Jewish Humor and Satire class hosts online comedy performances

Annie Gorham loved her first bat mitzvah experience so much that she asked her mom if she could have a similar party for her own coming of age celebration. That was the moment her mom broke the news to her that she was not, in fact, Jewish. The anecdote was part of the Syracuse University freshman’s comedy routine for her Jewish Humor and Satire class. 

This past Sunday, Gorham and her classmates took their stand-up comedy routines to a livestreamed Zoom event. They performed material about a myriad of topics like “The Bachelor,” Jewish mothers and even “The Polar Express.”

These performances showcase the students’ comedy sets, which they have been developing for the past three months. Students were going to perform live on campus on April 3, but due to the spread of COVID-19, the students performed their sets through a livestream on a website called the Virtual Comedy Cafe. The platform was created by Ken Frieden — a B.G. Rudolph professor of Judaic studies who teaches the SU course — and one of his graduate students. 

“The stand-up is really amazing,” Frieden said. “And what in some ways is most interesting is that I get to know the students so well by their efforts to create original stand-up.”

The class is split up into two separate livestream performances. The first performance featured 11 students on Sunday, and the upcoming show on Thursday at 7 p.m. will feature the other six students. The comedy performances are co-sponsored by the Winnick Hillel Center for Jewish Life and the Humanities Center at SU along with the Jewish studies program and the department of religion in the College of Arts and Sciences. 

Frieden first developed the Jewish Satire and Humor course three years ago after realizing that his students were becoming less interested in traditional textual analysis.

The class offers an academic look into Jewish literature and jokes while also giving students the opportunity to perform their own stand-up comedy. For those who do not feel comfortable performing their own material, Frieden allows students to do a project on a Jewish comedian as an alternate assignment.

The performances are graded by the effort the students put into it, not their overall talent, Frieden said. Even so, he thinks that a couple of his students could be professional comedians, he added. 

“It’s a challenge,” Frieden said. “A lot of people are not willing to take the risk and show that part of themselves. And some people have it in them, but they’re concealing it, and it’s interesting whether they make the leap.”

Frieden invited Stephen Rosenfield, the director of the American Comedy Institute, work with students on their comedy sets. While students were still on campus, the New York City-based comedy coach critiqued the students on their comedy skits over Skype. He has continued to help them during the COVID-19 pandemic, regularly having Zoom calls with students and Frieden alike.

Emily Bright, a sophomore advertising major, wanted to take Jewish Humor and Satire since her freshman year at SU. But when she got into the course this spring, she didn’t know she was signing up to perform stand-up comedy. 

“I always try and do one class at Syracuse that’s kind of bizarre,” Bright said. “I didn’t expect this to be my bizarre class, but it turned into my bizarre class for this semester.”

Although the class wasn’t what she expected, Bright said her ability to speak in front of large groups of people and her history of acting made it an enjoyable experience. She perform her comedy set on Thursday with the second half of the class. Her set covers such topics as Jewish holidays, past relationships and her cat. 

Frieden’s biggest concern about hosting the performances on Zoom is the lack of laughter from the audience. Despite this, he said it may be an advantage to some students because they get to perform in the comfort of their own homes and can use notes instead of memorizing their material. 

Television, radio and film student Ryan Micho used the Zoom performance to his advantage, joking about the insecurities that come with having live class in your childhood bedroom. He admitted that he did have some concerns about doing a stand-up performance on Zoom. 

“Basically you’re just telling jokes to a wall,” Micho said. “There’s no response, and you don’t know how you’re doing. It’s just very awkward telling a joke and then having no reacting whatsoever.” 

Micho took the course on a recommendation by his older brother. Like Bright, he said he was surprised by how stand-up-focused the class was. He had never done stand-up before the class but now plans on continuing to pursue it. 

Frieden sees these comedy performances as a way to provide people with humor during the pandemic. Not everyone can be a doctor on the front lines, he said, so he’s just trying to do what he knows to make a difference. 

“It’s not just about physical health. There’s spiritual health. And I’m convinced that people need humor; people need to forget the news for a while,” he said. “So, one of the points of doing a show like this is to forget what’s going on for an hour to get away from it and laugh rather than be so upset and anxious about what’s happening to the world.”