I remember when I was a little younger I asked my father if we were Jewish.
He grew up around the Catskills, after all.
And spent some time essentially living at a sleep-away camp for Jewish kids.
Though, I knew by looking at myself in the mirror that, of course, I wasn’t even close to being Jewish.
But I had made a list of comedians that I had in my life, mostly through screen.
Jerry Seinfeld, Eric Andre, B.J Novak, and Judd Apatow.
Those were some of them at the top of my list.
I remember reading Apatow’s Sick In The Head: Conversations About Life And Comedy.
It was on a road-trip when I was seventeen.
I was headed to St. Lous. Then Nashville. Then back.
Seinfeld, on the other hand, brings two years more recent.
To my freshman year of college when I lived with my older brother Aaron in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
When I’d sit too far back into my couch, with my legs up on the table, binge-watching everything under the sun.
Eric Andre was the same time, but deep in my bed.
B.J Novak reminds me of every point in my life.
No matter what happens, Novak appears.
Mostly it’s through reruns of The Office, or blooper reels.
Recently though, my Jewish roots have changed a bit.
I was in a production of Paula Vogel’s Indecent, the story of a Jewish playwright and his play “The God of Vengeance”, just ending back at the very beginning of February. Before this whole ordeal all happened…
Playing Sholem Asch, the playwright himself, I ended up doing a lot of research on the culture.
And recently, after finishing the first season of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel a year or so ago, I’ve returned. I’m already on season three.
And I’m all back into the Jewish culture. Trying to remember what it’s like to be alive in it.
Luke Ferrell Kirby plays Lenny Bruce and makes me want to break every barrier of comedy.
I don’t have much that’s all-important to say today.
I just wanted to talk about Jewish comedians for a little bit.
I wrote this while watching Mrs. Maisel, after all.
And while drinking whiskey.
I’ll get back to you tomorrow.
Best of luck.
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Micah Mabey
