The Comedy Cellar: Live from the Table - Bonus Episode: Comedians Modi, Eric Neumann and the History of the Comedy Cellar

Episode Date: June 28, 2025

Comedians Modi and Eric Neumann join Periel Aschenbrand. They discuss the history of the Comedy Cellar, Eric's new girlfriend and what it's like performing stand up for a room of seven people.

Welcome to live from the table, the official podcast for the world famous comedy seller. I am perrielle and I am usually not the person to do introductions, but Dan Natterman has mysteriously disappeared and noam is not here tonight. So here we are. I'm noam's brother. I'm noam's brother. My name is Modi. I'm noam's brother.

That's what I always tell every new waitress that comes to the Comedy Cellar. I go, hi, I'm Modi. I'm Norm's brother. I'm one of the owners here. And she's like, oh, okay. Hi. Pleasure to meet you. I'm excited to be working here and all that. Yeah. And then she walks around like for a while thinking like that I'm Gnomes' brother until one of the other witchesses says, he's just sort of the dumb comic that works here. So. Is there a decline in service once they find out

you're not Gnomes' brother? No, and it would be the same service, although the wait staff here is amazing. And do you want to do something really funny? Okay, one second, one second. We're here with two amazing guests. Well, amazing. Well, we'll two amazing guests. Well, amazing. Well, we'll see.

Two. Two. Two. That's a stretch. How many, Modi? How many are there? Modi. One and a half.

And the great Modi and the great Eric Newman, two comics. And you guys have worked together. We've worked together. We've prayed together. We've driven together. We've driven together. We've eaten together. We've worked together. We've prayed together. We've driven together. We've driven together. We've eaten together. We've dressed together. Have we had a sleepover? We haven't had a sleepover though. For shame. Thank God we haven't had a sleepover. Not yet. We never did any gigs where you slept over? Oh no, Boston. No, no, we did. We did Boston together. Wait,

so you used to open for Modi? From years and years. For years. From 25 till like 30. I mean, I just did his Village Underground shows when he was running New Material, but opened like consistently for probably eight to 10 years maybe. Wow. Wow.

Long time. Yeah. Thank God I got bigger. Thank God. Thank God I blew up a little bit. You left me behind. It's kind of fucked up. Left you behind, no, you're not an opening act anymore. You're an act. No, but it was funny though, because I was like,

I talked to my therapist about this for a long time and you believe me, right, Modi? Of course I believe you. So I was like, what the fuck? I'm like, I was opening for Modi at these gigs. We were doing like, you know, we were just talking about it before we got here, like a lot of the like, Borscht Belt, like, Bungalow colonies, right?

We were doing all those. I was opening for him. I was opening him in like every type of weird, private Jewish gig or whatever. And then all of a sudden he's like, all of a sudden I start headlining and have my own tour. And then like a year later, he's doing like, like Gramercy Theater and then The Beacon

and like all these like big theaters. And I'm like, fuck. So it was you that was holding me back the whole time. The whole time. It was you were holding me back the whole time. I should have, I should have, I wish it would have gotten bigger before then. Oh God.

And what happened recently, you wanted to go visit him, right? You sent him a message and you said, can I, you have a new girlfriend? I do have a new girlfriend. Wait, what does that have to do with what we just said? I can tell you what she's wishing, I can see where she's going with this.

You showed me, you showed me a text. Oh, oh go. You wanna impress her, right? I wanna impress her. So, Modi, by the way, I've been wanting to do this anyway because Modi buys a house that I'm sure is gorgeous based on. Stunning. He's like the interior designer, unofficial interior designer of the cellar. Dave Attell, Jim Norton, all these guys are at the table like, yo, Modi designed the shit out of my apartment, right?

So I'm like, obviously this house is gonna be gorgeous because him and Leo built it together. So I'm like, I wanna go. And be gorgeous because him and Leo built it together. So I'm like, I wanna go. And so I asked, so I'm trying to figure out at the same time what to do nice things with my girlfriend. So I text Modi, I go, Modi, I'm like, can we come up for a day or a weekend or whatever? And he writes back.

Absolutely not. Absolutely not. I wrote back, absolutely not. Absolutely not. And then I was a little hurt. And then like five hours later, he wrote, I. No, I let you be hurt for like two days. Two days, two days, absolutely not. Absolutely not. And then I was a little hurt. And then like five hours later, he wrote, I let you be hurt for like two days. Two days, two days. I said two days, let him bake with the absolute for two days.

And then I wrote to him, I said, the thought of your girlfriend driving you up my driveway is so upsetting. Because Eric still doesn't have a driver's license. I have one. You got one. I got one. Mazel Tov. Thank you.

Mazel Tov. I got one. You got one. I got a driver's. Oh, Mazel Tov. Thank you. Mazel Tov. I got one, I got one. And a Mazuzza. I bought you a Mazuzza a while ago when you sprained something or broke something or did something, right? Yeah, it didn't work. The scroll got damaged or something? Yeah, but I bought you a brand new expensive Mazuzza

that's sitting in my house and you haven't come to pick it up. Appreciate it. That's anti-Semitism. By the way, he gave me, Modi has given me like half of my wardrobe. Like everything that he doesn't, that he gets tired of. That shirt, there's no way Modi was going to wear that. I have nothing to do with anything

that's happening there right now. He looks like he just came from some, like a camp counselor. For the record. But not even the counselor, like the CIT, counselor in training, that even when they don't pay them, that's what he looks like. And he's sweating through that shirt. I can't even make an hourly rate wait. I can't make the hourly rate next summer I'm making the hourly wage for the record for those of you who are listening Eric is wearing a very cute Denver, Colorado

It is cute. Modi. It is cute. Okay. Wait a second But because I think that what's interesting about this combination for our listeners is something that they don't usually get to hear, which is like you guys really do have this really incredible history. Why are we? I feel like I'm a couple. I came to do the Comedy Cellar podcast and now I'm in couples therapy with Eric Newman. What? How did I get bamboozled into this? How did how? What did I do wrong? And this is what I'm actually, to be honest with you,

I'm actually, because of stuff in the news, I'm almost happy that Noam is not here. I don't have that in me. You can sit in our next episode if you wanna do that. It would have been the whole mayoral primaries. I can't, I can't, I can't. Don't get me started either. No, but I don't want,

but the thing is I didn't want to get started. You brought it up. But I'm just so happy that we don't have to, we have the option to not go there. The whole world's out right now on edge and this and Trump's bombing and Bibi's bombing and everyone's bombing and oh my God. This is right, you can feel Mashiach coming now, right?

You can feel something coming, I don't know. No, you can feel Mashiach. This is the time, this is right. You can feel Mashiach coming now, right? You can feel something coming. I don't know. No, you can feel Mashiach. This is the time. This is right now. This is happening. Yeah. We had a very Mashiach event the other night.

So he, we went to this tablet magazine, had their like gala award ceremony and this one walks in and he looks like a fucking rock star he walks in with like this super chic suit and these like sunglasses that are tinted enough but not that tinted and I'm standing there and talking to the Jewish event obviously you can't and people just keep coming over to us right like there like this, and everybody just keeps saying, oh my God, my favorite joke of yours is this.

And then the next one comes, and my favorite joke of yours is this. And that's what it's like to. How did that suit look? Cause it's gonna be mine in three years. It's gonna be yours soon. It looks good. Yeah, it's definitely, the next round is going to you.

It's a gorgeous double-breasted, it's a double-. Yeah, it's custom-made says my name inside and everything Remember where you got your suits from Was funny. He gave me my suit when I went on Fallon I love that night show was his suit and by the way a Fallon was he was doing you know He was here last night doing the whole rounds really and? And I caught up with him for a few minutes. It was nice. And he was saying he missed, he doesn't stand up in 10 years. So he did like 10 minute sets in every room last night.

He did really well. He was really fun. Amazing to hear. Yeah, it was cool. Yeah. But yeah, no, he's given me all of my words. We were at this event two nights ago for Tablet Magazine, which is an amazing magazine, which like really has opinions

from everybody in the world. And it was a really, in the intellectual world, and the people, and the verbal, and the literature world, it was a who's who, you know, of that. And they were honoring people who wrote amazing articles, and from all sides of the spectrum. And in the middle, they took a break. And I went to go sit with Perrielle and her husband Guy. And Perrielle, there's only one black woman in the whole place.

There's one black woman in the whole place. And she was dressed very lightly, like almost no clothes. And the clothes she was wearing was sheer. Not almost no clothes. It was very sheer. Anyway, she was sitting right behind me and I had no idea who it was. And we went back to the table and I began talking to her.

I was telling her that I was wondering if they're gonna have supernots because it's so hot. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. And then they announced that she was getting an award and she was a... Azalea Banks. Azalea Banks. Oh wow.

I had no idea. I had no idea. He doesn't know, I remember, it used to drive me fucking crazy, like I would be with him, and I'd be like, weren't you like, who were you, who was the one that you didn't know, I think like Katie Holmes introduced herself to?

Oh, Katie Holmes. You didn't know who Katie Holmes was? I was like, it's the love of my life, that is literally the love of my life. I was like, how do you not know? And then you became friends with, the whole Dawson's Creed cast, and then James Vanderbeek, you became really good friends with, and I was like, how do you not know? And then you became friends with the whole Dawson's Creed cast. And then James Vanderbeek,

he became really good friends with. And I was like, that was awesome. By the way, I think it's one of his best qualities. Oh, it's amazing. No idea. He has no idea. No idea. No idea.

No, no idea. We had Omer Shemtov on my podcast, and here's Modi. We did a live taping with Omar Shemto, one of the released hostages. He was in Cap 3 for 505 years, and he was telling that one of the terrorists that was in charge of him had a sweet spot for... Billy Eilish.

Billy Eilish. Whoa. And usually, when someone says that to me, Leo leans in and gives me like two words that like will tell me who is what their song is like Leo would I would raise Billy Eilish. I like imagine Leo in my ear going the one that's always with her brother. And then I get that Ariana Grande. No, no. No, not Ariana Grande. Ariana Grande's brother was on Fallon last night. Okay. Crazy, right? Who is it?

Frankie Grande. Yeah. She's always with her brother. Billie Eilish is also always with her brother. Yeah. They write songs together or something, right? I don't know. See, that's why I need Leo.

That's why we all need Leo. Exactly. Yeah. It's why we all need Leo. Exactly, yeah. It was an amazing event. There really were people from every single walk of life, from Amari Stoudemire to Matt Taibbi, the Rolling Stone journalist, to Azalea Banks. The only thing everybody had in common was that they were Zionists. Yeah.

That was like the only thing that they had in common. Where was it? It was at Casa Cipriani. Oh nice. Yeah it was it was a very it was a Mashiach energy event because literally had like people with all kinds of point of views but just like they all put you know who was in the John Pottharts was there too. Yeah yeah yeah. Who's the uh editor in chief of um of uh commentary which I've done their roasts. And I did two roasts of theirs. I did the one for Ben Shapiro and the one for Senator Lieberman.

Oh wow. Lieberman and what was his name? Was his first name? Was it Joe Lieberman? Joe Lieberman, yeah, Joe Lieberman, right. And so it was great and I said, how come you never called back? Like you never.

Hilarious. He goes, because you've gotten so big, I can't afford you. I go, you couldn't afford me back then either, but I enjoyed doing the event. I was like, just call, you know. So I said, yeah, what are you, yeah. The Ben Shapiro one was a few years ago, wasn't it? No, it was a while back, yeah.

So one of the things that they did was Azalea Banks is apparently obsessed with Ben Shapiro. Really? Yeah, and so they had a video of Shapiro reading Azalea Banks' tweets about like anti-Semitism and stuff like that. It was really, really funny. That's cool.

Yeah. So listeners to this, that are wherever you are all over the world, I am on tour and we have, I'm just like, I just want to get into like, for real, I'm not kidding. We're literally bringing Mashiach energy to, we just got back from Poland, Warsaw.

You know, the last one, since last I've been on this podcast, I was in Warsaw, Poland, we were in Munich, Frankfurt, Vienna, no, no, not Vienna, Geneva and Antwerp. I mean, they had to have security dogs, the bomb sniffing dogs before the show. Show coming in. Yeah, security. Really? Security, yeah. What was your favorite? With you, they had to bring the bomb sniffing dogs before the show. Show coming in. Security, security, yeah. What was your favorite? With you they had to bring the bomb sniffing dog after

to see if you bombed on that stage. So. But we're going, I'm not kidding, we're going to Indianapolis and Columbus, Ohio. Indianapolis not in Ohio, but Indianapolis and Columbus. If you're listening to this and you're in the area, go get tickets. These shows are unbelievable. Hampton Bay's Vancouver, which we love, San Francisco.

We're going back to Berlin, Paris, Seattle and Atlanta. And these shows are selling out. Get tickets. These are like community events. It's not just a comedy show. Everything on ModiLive.com. Nice. Very nice. Yes. I literally, it's for me, obviously, to have a sold out show, but it's for the, it's from Mashiach Energy. You have to like invite a friend so that you're really making

it Mashiach Energy. And what about you? What are you doing? I'm doing a, I did three and a half years of constant touring. I took a little time off and I'm back sporadically. Not as, not crazy amounts of dates. Sorry, Modi, thank you. Not crazy amounts of dates, but I have, let's see what I got here.

I'm gonna be in Batavia, Illinois, which is an hour outside of Chicago, August 7th to 9th. I'm gonna be in Long Island, September 12th to 13th. I'm gonna be in Long Island September 12th to 13th. I'm gonna be in Long Island. What does that mean? I'm gonna be in Long Island. The where? Bellmore, Long Island, the governors.

Governors, so that's what you say. He didn't say the venues either. Did he say the venues? All right, we're not gonna sit here. They're not gonna listen to- All the venues I have are called Huchenbrach and Pritzruchenblegen. Where, what? Theater der Wuduzhrich.

I'm Eric Newman. I am Eric Newman.com I always like seeing Eric though because we have a nice little family history that we do we discovered by accident you tell it

well you can tell it a little bit because it's your dad right? Okay so but well my brother, is there a dad connection also? Well, I think that Uncle Mark was sort of like there because... As you're fast forwarding through this... Stop! This is a really sweet story! Just hit the ten second forward, so get to it.

He runs out of patience a lot. I'm done, I'm done. The story is over. He already doesn't care. What, did you care or no? No, he i was story and then the story has his brother involved that's even it's not even a little more might play out we're gonna get back to this long this is i'm so glad this came up with explain your experiences with my brother

no i'm not done that chime in a quam chime in here was just charms in with his advice or his take on whatever's happening in the world. While we're having a conversation, he chimes in always. And now he's in this story too. I've never met him. Try to tell me in 10 words what the story's about. How is your family connection? My brother's favorite teacher in high school

is Perry Ells' uncle. Oh, that's very nice. Mark Ashenbren, correct? Did I hit that? That's very beautiful. Mark Gashembrone. Correct? Did I hit that? Yeah. That's very beautiful. But my brother chimed into this podcast episode,

didn't he? Yeah, so now he's in here. Yeah, that's very good. Okay. Yeah. And you Periel, how are you? How is your home improvement in home development? I wanna save that for our podcast.

I feel like you're gonna have to jump in between shows. It is so a brief catch up. I am got renovating a house and in the middle of this project that I'm actually GCing, my plumber died. Wow, really? Yeah. How? He hit his head most unfortunately, and I had become like really close with him.

His name was Marty. Was it while he was doing? It wasn't while he was doing my house, no. But he like walked into the house, and Mike, you spend time with these people if you're there, as I am, and he had this little mustache, and he was like this like older Italian guy,

and he goes, so you guys are flipping this place or you gonna live here? He's Mario. If you cast somebody as a plumber in a movie in 1993, it's Marty. Yeah. And I would talk to him on the phone and suddenly I couldn't reach him.

And then I found out that, you know, this horrible thing happened and my floors were in my backyard still. So, God. How long do you wait to replace him? Like you gotta- Immediately. Oh, okay. Immediately. No tribute time? You wait seven days.

No tribute time? I went into the Tomlin, it's seven days before you change the Tomlin. You replace the Tomlin? Yes, yes. And Parshat Tiramisu. There's a, It's right on. RIP Marty, I loved him.

So I'm like on the phone and I'm like, oh my God. And my husband looks at me, he goes, what is wrong with you? And I was like, Marty died. Anyway, it's coming along. The floors are back. Frank has stepped up to the plate. Things are happening.

Moody got renovated an entire house. I didn't know that was coming. We did a little crap renovations. In like six weeks. Where's your house? It's in Westchester. Yeah. Anyway, you can come up with your girlfriend.

I would love that. You're invited. Can I, can I, and it's okay that she's gonna drive into the? Yeah, she can drive into the driveway. I thought you had a driver's license. I do, but I still don't trust myself fully yet. Oh, God. Oh, my God.

I have to be like the other driver still, you know? What do you mean? He's like a learner's permit. No, I really have to have a license. I took 18 lessons and I passed. First time I almost cut off a bus and they were like, failed. What? What is this?

What? You failed one of your exams? The first one. You failed the first driver's exam. You didn't tell me you failed it? Why would I tell you that? Why, I can't, you failed a driving test? Yeah, I almost cut off a bus.

I was too ballsy and then. Where are you driving, in the city? No, it was Riverdale. Look at him, look at him. What were you doing, crowd work with the. The bus driver. Hey, where are you pulling in from? Ugh.

Ugh, God. I can't believe you failed your driver license test. So what, did your girlfriend have a car? No, she moved here from Boston. She got rid of her car. A car? Self-esteem. Does she have self-esteem? None of that. None of that, right? Yeah would love her, Modi.

I know. All the girls you brought around. They were great girls. Until they weren't. Until they weren't. So, so far she's good. Yeah. So far, so good. I think that we should talk a little,

I think that you should tell a little bit about your history here. Because I was telling Modody a couple weeks ago that one of my projects that I got roped into was digging through the attic at Noam's house. And I was organizing and like preparing and labeling and just making like notes of like 30 years worth of comedy seller tapes,

VHS tapes that he's getting digitized, so they were getting picked up. Wow, so they're getting the ones from the 90s, 80s and stuff like that? Yeah, so they were getting picked up and like before he just sent out these boxes, we wanted to make sure that like nothing was gonna go missing, they were insane.

It was like Dave Chappelle, Billy Burr, Bobby Kelly, Modi, David Tell, like Jim Norton, like it was amazing. But you've been working here. Since 1994. Wow. And what did it used to be like when you would come and do shows here? Like in the beginning.

It wasn't like six shows a night of five comics. It was a show that began somewhere like either eight or nine and ended at one in the morning depending on the last comics if it was Godfrey and Artie then they just went on for four hours they didn't care about the light or anything and they would just and then it'd be an extra half hour of the show but it was a completely different and

people came into the show then they left in the middle of the show and like people people will come in for like three or four or five comics eat drink whatever then leave and the show would still be going on and new people would come in and then it built to a lot to a mean to where they have broke it down to two shows and then they broke it down to like five shows now and it's yeah, it was a much but it was all the big comedians all everybody that was huge that is now huge. Did you guys have like a sense at some point that like something had changed? Like was it obvious like from your perspective that like the seller had become something else?

Like when you guys started to really get successful and big and the seller sort of the same way, right? It always started. Yeah, you could feel it. But but but you didn't feel it because they always sort of the same way, right? It always started, yeah, you could feel it, but you didn't feel it because they always treat you the same way. There's always a table to sit at. There was always a waitress that was focused, that was made for you.

You always felt like that, you know, from the beginning to now. And so you felt like it was coming to the same place, but yes, it was blowing up. There's lines around the corner. Yeah. Was that crazy? It was, uh, it happened gradually, but it, it would, but if you think about it, it's pretty crazy.

And when you started, no, I'm wasn't running the cellar. Like no, I'm father, Manny Dorman for our listeners who listened to know I'm every week. Now you're getting the story that he's never interested in telling. Noam doesn't talk about his father? No, he talks about his father, but he's not interested in like these spiels. Like he wants to talk about politics.

So this is interesting. So Mani, Noam's father, Mani, you know, when it was a restaurant, it was a comedy club downstairs. They had the cafe wa next door, but the comedy club was going, was going to, and Manny was just like, he's, Manny and I were a lot the same because we both came to America at the age of seven. So we had that in common.

He was, he loved, he loved Israel and hated Israelis. And he, and he was also just like Noam. He loved a good argument, a good conversation. He loved it. And he was very good. He had a good comedy ear and he knew what was funny. He threw me advice. He would watch my set and throw me little advice things.

And the man built a hub of machine energy, a hub of that he built the comedy seller. This is like so much healing and people feeling good and people being happy came through here, not just the the audience, the comedians, comedians that got their start here and they and and and had some place to come to and tell jokes at and and you know and build a career and he really built a place that's very very special and he's and he also for those of you who are a little religious or know somebody Judaism he died on the

same date that he was born on which is in the Jewish in in the Orthodox Jewish world, and the teachings, it's a very special thing. It's someone who's righteous almost. And he was, he, he, he's, he's, it's a legend. It's a legend in the world of comedy. The man built the comedy cellar. Didn't you speak at his funeral? I sang and spoke at his funeral. I, of course, yes.

I, we, we went to bury him and all of the, all the, the staff that were Arabs, I showed him how to do the shoveling of the dirt and onto the, it was very, very beautiful. And yeah, now that we've turned this into a shiver session, now we're fully, fully depressed our audience. Wait, I gotta tell you what happened to me a few months ago. So it was, my dad died when I was 20 in May. So I guess it was last year now.

Around the time he died last year, like the 19th anniversary, 17th anniversary, whatever it was. Wow. I'm at the Olive Tree Cafe and I'm hosting downstairs at McDougal. And this guy, I had just put up a post like, oh, I miss my dad, you know, something nice. And this guy comes up to me sitting at the bar and he goes, he signals me over. It's like an older guy, probably in his like, you know, early 70s or late 60s. And he's like, he's like, I know your father.

And I was like, oh my God. I was like, really? He's like, and I just put, I was still in that like kind of like set, like, you know, you put up a post, you're a little sentimental for the day or whatever. It's like, you do? And he's like, yes, I knew him very well. He was a wonderful man.

And we knew each other here in New York. And my dad, you know, lived in New York most of his life. So we knew each other here in New York and just wonderful. And he was so involved in the arts. And he was, cause my dad was a painter. And he's like, he was wonderful and I miss him so much and I'm so glad to see you're doing well. And then after a couple minutes of doing this

and I'm about to cry, he goes, you're Manny's son, right? And I go, no, no, no, no, no, he goes, well, can I still do five minutes? Down the stairs, I guess an old comic or something. Oh my. And lured me through this whole sappy story, sentimental thing, and then got the wrong guy. Got the wrong guy.

Got the wrong guy. He thought you were Norman? I was gonna cry. And he was working you for a spot. Working me for a spot. He thought you were Norman, and he's looking for a five minute spot, and then, oh. There's no ends to where comics will go

to fuck for stage time. It's like there's no boundaries. You took a picture of him and posted that this guy's I wrote the story It got a lot of comments and stuff. Oh, did you fucking I mean? Oh my god. Is he doing awful? Oh, I told Esti who's cracking up because I think she was there. Oh my god. That is so crazy. Yeah That's his comics will go in go anywhere. There's no boundaries. We just did a show that underlined the fact that there are no boundaries. What do you mean?

We just did a show that was just, ugh. You were hosting. You know, there were a bunch where we did, it was just. What are you guys mumbling over here? We did a show that was horrible. Seven people spread out. In a hotel. Hotel in the west side.

And there was, it was horrible. It was so horrible. And there was one guy who didn't speak English. Didn't speak English, from Brazil. From Brazil. Jewish. What's the venue? What's the, what build this? I don't, we're not gonna say. Jewish. What's the venue, what's the, build the.

I don't, we're not gonna say it on here, what the venue and the whole thing is. It was a comedy club. Yeah, yeah. Oh, the comedy club you guys were using. It wasn't a comedy club. No, but it was produced by a comedy club. Do a Brazilian accent, like do a thing, like.

Which is, yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. He very good guy, I'm gonna fuck you, a very good guy, I'm gonna fuck you, a very good guy.

A very good guy. He was also kind of... What? He was what? I don't know if I'm allowed to say what he was. You can say whatever you want. He was a little... I mean, he was a little... You can't say that.

What do you mean? You just promised me to say it. And you knew what I was gonna say. I didn't think you were gonna say that. I know, I know I'm not allowed to say it. Leo say that. I know, I'm not allowed to say it. Leo took that word off though. You're not allowed to say it. Tiana, can you mark that so you can bleep that out?

Yeah, sorry. He was... I can't believe you don't know how to say that word. By the way, they told me on a podcast once, I don't mind that word. Listen, you can say whatever you want. Listen, I don't mind that word. But you were saying it because he really was.

No, he wasn't actually, he wasn't actually. So what was the story? Oh, he was. Yeah. Oh, then I didn't mean to say that if he actually was. I don't know what he was. He was not typically neurotypical. I don't think.

And he was talking the way that you're talking when you're doing the Brazilian accent. And his father was there and he was doing the same thing. And people were very nice, but it was insane in the middle of the show with seven people and this guy doing, do it. Fuzardin. It was so good.

And then his son? His son also? Many, many is the time. Let me save us out of this story. Many is the time I have performed at private events and there was somebody that was mentally challenged in the audience. Usually the entire audience knows that this person is special, is a special person. And the trick is to work through it.

The audience is pretending it's not happening. You just do your act, know when you're supposed to land in your jokes, know when your laughter comes, and don't worry about them yelling. You have to just do it. You couldn't talk. You couldn't talk, and you also didn't, it wasn't clear he was special needs.

It was like, was he just being like obnoxious? Like it was hard to tell. It was insane. It wasn't like, yeah. And you know, like you understand at a comedy show, like you're not supposed to keep talking, right? But it was, I mean, it was insane. And there were like seven people there. And the woman in the front row was a nightmare.

Nightmare. Seven people, wow. I don't know if there were more than that. It was not, it was not a good. Seven, and most of them were bad. Ha ha ha ha ha. Wow. Anyway, Eric and I were commiserating. We were like, oh my God.

Who else was on the show? Who else, like what was the? We'll tell you off there. I don't know, this is pretty good. Okay. That's that, what else? Our shows. Your shows.

Don't forget to go to modilive.com and we're gonna get, and let me tell you something. We are working on a documentary and that footage from Norm's Attic would be very, very, very valuable to us. You're making it like I'm in charge of the footage. I don't have the footage. It sounds like you are. No, I- No, no, no one else is labeling it.

You have the key to the attic? I do in some way have the key to the attic. Who is it? Anne Frank, who is the one. You have the key to the attic? I do in some way have the key to the attic. Who is it? And Frank, who is the one that fed them up there? No, I talked to Noam. I'm sure he's gonna be more than happy to give you whatever you need. I don't have anything.

I just like made sure that everything was written down so that he knew what he was giving. Right, wow. There's like not another person in the world that I can think of that I would say yes to doing that to. To go up, it's hot, it's dusty, but like you're dealing with like rare diamonds, right? Like it's an honor to be trusted.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Comedy history. Yeah, and it's also crazy, like sometimes I'll see, Moti, you remember that picture that came to the surface of you and Robin Williams at the table? It's like you and Robin Williams. Everybody came to this club. But on a regular night, you had Jim Gaffigan, you had David Tell, you had, I mean, comics.

He still do. Bill Burn, all on a regular show. It's amazing. But I realize that's what makes The Cellar so special. So I've been here like seven years. Obviously, when I came in, it was already every show sold out and whatever. I hadn't gone through that period of time

that like Modi and Godfrey, you guys were hosting, I heard, right? At that point. But it's crazy to me how like, I think what makes The Cellar so special, and they do this just better than everyone. I mean, they do most things better than everyone, leagues above everyone.

But all those huge guys, they're still here. Like, they're still like, maybe they're not here every night, but they're here like, they drop in like a few times a month or like, you know, at least like every few months, like you'll see, and then sometimes like, there'll be streaks of just like Kevin Hart here for two weeks straight every night.

Like it's like the sellers just, but that all starts with treating people really well, treating comics really well. Like he said, like there was the table, there was the place where you came. You get the sense that a lot of clubs, you walk in and they don't give a shit, the servers don't give a shit.

You're not gonna stay here as a server if you don't understand that the culture is treat comics with respect, treat comics well. They know they're smart. They know Estee and Noam and Manny, who I never got a chance to meet. Like, they obviously knew how important it was to keep comics happy.

So that's what makes The Cellar so special. And that's why Burr and Chappelle and Rock and Kevin Hart and Attell and Modi and all these guys who are just big comics, they always come back and they always have loyalty to the place. I'm assuming the listeners know all this already. They do, but you know, we don't talk about it that much because we're usually talking about politics.

So it's, um, I'm serious. It's like, we're usually talking about politics. Noam isn't like so like, you know, it's like, it's that whole. It's a good thing. He says two things like, well, you've read the op-ed in the Times. We go, no, I didn't. I didn't read any. I didn't read any. And he gives these names. Jim Henderson from the Times wrote in the op-ed that he's talking to me like as if I've read, I don't know anybody in anything. Can I tell you how horrible I am? This is,

if Noam was here, he would die. So last night we were at this event, this pride event, this big party, and I knew that there was an election going on. I thought it was the mayor election, the mayoral election. I didn't understand that it was the primary. And then they all told me that this guy won Shivani was his name is a money So high Donny so mom Donnie won and I thought he won mayor so he was the mayor No, I said no, but I I went into a mindset of okay this guy from I haven't heard a lot I don't look for it.

I don't sit there looking at the news all the time. I heard it. He's that he's, he's done things that are very anti-Semite anti-Semitic and pro-Palestinian. But listen, maybe, I mean, in my head, I thought that already happened. Right. That he already won. Were you planning on what, what was your plan when you found that out that I hope he brings peace okay and I hope if this is what we need

to bring peace then that's what it is but it looks like it's not because he didn't win now this he's running against the guy from the I will see he's right again why it's kind of who's he running against well he's running against Adams right oh they haven't picked up a Republican yet he he running against? Well, he's running against Adams, right? Oh, they haven't picked a Republican yet either. No, he's running against Adams, right? Right, who's an independent. Who's like putting his name, casting his own name on the ballot, like writing it in.

Adams is? Adams is, yeah. I hear he's not the official candidate for, that's what I heard. I don't know, don't tune into this episode for news. Definitely not. All I know is similarly, which that just made me crack up, because people have been telling me they're like, you've got to vote for Cuomo.

And I like Cuomo anyway, so I was going to vote for him anyway. But I went to the voting booth yesterday, and they were like, you're not registered. They looked at my name, they're like, you're not registered. I was like, I just voted for the president. What do you mean I'm not registered? They're like, we don't have you in here. And I didn't realize either.

I thought it was a mayoral race. I didn't think it was just the primary of these two Democratic candidates is that you just put the entire pockets of your Republican you're registered Republican no I'm not a registered Republican but I just I guess I'm independent or whatever I'm whoever calls me I'm whoever calls me I I'm whoever calls me. You have to have two things if they call you. A check and a microphone. That's all they need.

Modi has helped me. Like I don't even under, like just watching Modi, like forget like the stuff on stage, which is so obvious. It's obviously like just a murder on stage. Like forget all that. Like just from like a living in this business, breathing this business every day standpoint, this dude has taught me more than anybody. Like, I always think of his line where he goes like,

whoever talks first loses. I'm like, that's like ingrained in me. Anytime I'm like negotiating a fee for something or whatever, or any type of thing, I'm always think of like, how would Modi handle this situation? You still negotiating your own fees. There's no such thing as a fee.

No, I have a manager. I have a manager, but sometimes- That's a good t-shirt. Oh, whoever talks first loses. It's amazing. Amazing. Yeah, he was the best. Cause you know, it's the thing is like,

I met him when I was 25 years old. So I was still like, oh my God. Like I'm so happy. Like I'm still, I'm very happy to be here still, but like it's like that naive, that naive. After that seven person show, I'm less happy to be here. But you're like naive. There's like a naiveness to you. You what I'm saying so like he he ought to watch

him and I'd be like oh my god you can't you can stand up for yourself you can listen I think that you know who you who you surround yourself with defines you yeah yeah that defines you and you guys are surrounding yourself with seven people, and one of them is. And that's where you guys are. Great callback. No, you got to leave it for the callback. I can't. You'll kill me.

Leave it. Leave it. I'm not doing that. Leave it. Leave it. I want to tell you something else I did since last I've been here. So when Israel went to war, when this whole Iran thing

and the airports were closed, I get a phone call from this organization called Gesher, which means a bridge, and they had 65 officers, Israeli army officers, no one lower than a major, that were here on this event major, they were here on this event to do like touring and meeting different Jewish communities and they were stuck here. So they brought them to another location. There were 65, they were staying in New York City and they had to move to another location and the organization called me and said, hi, so we have this whole, they were, I can say where it was. It's over now.

Yeah, but whatever, some place upstate and they're all there and we have nothing really to do with them for a few days until we can get them back into Israel with the airport, you know, being closed. So would you want to come and do a comedy night for them? And we were in Connecticut and it wasn't, it was like halfway back. The cycle, yeah, absolutely, no problem. I came down, no suit, nothing. I just had my hair plugs and you know, so I was with the hat and everything

and then I get on stage and it was 65 soldiers and a few other people that were like chaperoning them and doing all the stuff with them. Officers, like these are like, they were in their 30s to 40 people that were like, chaperoning them and doing all the stuff with them. Officers, like these are like, they were in their 30s to 40s, and like career Israeli army officers. And I did a show for them, I began in English and they were like,

oh my God, no, this is gonna be an hour. And then I went into Hebrew and I started doing it in Hebrew and they were like dying. And it was really touching, you know, and I was like, I was saying to them you guys I mean I know you guys think you're important soldier but you're not that important that they couldn't wait for you to come back to start a war

they bought you know they began the bombing without them this is very recent very recent it was it last week yeah and but was really nice was I will tell you what was really, really special about it. So before I went on stage, they were having their closing speeches of their event and their head officer that was there was talking to them. And he says with this trip, you know, I ask myself every day, do I still wanna be a career Israeli army officer? Because it's not just an army officer, he goes, a defendant of Israel. He's like, you know, he says,

is it a calling to be a military person or someone to defend Israel? Whatever his connection is, my connection to Israel through being a soldier. And it was a very, and it was all in Hebrew. And I got to listen in on this. This was like the last 25 minutes before I went on and it was a very touching and moving and basically they were telling the soldiers, you know, we brought you to America to show you

what the American, the diaspora, the Jewish looking looks like, What Jews out here, how they feel about you, how they support you, how they love you, and how they appreciate what you do. So when you do make those decisions, am I going to stay as an Israeli army officer? You see that there's another world besides people who don't want to be in the army because they're religious, or there's another whole world that appreciates what you do. And it was very strange for them also, you know, when we're here and we see Israel being bombed, you feel help, there's nothing you can do. And here they were in America while Israel is at war. And I go, now you see what we feel like. Wow. You know, here you are not in Israel, not on the communication with your commando and what commanders and all that. And you see what you feel helpless and you feel what we feel and you see how we view

it. You see it on our news, the way it's fed to us. And it was a very, I think it was very, and luckily I made fun and jokes with it, you know. That's really beautiful. Yeah. But it was a very, I think it was very, luckily I made fun and jokes with it, you know. That's really beautiful. Yeah, but it was a very touching experience. Yeah. And an amazing way to end this podcast. How hot were they?

So they were cute. They were, first I thought it was going to be the older, but like, no, they were all just like, you know, in Israel when you, when you you go, you have like, when you're an officer, there's one bar, two bar, three bar, and then you have this little, it's like what they have here too, like another cluster. What's it called? I don't know what it's called, but like the...

Clove, whatever it is. Erica's know how, if Natheman was here, he would have told us right away. It would have been, when those leaves that the majors have here, Israel has the same one. What's the hierarchy? They call it a falafel. They call it a falafel. So these are all guys that had like, they already passed the three bars. They have one falafel. They're like, you know, and and.

They were young and they were cute and they were just like, is this my career? Am I signing on for more? And all of that. I can't believe you did a whole show in Hebrew. It was mostly in Hebrew. That's really impressive. And then I just went into my act. Have you done that before in Hebrew?

I mean, I know that your Hebrew is fluent. In Israel, when I performed in Israel, I did a lot of punchlines, delivered them in Hebrew and did a lot of setup stuff like here and there, but like I didn't want to lose the the, first of all, I didn't want to lose the jokes that I have because I don't know how the how they would translate. Well how was it? It was pretty, I kept those in English, but the segues and talking to them and like that you know I did a little crowd work with them so we got to speak with them but not like not your unbelievable crowd work that you do I didn't ask them where they were from or

if they were Jewish you know because that's what you would have asked them where you guys from I will say every time every single time I open for Modi I get a gig out of it every single time so I appreciate it every single time I open for Modi, I get a gig out of it. Every single time. So I appreciate it. Every single time I get a little nauseous. Okay. Wait, Modi, do you know the rankings of,

I have cousins who are in the army and stuff, but I never asked this, do you know the rankings of every? I don't know any of the names of them, and it's so difficult. Is Major a low ranking or a high ranking? No, Major's above a captain. Okay. Because there's a Lieutenant Major, no, there's a thing ranking? No, majors above a captain. Okay.

There's a lieutenant major. Why do you do that? No, there's a thing. It's, you know. But they were, I wish them all the best. They're back in Israel and thank God. And again, everybody, please, for me and for you, and for your friends, get tickets to one of my shows and modilive.com, M-O-D-I-L-I-V-E dot com for everything and

just like be the friend that invites friends to a comedy show that creates Mashiach energy and that's it for me. I am Eric Newman dot com for tickets. And we are podcast at Comedy Cellar. Thank you guys for tuning in for this very special non-political I can't believe an adamant and Adamant and noam didn't show over them both of them didn't show up from which I was a blessing I Don't have I don't have I didn't have a political podcast in me. I had this is perfect

There's actually amazing. I don't want to I I can contribute anything politically either. No you don't have no one cares. No one ever cares. Good night everybody. Bye everybody.