At Chosen Comedy Festival in Brooklyn, comics lean into nuances of identity

(New York Jewish Week) — When comic Modi Rosenfeld took the stage as co-host of the second annual Chosen Comedy Pageant in Brooklyn on Tuesday night, he caught to an strategy that has introduced him success with Orthodox audiences: leaning into specificity. 

“Folks need to hear us speak about antisemitism, they love to listen to us make jokes and make enjoyable of it,” he informed the New York Jewish Week following the competition, which drew a lineup of Jewish comics to the Coney Island Amphitheater to carry out for a crowd of 1000’s, a lot of them Orthodox Jews. 

“They love particular humor,” Rosenfeld mentioned. “If you point out the Persians, the Syrians, the Ashkenazim, the Hasidim — they like to be known as out. Folks love that type of consideration when it’s in a optimistic approach.”

However when he did a set on the competition, he additionally joked about one other a part of his identification that hasn’t normally proven up when he performs at Orthodox venues: His marriage to a millennial man. 

“My husband’s youthful — 10, 12 years youthful — 22 years youthful. Ten and 12…” he mentioned in a shrinking voice that trailed off because the viewers laughed.

Going there, in entrance of that viewers, was a change for Rosenfeld, who mentioned being homosexual in a “Selection” interview in January, however defined that he didn’t incorporate that a part of his life into his act for Orthodox crowds. He mentioned he tailors his comedy to fulfill his viewers — recognizing what they are going to discover humorous and what topics are applicable for every room or membership. 

On Tuesday, Rosenfeld felt that this viewers was ripe for the jokes, which he mentioned he had been engaged on for an upcoming standup particular.

Associated: Deeply Jewish comedy is having a second, at the same time as antisemitism rocks popular culture

“That is my viewers. They got here to see me,” Rosenfeld mentioned. “It’s my competition. I’m a producer, I’m a performer, I’m the host. So no matter I do is okay, ’trigger it’s my present. It’s not a present that anyone else introduced me in.” 

He added, “And so I felt the room and so they had been wonderful. They had been there and so they had been prepared.”

Rosenfeld’s 10-minute set got here in the course of the center of the present, which he co-hosted with comedian Elon Gold. It featured among the lineup from final yr’s competition, together with Rosenfeld, Gold, Jeff Ross and Jessica Kirson, along with newcomers equivalent to Eunji Kim, Eli Leonard, Wealthy Vos and Ari Shaffir — who self-released his standup particular, titled “Jew,” final yr. 

There was a shock look from Dave Attell, the previous Comedy Central persona and “Saturday Night time Dwell” author. The present additionally included musical performances from the band Emotional Intelligence and Hasidic folks group Zusha, and was DJed by Girl Blaga.

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The acts ran the comedy gamut from Kirson’s raunchy impressions of aged grandparents having intercourse to Kim reflecting on the nuances of being an Asian Jew. 

In a single bit, Kim associated that her younger son was shocked {that a} classmate, named Silas, was Jewish. In spite of everything, he informed her, “Silas doesn’t look Jewish!”

“I mentioned, ‘What do you assume a Jew seems to be like?’” Kim continued. “And my son checked out me and he mentioned, ‘Asian.’”

Leonard’s act featured bottle dancing and an unusually well timed joke about Jesus’ loss of life — made simply days after Oscar winner Jamie Foxx ignited a debate on social media with an Instagram publish on the identical matter.

“If we kill our solely carpenter,” Leonard mentioned, “who nails him to the cross?”

Since its founding in New York final yr by Dani Zoldan, the proprietor of the Higher West Facet comedy membership Stand Up NY, the Chosen Comedy Pageant has gone on tour in Miami and Los Angeles. This yr, it grew to incorporate 9 reveals in New York Metropolis — together with a efficiency of comic Alex Edelman’s Broadway present, “Simply For Us” — and one present within the Catskills.

“Jews are so dying to point out how proud they’re of being Jewish,” Rosenfeld informed the New York Jewish Week. “What a tremendous outlet to do it by way of comedy.”