Search

The article offers profile for journalist, humorist and food writer Calvin Trillin which include his career as newspaper journalist for the newspaper "Time," his development of being interested in humorous writing and his perspectives on racial disputes in the U.S.

The author discusses Jewish humor, a book by Hershey H. Friedman and Linda Weiser Friedman titled "God Laughed: Sources of Jewish Humor," and humor in the Torah and Talmud.

The author, who wrote the book "No Joke: Making Jewish Humor," argues that Jewish comedians such as Jackie Mason are inspired by both their culture and by the history of persecution against them, and mentions rabbis turned comedians such as Joseph Telushkin and Jewish religious humor.

The author discusses humorous aspects on the Jewish crisis in the Middle East and the visit of U.S. President Barrack Obama in Israel. He states that he wrote several humorous blogs regarding the visit of President Obama in Israel and a response to the article "America's Most Inspiring Rabbis." He mentions the article "The 10 Worst Bar Mitzvahs," published in the journal "The Onion." He adds that it is not necessary to be a Jewish to be able to celebrate the Jewish humor.

OFF East Seventh Street in the East Village, through a doorway marked with a faded Hebrew Actors' Union plaque and up a flight of stairs, a slim man in a dapper suit kept dashing madly into the long, empty room, rehearsing slapstick stage entrances. The man mugged like Jolson and mimed like Chaplin. He ladled out Borscht Belt bits and vamped vaudevillian. All this, on Wednesday afternoon, as sepia faces from the past stared at him from photographs on the walls. If Maurice Schwartz, Aaron Lebedeff, Reizl Bozyk and these other legends of New York City's bygone Yiddish stage could speak, they may well have said: Not bad for a nice Episcopalian boy. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article discusses the emergence of Jewish humor. According to Mel Gordon, a professor of theater arts at the University of California, those years of Jewish persecutions and terror led to the canonization of Jewish humor particularly during Purim festivities. Gordon, who has written several books on theater, cinema, and popular culture, conducts lectures on his theory about badkhn or Jewish comedian.

-- the fabulous monster as crackerjack comic -- is revealed to the world in Matthew Lombardo's play ''Looped,'' which stars Valerie Harper as that troubled actress in her twilight moments. As she lurches around the recording studio where the play is set in 1965, unable to finish the last bit of work on what will prove to be her final film, Tallulah barks out punch lines with the skill of a stand-up comic with decades of Borscht Belt experience, despite the half-bottle of Scotch flowing through her veins. Even the estimable wisecracker Joan Rivers might want to hustle down to the Lyceum Theater, where the show opened on Broadway on Sunday night, to pick up a few pointers. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Presents a humorous version of the prodigal son story in the Bible in which majority of the words begin with the letter F. "Feather-brained fellow finagled his fond father into forking over his fortune"; "Forthwith, he fled for foreign fields and frittered his farthings feasting fabulously with fair-weather friends"; Admission that he had "flunked and fruitlessly forfeited further family favours"; "Forgiveness forms a firm foundation for future fortitude"; Taken from the MikeysFunnies Web site; Original version of the story in Luke Chapter 15 verses 11 to 32.

Reports that the exhibition `Let There be Laughter! Jewish Humor in America,' will be displayed through August 17, 1997, at the Spertus Museum in Chicago, Illinois. Description of some of the artifacts and photographs that will be showcased; Admission fees; Contact information.