Hello from the Calgary Marriott! Just a quick update with no time for editing…hope I don’t accidentally write that I’m a hermaphrodite or something.
I got here yesterday and am off to Edmonton in a little bit. I arrived yesterday afternoon to do a gig for the Jewish students. While that didn’t go off exactly as planned (it’s “Reading Week” in Canada which means the students all have a week off of class to catch up and study, which basically means it’s actually non-reading week which basically means only two students came which basically means we just talked about Israel and hasbara on campus), I got to take part in the weekly Monday night comedy night at a bar downtown. Seeing that I live in Israel and cater to, you know, Jews, I never get to make, you know, non-Jews laugh anymore. I don’t even remember more than one time offhand in the last several years that I’ve found my way into a comedy club in North America (that’s for you, Canadians…really hard to keep myself from saying “America”) doing “normal” material that’s, you know, not about Ben-Yehudah Street or whatever. When you make the non-Jews laugh, you get to say, “hey, I really am funny! You know, about stuff other than chumus.”
B’kitzur, my contact here got me into the lineup and invited out some Jewish students and community members. I was honestly pretty nervous trying to figure out a way to come up with 15 minutes of stuff and performing in front of a “real” audience and the MC introduced me as a special comic visiting from Israel so I didn’t want to disappoint and make us look bad. It ended up going great. I did my typical airline stuff changing it a bit and explaining Israeli security so if anything, a bunch of Calgarians walked away now knowing not to mess with the big bad El Al people. I also did a bunch of stuff from the old days that I hadn’t really done in a few years. When in doubt? Win the crowd over by saying about the big hockey game, “don’t worry, Canada, even though you lost, we’re still fat, stupid, and don’t have health care.” They seemed to like that. Self-deprecation is good stuff.
Afterwards I hung out and talked to a few of the people who had never been about Israel for a few minutes. All in all, everybody left happy and having seen a real-life Israeli person (or at least half an Israeli or whatever the hell I am.)
Ah yes…and this was funny. One comic said to me, “you know, most people think that place is just one big war zone.” Well, funny that you mention that….let me tell you about a little website…
By the way, I just had my first soy hafuch in a week or so. Thank you, Starbucks! Ok, gotta run….more later, I hope.
Sounds like that went awesome. Did someone take a video?
Unfortunately not. Every time it goes well, I failed to film it.
Calgary's a great town; I spent about 5 months working there & stayed most of the time in that same Marriott. Don't think too many people there would know about cafe hafuch, much less chummus…but glad to hear the show went over well. Just don't make any disparaging jokes about curling or hockey and you'll do fine.
Speaking of which, how do you think Israelis would do at curling…if there can be teams from Japan & China, why can't there be an Israeli Olympic team in 2014?
What I think is funny? (Besides the three a's in "Canada", I mean. Look at it! It's mostly a's!) That you started with a hermaphrodite reference, and ended up with your note that people got to talk to "a real-life Israeli person (or at least half an Israeli or whatever the hell I am.)" Spoken like a true hermisraelite.
"why can't there be an Israeli Olympic team in 2014?"
Because it requires too much long-term planning.
Esther Kustanowitz is a genius.
Israeli curling team! I can nominate my old ozeret bayit who had the BEST moves with her squeegie in the world! I think all you would have to do is audition ozrot bayit– moppin' the old balatot is terrific practice!
Benji:
Given that you're in Canada, I wanted to know if you've seen or heard anything about the newest viral hasbara/marketing campaign put out by Canadian Jewish students (sizedoesntmatter.ca) that features a, shall we say, interesting video "promoting" Israel – if you haven't seen it yet, I've got a story about it on my blog.
I have one of their pens from my event in Edmonton. Any further comments about whether or not size matters might affect my dating life.
Dude!
You're in my hometown of Edmonton now. How funny! (I'm following your blog here in Hod Hasharon, Israel.)
Any chance you can pick me up a Coffee Crisp and I'll pick it up from you on Thursday.
"Thursday?" you say. Yes, I'll be attending the Techshoret Communicator's Conference in Jerusalem and look forward to seeing you perform again this year.
You gotta admit, having a fan promote your show in the Comments section has got to be worth bringing him the best Canadian chocolate bar in existence, right?
OK, enjoy Canada and see you back in Israel!
Gil
Oops, I see you posted this a few days ago, so you may no longer be in Edmonton/The Great White North.
Anywho…I forgot to ask (you forget to mention?) if and when you will be performing in Edmonton?
I've got a brother there who, besides telling him to check out your blog, I also told to go see you if you are performing there.
OK, that's a wrap, as in a Coffee Crisp wrapper (wink, wink)
OK, sleep time. Bye!
Here it is Sunday. Purim, no less. Okay, here it will be Purim tomorrow. And is there a new blog post? No. Yes, I'm sure that the snowed-in-ness of the East Coast has frozen your ability to laugh your *ss off because the cold has frozen it solid. However, some of us here in J'lem – who are quietly sitting in the dark, collecting the rain that is falling through our ceilings because we are too cheap to buy bottled water – are struggling to start a new week. We would NEVER expect you to feel guilty about not writing (or calling) and we certainly hope you are having a good time out THERE, in the world. Don't worry about us. We managed through the years walking uphill both ways to school in the snow in July, 6 hours each way. We managed to live on crusts of bread and puddle water during the brisket famine of the 90s. So this, this little lack of a blog post will not break us. Don't you worry.
(Just seeing if this will work as well as it did last time! And the capcha is satednes, which is odd given this comment. Hmm.)
Sorry Gil and Ifat, I left Edmonton on Wednesday. No chocolate this time. : )
It's ok, there's nothing wrong with being an hermaphrodite. I can think about some benefits even.
"North America" – this former Canadian resident married to a Canadian who are always mistaken for Americans thanks you
When will you be visiting Phoenix?
It's a good question. How about when somebody invites me? (Hint hint)
Set your goals
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