Jews in Comedy: An Evening of Laughter & Conversation
With Jeremy Dauber & Susan Silver Moderated by Paul Warhit
Wednesday Nov 15 - 7:30pm - $20 @ JCC
Join us for an interactive conversation amongst comedy experts, breaking down the origins of Jewish comedy and its development from biblical times to the age of Twitter; while hearing what it was like to be one of the first female writers for iconic Hollywood TV shows.
Jeremy Dauber
Jewish Comedy: A Serious History
In a major work of scholarship both erudite and very funny, Jeremy Dauber traces the origins of Jewish comedy and its development from biblical times to the age of Twitter. Organizing his book into what he calls the seven strands of Jewish comedy (including the Satirical, the Witty, and the Vulgar), Dauber explores the ways Jewish comedy has dealt with persecution, assimilation, and diaspora through the ages. He explains the rise and fall of popular comic archetypes such as the Jewish mother, the JAP, and the schlemiel and schlimazel. He also explores an enormous range of comic masterpieces, from the Book of Esther, Talmudic rabbi jokes, Yiddish satires, Borscht Belt skits, Seinfeld, and Curb Your Enthusiasm to the works of such masters as Sholem Aleichem, the Marx Brothers, Woody Allen, Joan Rivers, Philip Roth, Sarah Silverman, and Jon Stewart.
Jeremy Dauber is the Atran Professor of Yiddish Language, Literature and Culture at Columbia University. He is the author of several books on Jewish literature, including a biography of Sholem Aleichem that was a finalist for a National Jewish Book Award. He lives in New York.
Susan Silver
Hot Pants in Hollywood
Sex, Secrets & Sitcoms
Hot Pants In Hollywood is a Show Biz memoir, and much more. Susan Silver was one of the first female TV comedy writers with credits like The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Maude, Bob Newhart, among others.
As the lyrics from the iconic Mary Tyler Moore Show said, "She made it after all!" From another Midwest town, Milwaukee, with all its Sixties' values and normalcy, Susan went on to fame and fortune in Hollywood, had a successful career as one of the first women in TV sitcoms, and reinvented herself in different prominent arenas in New York.
Susan A. Silver - Midwest girl makes it in Hollywood. Writer for iconic sitcoms such as Mary Tyler Moore Show, Newhart, and Maude. Later reinventing herself in Jewish a airs, ran the speakers bureau for ADL, was UN Observer for Wiesenthal Center, and is currently connected to Friends of Israeli Defense Force. Lectures recently at Scad and Brandeis, she has a radio commentary on NPR and has appeared on CNN, HLN, The Today Show, Good Day NY among others. Featured in NY Times, Refinery 29, and other publications.