodkin finished the evening with a super-slick delivery of jokes far too risqué to mention here other than the one where he played a prank on Trump, dressing up as a golf course worker and throwing balls at him (true story). He got arrested.
It felt good to laugh.
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