Jewish Comics

Program Type:

Lecture

Age Group:

Adults
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Event Details

As recently as 1978, it was estimated that 80 percent of the United States standup comics were Jewish. From the Marx Brothers to Jack Benny to Fanny Brice, Jewish comedians went from vaudeville to film and radio. The first satirists were Moe, Larry and Curly from the Three Stooges before Mort Sahl and Lenny Bruce. Rodney Dangerfield and Joan Rivers cut their comic teeth in the Catskills in New York or the Borscht Belt as did Mel Brooks and Jerry Seinfeld. No one knows why Jews dominated comedy but they did.