Upload
ilana-belfer
View
23
Download
0
Tags:
Embed Size (px)
DESCRIPTION
(Ottawa Jewish Bulletin) PAGE 1: Locals going for laughs at Ottawa’s comedy clubs - August 26, 2013
Citation preview
August 26, 2013 – Page 45
section 2 page 45 august 26, 2013bulletin✡
ottawajewish Section Two
Locals going for laughs at Ottawa’s comedy clubs
By Ilana Belfer
Rabbi David Rotenberg admits
“comedy clubs are not necessarily
the most kosher of places.” Yet,
that’s where you’ll often find him
– kippah, tzitzit and all.
And he’s not alone. At least
three other Jewish community
members are making rounds of the
local stand-up circuit.
“When I get up on the stage …
it takes people a moment to get
used to it,” said Rabbi Rotenberg,
30, who’s been doing stand-up on
and off for 15 years. In comedy
circles, he’s considered a semi-
professional. In other words, he
gets booked for paid gigs, but is
primarily a teacher (and a dad).
“One time, a woman was so
excited she yelled out, ‘Yay Jews!’
It’s like, oh, that’s fantastic. Not
only do we have anti-Semites to
deal with, but also overzealous
cheerleaders.” Another time, peo-
ple started shouting “Mazel tov!”
throughout the show. For the most
part, though, people are accepting,
he said.
“If I just went on stage looking
like a religious guy and I didn’t
say anything about it … it would
be kind of weird,” said Rabbi
Rotenberg. “But I deal with it
right away, and that’s sort of the
persona I have on stage.”
For instance, he wrote an entire
bit about the time a salesperson
wished him a “Happy Heineken”
during the holiday season.
“I take it to the most absurd
conclusion,” he said. “It’s about
not letting [misconceptions about
Judaism] slide and going really
sarcastic with it. That’s more or
less my style.”
He also doesn’t use profanity
or discuss anything that is too off-
colour.
“I like to think of myself as
edgy for a rabbi, but clean for a
comedian.”
Without the visible need to
confront their Jewishness head on,
other comedians, such as Lynne
Cohen and Dan Ciggy (Cigelnik),
play to the diversity of their
crowds by avoiding overtly Jew-
ish material.
“There are anti-Semites in the
world and there are anti-Semites
in comedy clubs … There are peo-
ple that are still going to think,
‘Hey, it doesn’t matter how funny
he is. Look at this Jew tell a
joke,’” said Ciggy, 28.
As a professional comedian, he
does sets at least five times per
week and often tours to Toronto
and Montreal, his hometown,
though he’s called Ottawa home
for the past decade.
Instead, he opts for racy mater-
ial, which he said all comes down
to delivery.
“The material is [only] half the
battle,” Ciggy said. “I say outra-
geous things, but in a silly, lovable
way.”
For Cohen, an Orthodox Jew,
religion is more about guiding her
comedic values: she steers clear of
sex and bathroom humour. On the
agenda, however, is poking fun at
IKEA, global warming, wheel-
chairs, marriage and marijuana
smokers.
“I don’t know what the line is,”
she said. “I try hard not to swear,
but sometimes swearing is just so
perfect.”
Cohen, 56, a lawyer and free-
lance journalist, has been perform-
ing at Yuk Yuk’s amateur night
once every two months since Jan-
uary 2009. Her goal, she said, is to
get paid, even $50, just to say she
“went pro.”
“I used to be a more serious
person … It didn’t really dawn on
me until I married my second hus-
band that most of life was really
very funny,” she said, mentioning
that it was a short while after she
became more religious that “I
realized comedy was the way to
go.”
Though he’s only 17, Itzy
Kamil has been making people
laugh for quite some time. In
2010, he won the Cappie award
for best comic actor for his role in
the Ottawa Jewish Community
School’s production of The LastNight of Ballyhoo.
For the past year, Kamil has
been giving his own material a
whirl during open mike nights at
comedy clubs like Yuk Yuk’s and
Absolute Comedy and other local
pubs (when he’s allowed in).
“I don’t remember my first 10
times on stage because I was just
so nervous,” he said. “But, after a
while, you get used to it,” noting
he’s getting bigger laughs as time
goes on.
“I have been cursed with being
the most generic: I am a white Jew
who complains. That’s like 40 per
cent of comedians … But you can
find your own style,” he said,
adding, with a smile: “I guess
that’s just part of the journey. You
never know. Maybe I’ll be a prop
comedian like Carrot Top.”
While being young is a theme
in his act, Kamil insists that it’s
not his shtick.
“I want to make jokes that, if I
told them 20 years from now,
they’d still be funny, not just
‘cause I’m 17,” he said.
The recent Ottawa Jewish
Community School grad, who
works nights at Rideau Bakery,
said he hopes to go from six-
minute amateur sets, which he
performs once or twice per month,
to paid 15-minute feature sets in
the coming year. As far as the rest
of his future goes, he’s less cer-
tain.
“I’m very bad with decision-
making, so I’ll probably be home-
less in five years … I don’t really
see myself anywhere. [Just] hav-
ing a good time, a dog,” he joked.
“I don’t know if I want to be
famous … I just want to be a
comedian. I guess I want to be(Continued on page 46)
Rabbi David Rotenberg is “edgy for a rabbi, but clean for a comedian.”
Lynne Cohen’s goal is to get paid as a comedian.
Dan Ciggy avoids overtly Jewish material