{"id":106123,"date":"2022-12-24T17:20:22","date_gmt":"2022-12-25T01:20:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/?p=106123"},"modified":"2023-02-28T07:00:30","modified_gmt":"2023-02-28T15:00:30","slug":"kung-pao","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/kung-pao\/","title":{"rendered":"3 Jewish comics can make you laugh out loud \u2014 even if you’re not Jewish"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Lisa Geduldig<\/p><\/div>\n

It\u2019s not too late.<\/p>\n

To see this year\u2019s Kung Pao Kosher Comedy, that is \u2014 an event that features three standup comics who can make you laugh out loud. Repeatedly.<\/p>\n

My wife and I did.<\/p>\n

It might help if you\u2019re Jewish, living with a Jew, have best friends who are Jewish, or have spent hours and hours of stimulating and amusing conversations with seatmates on El Al plane trips to or from Israel.<\/p>\n

Truthfully, though, non-Jews are just as apt to find the show extremely funny.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s because all three comedians on the bill, despite each occasionally leaning on a Semitic background, mostly launch anecdotes and one-liners about everyday stuff from their own lives.<\/p>\n

The headliner, deadpan Mark Schiff, who\u2019s toured with Jerry Seinfeld worldwide for 15 years and had specials on HBO and Showtime, relies on material about medical conditions and his wife; Ladman, a 67-year-old who holds the record for appearances on Kung Pao with five and has appeared on The Tonight Show nine times, deals mostly with her aging issues; and Orion Levine is a 29-year-old funnyman who rips into his family.<\/p>\n

The event has been produced for 30 years by mistress of ceremonies Lisa Geduldig, who capitalized on the idea that hordes of Jewish people spent every Christmas Day in a movie house followed by dinner in a Chinese restaurant, the only kind generally open on the holiday.<\/p>\n

So, calculating that she had a built-in audience, she conjured up the idea of an in-person comedy dinner show in spite of never having produced anything before. Her intuition was right, of course, and she had to turn away 200 people her first time out.<\/p>\n

Geduldig has noted that the \u201caudience began as 99% Jewish and has expanded to include Chinese-Jewish couples, interfaith ones, singles, families, gays, straights, undecideds, those who are far from home, and just generally people who like smart comedy mixed with Chinese food.\u201d<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s anniversary show can be viewed in-person or via a YouTube Live livestreaming. Dinner begins at 5 p.m. with both the in-person show and its live livestreaming cousin an hour later \u2014 tonight and tomorrow night.<\/p>\n

The show also highlights one lighthearted video anecdote from Geduldig\u2019s 91-year-old mom, Arline, from Boynton Beach, Florida.<\/p>\n

The Chinese restaurant site this go-\u2018round, believe it or not, is Sherith Israel, a synagogue at 2266 California Street in San Francisco \u2014 because the New Asia Restaurant, where the event had been held since its fifth year, was closed by the pandemic.<\/p>\n

In-person attendees, by the way, receive a special swag bag that includes a pair of wooden custom-printed Kung Pao chopsticks, a packet of Yiddish-proverb fortune cookies, and sundry knick-knacks.<\/p>\n

Masks \u2014 to block Covid, the flu, and RSV \u2014 are recommended when not eating or drinking.<\/p>\n

Tickets, which range from $30 to $100, are available at https:\/\/www.koshercomedy.com<\/a>. Part of the proceeds will go to the San Francisco-Marin Food Bank and the Center for Reproductive Rights.<\/p>\n

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It\u2019s not too late. To see this year\u2019s Kung Pao Kosher Comedy, that is \u2014 an event that features three standup comics who can make you laugh out loud. Repeatedly….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"yasr_overall_rating":0,"yasr_post_is_review":"","yasr_auto_insert_disabled":"","yasr_review_type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-106123","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-woody-weingarten"},"yasr_visitor_votes":{"stars_attributes":{"read_only":true,"span_bottom":"