The Comedy Cellar: Live from the Table - Is Anti Semitism Funny? With Raanan Hershberg and Juanita Dworman

Episode Date: June 30, 2024

Raanan Hershberg's multiple television appearances include: The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, The Late, Late Show with James Corden, and Comedy Central. His special, BRAVE, is available on YouTube. He is a regular at The Comedy Cellar.

🎵 This is Live from the Table, the official podcast of the world-famous comedy seller coming at you on SiriusXM 99 Raw Comedy. Also available as a podcast wherever you get your podcasts. We are up on YouTube for a multimedia experience. This is Dan Natterman, comedy seller, comedian. I'm here with Noam Dorman, the owner of the comedy seller. We're here with Periel Ashenbrand, who is our producer. We're here also with Renan Hirschberg.

Thanks for having me, everybody. Renan is a comedy seller, comedian. He comes to us from Kentucky or some weird place. Louisville, Kentucky. Louisville, Kentucky. Louisville, Kentucky. Arielle Elias is also from Kentucky. She's from Lexington. And her act, she focuses on

being a Jew from Kentucky, but you don't really go there. That's not... We go there. We both go there. Is this number three in our anti-Zionist comedian Jew series? This has been an ongoing joke. Joke? That I'm an anti-zionist. Should I bring up your old tweets?

Go ahead. I made one joke once about Israel, and now I'm like, he treats me like I'm Hamas. I made one joke about Israel. What was the joke again? Do you remember? I don't even remember. It was an analogy where he's like the kid that got beat up at school,

but now he has power and he's beating up other kids. I can't remember. So it was the analogy was the Jews got beat up, and now the Jews have power and they're beating up other kids. I make fun of it. it was the analogy was the Jews got beat up, and now the Jews have power, and they're beating up others. I make fun of everyone. Number one, Ronan has a new special out called Brave. Brave, yeah. On YouTube.

On YouTube. You can watch it now. And it's great. You seem uncertain about that. No, no, no. I want to get to my second point, which is that I think that it's an unfair characterization to say that he's an anti... Well, I am a Zionist.

Yeah. Well, he made the joke and we had him on the podcast to discuss the joke and... I'm a Zionist by the original definition. Ah. No, no. The actual definition, which is believing that Israel should exist, that Jews should have a homeland in Israel. Is there any other definition? Well, a lot of bad faith actors have changed the definition without telling everyone, into meaning, I guess, Jews.

A hard line, more of a hard line position, meaning expand as much as we can. Yeah, manifest destiny, religious, more like, you know, religious, I guess, some kind of intense, uncritical. It's a vilified word that they've changed. But I don't think they've actually changed the meaning. I think that when they say they're anti-Zionist, most people who say they're anti-Zionist think that Israel shouldn't exist. I think it's a mix.

I think there are people who are anti-Zionist who understand what that word means and truly believe Israel shouldn't exist. I think they've also used that word to kind of influence other people who don't really fully know what it means. So you have a lot of people saying, I'm anti-Zionist, but then if you talk to them and explain, they'd be like, no, I think Israel should exist.

Well, then they're not anti-Zionist. They don't know what Zionist... They don't know what... Okay, but you can't say you're anti-something if you don't know what it means, right? People do it. Okay, but like you can't say you're anti something if you don't know what it means, right? People do it all the time. Well, but they're saying it. They are saying those words, you know.

People do. People, I agree with Renan. People, they've changed the definition. I love that you think people should be tethered to like facts. I mean, yeah. I'm not agreeing with them. I'm just saying they have, they are now saying they're anti-Zionist

and they don't really know what it means. Right. Because there are the anti-Zionists who do know what it means. I think sometimes want to spread that in a way in which people use it without fully knowing, you know? Okay, what would you say the comedy community is at vis-a-vis the war in Israel?

It's very divided. it's been tough for me because i'm you know i'm jewish i'm ron i have an israeli name which is i think hebrew for fresh yes yes i'm an israeli name and every uber driver is arab it's always awkward um someone asked that i got picked up recently they're like what is what is that name? I was like, I don't know. I said, I don't know. But, you know,

I think most comedians, most comedians are dumb. Dumb? Yeah. At least, I think most comedians aren't like, Compared to school teachers? Are knowledgeable.

Most people are knowledgeable about Israel. You know what I mean? They are not. Yeah. Israel's like a very complex, it like a very complicated thing in the world. But I agree with you. Most comedians are not dumb, but... They're not dumb about comedy, but I think most people are.

Most comedians are not intellectual powerhouses. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Anything over 120 IQ in comedy is unnecessary and probably counterproductive. I have a circle of Jewish comics who we all, and some non-Jewish comics who, we all have conflicted feelings about everything, which is the only thing you should have, I think.

It's all conflicted feelings and a somewhat hopeless, horrible situation all over. And we kind of get together and, you know, commiserate a lot. But yeah, there's definitely a lot of comics who I'm no longer friends with. Really? Yes. Wow. Because they cut you off or you cut them off?

I cut them off. I mean, no one close, like super close. And I have friends who are close because people post, they post stuff, which is always a bad idea because you're posting and you're doing it in a way where it's going to really upset a lot of people. And Jews specifically are put in a hard place where, you know, I've been pressured by people to be like, when are you going to take a stand, you know, all this stuff,

you know what I mean? And people actually think I have a platform, which is nice, but not true. But, like, I've definitely had comics. Take a stand against Israel. I had one guy message me, when are you going to take a stance on this genocide? And I was like, I wonder which side you want me to call it genocide.

But there was one comedian I know who did a bit saying it was a joke. He posted it online. He said, in this war I support the Palestinians because the Palestinians never tried to raise my rent or steal my security deposit.

And I confronted him. I said, this is just hate speech. This is just anti-Semitic tropes, you know? It's not a joke? It's not a joke. I mean, he was trying to make a joke, but I mean, like, is it a joke if an anti-Semite would say the exact same thing?

Like, you're really torn out. Do you want to defend the... No, that didn't bother me that much. That didn't really bother me that much. It's just like, depends on the tone. I mean, you know... I think it's... And I also know this person.

I know what he's posted. And I think he's anti-Semitic. And I called him out on it. And he tried to say, no, when he said the landlord, he meant Israeli. And I think that's double speak. I think he knew he was playing a Jew. First of all, I know exactly who you're talking about. And I think that's double speak. I think he knew he was playing a Jew. First of all, I know exactly who you're talking about.

And I'm not going to say his name. We're not going to say his name. Why? We will off the air. I want to tell you that if we are talking about the same person, I got the most vile, anti-Semitic, anti-Israeli, you can call it whatever the fuck you want, DMs from that person that are categorically anti-semitic anti-israeli you can call whatever the fuck you want everyone you know dms from that

person that are categorically anti-semitic of course fucking disgusting no he's no he's awful so i no longer i've blocked is he a regular here at the cellar can we no okay uh is he a semi regular here at the cellar he never he didn't get passed because of the zionist agenda again i have a question. Would that joke have been offensive before the war? Because people made that joke for years. It's an interesting question. It's a good question, and I've thought about that,

because I do jokes that make fun of Jews all the time. And when she says people made that joke, she means her family. But the same non-Jewish people have that joke for years, and it was never offensive before. It's a good question, and I don't want to come off as like i like all types of jokes and i know this person to be anti-semitic anyway so it's like that plays a part but i think within after october 7th seeing all the dismissal of anti-semitism and then making a joke within that context where you revel in those anti-semitic tropes is making a statement you know. And it's part of an agenda

to, like, kind of further anti-Semitic tropes. It is a very good question, and I think that before October 7th, it would not have been as offensive. Yeah, but you know what? I think I stand with Dan. I think intentions mean everything. Right, and I'm telling you that his intentions

are fucking anti-Semitic. Well, I confronted him. Oh, sorry. I just wouldn't say his intentions are fucking anti-Semitism. I confronted him. Sorry. I just wouldn't say that joke. Don't interrupt my wife. I think that particular joke is anti-Semitic. Well, I confronted him. At one point, he tried to say, at one point, he's like,

don't you think what Israel's doing is causing the anti-Semitism? Which I always think is interesting when people say that, because you're basically saying, well, no, it's anti-Semitism that's causing the anti-Semitism, right? But when you're saying if Israel wouldn't do this, it wouldn't be so anti-Semitic, you're basically admitting that anti-Semitism is going to be there. And we have to, like, make sure not to do anything to disrupt or wake up this dormant beast, you know? And also this same person has, I've never heard them say a word About any of the actual Genocides that are going on all over The world

I don't want to just talk shit about him I just think a lot of comics But we're not doing a good job But he will know who he is And people listening to this will alert him to the fact I don't care I think that a lot of people are not informed Is he of the younger generation?

We're not trying to hone in on who he is I don't want to speak specifically but yeah there are I mean not everyone I think you can be anti-Zionist and not be anti-Semitic I think that's possible I think you can disagree with someone's

even if anti-Zionism is upsetting to you and even if it's illionism is upsetting to you, and even if it's illogical, I don't think you necessarily have to be anti-Semitic, but I do think some people are, and you can see it. I think it's most likely that... The odds are in your favor. I'm not so sure. I think it's equally

as likely to just be anti-whiteness and anti-Western. No, but that's not what Israel is comprised of. That doesn't matter. That's how they perceive it. But that's also, one could say that's also its own form of anti-Western. No, but that's not what Israel is comprised of. That doesn't matter. That's how they perceive it. But that's also, one could say that's also its own form of anti-Semitism. Yeah, well, it's its own form of, it's bad. But if you see Jews as only white,

you're essentially ignoring their oppression, which is a form of prejudice. I think it's ignorance more than prejudice. But most prejudices. I think why they're so exercised about it? I mean, what, how can you get somebody who doesn't have an anti-Semitic bone in their body

to devote so much emotional energy to this war and this horror, as opposed to the steady stream of horrors that they've seen before and after that never well i think first of all it's in the culture so it's like you know you're going to say about the culture well it's semitic i mean i think also israel is an important israel is a flash point first of all you you have it's it's it's stoked by the pr campaign of the billions of people that are predisposed to hating Israel. So they put it out there. And Jews. Okay.

And then it's like a virus and people that aren't anti-Semitic will catch this virus. Well, you also, to be fair, also have some horrible people in the government that are a caricature of what people think all Israelis are. People like Smotrick and Ben-Gavir are truly awful, in my opinion. And so there's enough horrible people on both sides to create enough information to create your own reality. Yeah, but you could say that about people in the Haitian government, too. Of course.

They talk around hating all Haitians. Of course. Smotrich and Ben-Gavir were elected in 2022. But this animosity towards Israel. Of course, of course. It's almost giving away much too much by making that allowance for Smoltrich and Ben-Gavir. It's as if they really care about Smoltrich and Ben-Gavir.

They don't. They don't even know who Smoltrich is. But when you see footage of settlers blocking aid trucks coming in, I'm not saying that's a justification for anti-Semitism, but I am saying that can heighten, and it is used by people to further their... Except, what about the videos they see about what Hamas is doing? We're all watching different videos, which is the other problem.

No, they see those videos. They're aware of what happened on October 7th. Yeah. It didn't outrage them the way a settler outrages them. I actually don't. I do wonder how many people are seeing the same videos. Of course, for me, after October 7th, I see all the horrific videos. But I do think a big problem with social media is that I think we all assume we're seeing

the same videos, but we're not. And then we're angry at people for not having the empathetic reaction that we have when they're actually having an empathetic reaction to a different video. Maybe. But if you actually care, if you're actually interested, you can see whatever videos you want to see. Like you have access to all of it. True. I think the answer to Noam's question, I'm sort of repeating myself as to why this conflict gets such attention,

is because this conflict is is perceived as white Europeans, wrongly perceived as, but perceived as white Europeans versus indigenous brown people. Well, it's like I think that that can explain 90% of the answer to Norm's question as to why this conflict is getting the attention it gets as opposed to others. And you think that explains the anti-Semitism? No, the anti-Semitism is explained by anti-Semitism. I'm saying that many, many people are not

anti-Semitic. They're just, they're lunatics, but they're not anti-Semitic. They're both. I think you have the classic anti-Semitism and then you have the college kids uh looking for a way to um see everything in terms of you know a colonial thing and putting of course in jews into that uh which is a way to expiate their own white guilt i think it's very telling once you start chipping away a little bit and asking some of these people questions and it becomes very obvious that many of them don't know what the fuck they're talking about,

except they're very happy to scream to obliterate the state of Israel. Noam has a look as though he's distressed. I'm thinking about it because one thing you might expect if Dan is right distressed. I'm thinking about it because one thing you might expect if Dan is right is that when we have these

outrageous anti-Semitic outbursts that the people that Dan is describing who are not anti-Semitic but simply would be quite upset about it and would speak out about it. Say, what are you guys doing?

We don't hate, like, this is crazy. We don't hate the Jews. Right, right, right. But they don't. Well, because they perceive Jews as white. And so all bets are off. But when actually Jews are being attacked, when white people, if white people were attacked, they wouldn't care either.

If I was protesting against affirmative action. Yeah. And people started, and people thought that was racist and then i saw people you know going outside black people's houses and attacking them i say what the fuck are you doing no i don't want any part of you i'm against affirmative action i'm not one of you fucking racists right i would immediately i would immediately react against it in a heartbeat because i wouldn't want to be confused for those people i think yeah you know don't paint me with your your fucking kkk bro i think those but we don't see that i think those people the pro the the anti-colonial side like protesters i think in their head they have somehow managed to completely separate zionism and judaism which i don't think

is an easy thing to do and i don't think you can fully do it, but I think they have completely separated it to the point where they think, in their ideological kind of like purity, they're like, no, they're two different things. And so any talk of anti-Semitism is a distraction from my main goal. I don't believe that, but I think that's what they think.

You're an expert in world history. Yes. Was there... I don't know why anyone's laughing. I am. Was there ever a time when if you could speak to the anti-Semites that they would think of themselves

as anti-Semites or would they always have some sort of rational... Absolutely. Semi-rational reason. There were parties in Germany called the anti-Semitic party. It used to be. I think people wore it as a badge of honor. Yes, look that up.

Somebody Google that. Maxwell. I thought the word anti-Semitic came. No. The word anti-Semitic is about 100 plus. I don't know how old it is. It's a good name for a band. But there were people that were proudly anti-Semitic.

Proudly so. Proudly anti-Semitic like these people are proudly anti-Israel. In other words, would they, if I say, why do you hate Jews? Wouldn't they come up? Well, they,

because of this and because it's not, I don't actually hate anybody because of the way they're born. It's just, they did this, they did that. I think the Nazis hated them. I don't think Hitler was like, don't get me wrong.

The Nazis would have said they did things. But wait a second. When you're, when you're talking about like, even what we were talking about earlier, when you're like, oh no, it's not the Jews, it's Israelis. That overarching statement also is so anti-Semitic because- Yes. And by the way, I would like to just circle back to this for one moment, because since we're talking about it,

many months ago when this whole thing started, the same person, the same comic, who I was quite friendly with, by the way, had... Can we mute the mics? Can somebody just write it down and show it? I feel so bad. I don't even know if you'll know.

Whisper it in my ear. I'm not going to whisper it in your ear like on camera. Text it to me. Does it make a difference? What are we going to play? A game? Tell him he's deaf. Text me the damn name.

I don't want to text him. I don't think you're going to even... Why can't you text? If I say it louder, you can say it. You tell me. I don't know if she's to even... Well, why can't you text? If I say it louder, you can say it. Wait, wait, wait. You tell me, because I want to know if she's going to say the same thing. She did.

I heard it. I don't think I know. She said the same thing? Yeah, yeah. I think I heard that. Let me just... I'm sure everybody heard it. It doesn't matter. What I want to say...

Great comic, by the way. Seriously, I do think that. Is this the name you said? Yeah, yeah. I mean, Dan, there are like fucking eight cameras. Wait, wait. Let me just tell you. I don't know the guy.

It doesn't matter. We had. Should we be using him? He's good? He is great. He's a great comic. I truly believe that. I don't give a shit.

He's a great comic. I don't give a shit what he said to you. Look. Can I get through this story? Is he going to kill harder than everybody else kills? I mean, you know. I went back and forth. Book Dan first.

No, I'm just saying. I'm just saying everybody kills. It's not that hard. In every war, somebody dies. Can I get through this? I had a back and forth with him. I really was pretty good friends with him for a long time. Back and forth with him and what i really

thought was a good faith conversation of kind of different perspectives and then he started sending me the most vile messages including a picture of a dead baby he did that to a lot of people and i said well that's disrespectful why would you why would you? Like, I would never in a million years send that to anyone. Why would you send me a picture of a dead baby? Well, you wouldn't send him a picture of a dead Israeli child. That's the thing. You can do it both ways. But I wouldn't send that to anyone.

Well, he's insane. Yeah. He's insane. I mean, I really do think. It's so garbage. And it was so disappointing to see somebody like operate in because i really had more i gave him a lot more credit than that but like to operate in such bad faith well i i think it and a big thing that's happened i think lately um i have a friend who he

was drinking a cup of starbucks coffee not in starbucks somewhere else and a woman came up to him and said fuck starbucks and fuck israel no he said i hope you enjoy your cup of genocide fuck starbucks and fuck israel and they walked away now obviously this person's an idiot but i do think that's symptomatic of a big problem happening now which is people are not seeing the individuals in front of them right they're being rude to the people in their lives for these abstract concepts. And that's a big problem right now where people are prioritizing

what they think is some humanitarian thing over actual human decency. But also behind a screen, right? Because I was like, let's go have a cup of coffee and have a conversation like i would really welcome right but this was in person yeah but no no i know but i'm saying like i haven't experienced anybody have the fucking audacity to behave like that you're a little scary um

you should see her i just had that on saturday with one of the musicians that I'm good friends with, that he said similar to what Pariel is saying. He goes, I'm talking about Israelis. I'm not talking about Jewish people. What really upset me is that he has Jewish children. And I was like, you know what? You're a fucking disgrace. It just

drives me crazy. There's no separation. But they actually believe, a lot of it is they're not educated enough to understand. Like a lot of them say, what Dan is saying as well, is that they're not talking about European Jews. They try to separate the two when it's all just one thing. And when you went to, like we went to the Nova exhibit, and you see the Hamas people on the screen,

and none of them are saying, free Gaza and none of them are saying free Gaza. None of them are saying Israeli. They're saying I killed a Jew and they're saying Al-Akbar. They're not, for them it is a religious thing and it is they don't separate Zionism and Judaism. Right. I don't think they separate the blood. You're a Jew, you're a Jew

it doesn't matter what kind of Jew you are. Yeah and they killed also Nazis. Yeah, it's actually bonus points. Like, it doesn't even matter if you're Jewish. Have you heard any comedians do jokes, either pro-Israel jokes or pro-Palestine jokes? Well, you mentioned this one comedian did the joke, but that was really a joke about Jews being landlords.

Yeah, I don't even find that. That didn't cut to the heart of the conflict. Has anybody really addressed in legitimate ways? Yeah, I mean, I've seen people do jokes, yeah. You know, they're not ways? I've seen people do jokes. They're not all. It's hard to do a joke. I've had some jokes. I think that there's a joke. There's a joke about the fact that

there is a conflict. I've heard comedians, like somebody will say who here is from another country? And somebody will say Israel. Who else? They're joking about the fact that it's sensitive. They're not actually attempting to address the conflict and address the issues of the conflict like somebody like Chappelle might do.

Right. You know, Chappelle has... I agree. Is that the kind of thing you would do? Yes, I saw somebody going on stage and go, fuck Israel, fuck Israel, fuck Israel. Pretty good. Where did they do that?

How long did they take to write that bit? Where's the punchline? It's a brilliant piece. Where was that? Not here, I assume. It was, I mean, I can find, no, it was not here. It was like at a mic or at a club? No, no, it was at a club.

I don't think to do a good joke about it, you have to exactly show your ideological agenda. Often that's like typically a bad joke if you're showing that, you know? I've done jokes about it. I try to do jokes that aren't. Right, ideologically. Ideological, because I, you know, but like, I mean it. I try to do jokes that aren't ideological. It's hard to be funny

when you're like... Every time somebody in the audience says I'm from Israel, I'm afraid that I'm going to hear boos. I haven't heard boos, and I don't know if it's because most people... Because I have an exaggerated sense of how hated Israel is, and people really don't care, or because people don't want

a boo in a comedy club because they're afraid they're going to get thrown out but every time because Israelis seem to have they don't seem to have any shyness about saying I'm from Israel and you're right they do seem a little aggressive don't they one problem is that um it's impossible to judge whether a war was worth it during the war. So we're seeing, you know, I don't know, 15, 20, 25,000 innocent Palestinians die. Now, of course, war is horrible and that's the way wars always are. But, you know, my goodness, if it was my children, nothing would be worth that. So, you know, we killed all these Germans.

We killed all these Japanese. And somehow we say, well, now that we see how it turned out, it was worth it. We saved the world from the Nazis. Look how the West has turned out. Look how Japan has turned out. But look at Vietnam. We lost 40,000 Americans.

No, 55,000. 55,000. That wasn't worth it. Right. Couldn't judge that at the time. If somehow we had turned Vietnam into South Korea, then we'd say, well, of course, that was worth it. And, you know, there's part of me which, you know, I won't be shocked if it turns out that this war wasn't worth it. Yeah.

Having said that, that doesn't mean that Israel is doing something immoral now. And they really, you know, I try to think about it from various angles. They haven't got much choice. No. To do what they're doing. It's a hopeless situation. But I can certainly understand people saying, I just can't process that this is worth it.

But one thing, you know, people, even people... You guys are too powerful and too, in the end, not threatened by these people to warrant killing that number of their civilians, even if they're using them as human shields. I can understand that argument. Yes, but from there to say it's a genocide... No, the genocide is infuriating.

And people talk, even people that will say that the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were morally wrong, even those people don't use the word genocide to characterize those bombs. Then that is a question. Why do we use genocide for this and not for Hiroshima? They use it because they want to erase the Holocaust in some way.

Yes. That's the only reason. And I feel like a lot of people are kind of, in a a way they're almost like, I care about this so much. I'm going to use words wrongly. And this is what they did with apartheid as well, which is not to say that there's not real issues. Of course. Yeah. all the issues in Israel stem from, even if they are then used opportunistically,

they stem from real security concerns, from real bombings, from real suicide bombings. Every new rule in Israel came from some situation where something had to be done. But you do have these horrible supremacists now in power because of Netanyahu making a pact.

But they're not in power. They are in power. They're head of finance. They're head of the police. They are in power. They're trying to destroy the PA's economy. They are in power. And you have these supremacists, and that is something

what Netanyahu did by making a pact with the devil with them has really hurt Israel standing in the world. They're the ones using the genocidal language, whether they're in the war cabin or not. That is a huge, that is his biggest sin to have done that. And that goes beyond

security. That's supremacy. At some point, Netanyahu won't be prime minister anymore, and we'll see if Israel standing in the world improves. Don't hold your breath. Do's, that's supremacy. At some point, Netanyahu won't be prime minister anymore. And we'll see if Israel standing in the world improves. Don't hold your breath. Do you think that the, and I'm not saying that I am, I'm no fan of Netanyahu, but I don't think that who, I think whoever is in power, the anti-Semites are going to be exactly as they are. And the other thing is, that's very telling, is that whenever anybody has a conversation and they employ this rhetoric, they never condemn Hamas. Right, right. And why is that? Because I agree with Noam entirely. Like, I think every,

it's a tragedy. Like, the innocent Palestinians that are caught up in this, it is absolutely fucking devastating. And I would never in a million years make a light of that. And I watch them and I see it and it's not lost on me that people are suffering. But when you have people who are saying the other shit, like the person who we were talking about previously and many, many others, you never fucking hear it. Right. And that is, to me, in my own opinion, its own form of racism because you're not giving, to really treat people like humans, you have to give them accountability. Of course. you're infantilizing a whole culture and you're essentially in a way

I think it's this kind of and this is the anti-colonial kind of thing where you're people used to say white people are the best and now these people are saying white people are the devil but you're still centering white people and you're not believing in the fact that Muslims are a huge majority over there

but why isn't anybody also acknowledging the fact that Jews have been run out of every single. Because they don't want to criticize brown people because they only feel comfortable criticizing Western civilization, which is a problem. Half of Israel is brown. They're from Morocco and Iran. Gaza is more brown. And the other thing. No, but that is racist. They don't.

You know, it's the same reason they look at like the far left will call everything handmaid's tale besides the actual handmaid's tale which is the women in iran you know because they don't want to they don't want to criticize anything outside western civilization if it doesn't fit your narrative then you don't look at it and that's not in that's not real like that's not well. Like that's not. Well, it's also racist because you're not, you people progress. You like it's racist to just assume, well, they're just going to be doing savage stuff and they have no accountability. That's, that's racist to not grant people accountability, you know?

And I very much do not like the rhetoric when people say like everyone in Gaza is Hamas. Like that really bothers me. I think that that's really unfair to a lot of innocent people. And I think it's disgusting. But I would like to see people condemn when like you find out that Noah Arghamani

was being held by like a fucking doctor, like being held hostage by an actual journalist. Like, okay, like, you you know the lines maybe are blurred you're writing for like the hamas chronicle or whatever the fuck it is al jazeera it wasn't al jazeera it was the palestine chronicle but but a doctor yeah of course yeah um yeah i mean yeah I think like... Just like don't fucking gaslight me. Like don't try to tell me like... Yeah, of course, yeah.

I think it's dangerous to like to see all, yeah, Gazans and Hamas and obviously anti-Zionists are doing that with Israel where they're not giving Israel the benefit of a conflicted soul. That benefit of thinking that Israel's full of all different people with different views, but they have this kind of Zionist entity, which is, you know.

Zionist property. Yeah, which is anti-Semitic. Yeah. We can certainly continue this discussion, but there are a couple of other things that I would like to get to. I leave it up to the panel. Go ahead. Well, first of all, Noam, I would like to bring up the Inflation Relief Act, the Comedy Cellar Inflation Relief Act of 2024.

What? It's a bill that I'm proposing. I'm putting it on the floor. Are you asking for a raise? I'm asking, what I'm asking for is a win-win situation where you raise the cover, and of the extra profit that you make, you keep some of it,

and some of it goes to the comedians. Like points? And everybody wins. Customer doesn't win. Well, fuck the customer. No, the customer doesn't win. That is correct. I'm not sure the business wins.

When you raise prices, you lose business. But do you really think that you'd lose business? I mean, you haven't raised prices. You always lose business when you raise prices. Well, it depends on the elasticity of the demand. I love how we're like, anti-Semitism is a problem. Can I get more money? Can I get more

money as a comedian? I don't understand why they make these Jew jokes. And then you're like, hell no. Imagine if he was your landlord. What the hell? We literally went from dismissing it to just two Jews haggling. Oh my goodness. This is so crazy.

By the way, I won't benefit much from this because I don't work here that often. However, because of my solidarity with my colleague. Aren't we still paying more than the other clubs? Yes, but to whom much is given, much is expected. And I think, and other clubs, by the way, have higher cover charges. To whom much is given, much was earned. Yeah, exactly.

You guys have been. Much was earned, but the fact that you're smarter than every other club owner, what was given to you. I will take that under advisement. I don't think that's crazy. Okay. But I really don't want to raise my prices. Oh, my God.

This isn't... I won't accept a raise. We pay more than all the other comedy clubs, right? But then you want us to pay even more. Things have gone up a lot. But the stand... It's just inflation is what it is. For sure.

Other clubs have high... If I worked at other clubs, I would... And those other clubs weren't on the verge. Half of the clubs I work on the verge of going out of business, I might propose it to them too. Can I ask you a question? So the other clubs

are charging more than us. Why are they not paying you more? Look, that's another issue. Some of these clubs are hanging by a thread. You know. How can they be there if they're paying you more?

Some comedy club tickets are really expensive. Yeah, I know. They charge you way, a lot more than us. The stand is $10 more than we are on a Saturday night. Yeah. You should ask them for a raise.

They don't use me, but I might if they did. I want to say this to everybody, you know, out there in comedy land. Okay. When the club charges a service fee, like for the tickets, the club is keeping most if not all of that money I found this out recently so like if you buy a ticket $30 plus a $5

fee they're really charging like a $35 cover right because that's not just a credit card thing right? No it's not just a credit card thing it's not just a ticket service so I actually made some calls to one of the ticket services how much is this fee to have to charge? Like, it's up to you.

You can keep all of it, a little bit of it. And I'm like, but a lot of these comedians have door deals where they make a percentage of the door. But if $7 a ticket is coming in through the service fee, the comedian's not getting that. They're not getting the service fee bullshit fee. And the guy says, yeah, you're right. That's good to know. It's true. That's good to know. You don't know not getting that. They're not getting the service fee bullshit. And the guy says, yeah, you're right. That's good to know.

It's true. That's good to know. You don't know any of that. It's so crazy. I like your strategy, though. I want more spots and to be paid more. Look, I... Yeah, well, obviously, we all want more.

Now, Dan, I'm going to ask a question. But when you woke up this morning... I understand that... It's a suggestion. Yeah, I know. I understand. But how long... Take it for suggestion. Yeah, I know. I understand. But like, how long for what you will. How long were you plotting this ambush?

I've actually I brought it up before. No, I brought it up before. And you didn't think it was crazy. So I figured I'd bring it up again, you know, because because as the most as opposed to most people, I never get mad when somebody asks for more money. Why shouldn't somebody ask for more money? It's especially a good idea to do it on the podcast. On the, I mean, timing is everything.

I just feel like in like a meeting. Are you aware of your surroundings? So, Noam, you agree to pay the comedian for it. I think it's an interesting discussion. I think it's a discussion that gives this podcast its particular flavor is that you get an inside look at the goings on of how a comedy club works.

We do need now more than ever to combat the fact that he really believes that. And the best part Juanita is you'll make more money too. Because if you raise the cover we're not going to get all of that. How do I make more money?

I have to split it with him. Why don't you add the service fee and give the comedians that? No. First of all, it's such a scam, that service fee, and it's disgusting, and I would never do that. I'll go as far as saying I won't accept a raise if Noam can't also make more money at the same time.

That's very noble. If we charge, let's say we pay $150 in underground, raise if Noam can't also make more money at the same time. That's very noble. Let's say we pay $150 in the underground. $125 in the underground. I can't believe we're even talking about this. On the weekend. Let's say you wanted to raise it to $150. Okay, $150.

That covers my cab. How many people on the show? Six, seven, five. Five people, $125. So, yeah, we could do that. This is the wrong episode. You can't go from anti-Semitism to this conversation. I'm sure we're going to cut this whole thing out.

I don't see why this conversation is anti-Semitic. We're talking about a club owner who gives, who gives more money than all the non-Jewish owned clubs. So if anything, this is a phylo-Semitic discussion. Fair enough. Let me ask you the question. Cause I, cause this came up the last time I gave a raise.

It was like in 19, 1936. Do comedians prefer to have their raised like 25 to be more substantial just on the weekends to like a a a smaller race throughout throughout the week because the weekdays it's tough to raise the cover and it's tough to raise the pay as someone who's typically on the road during the weekends i would prefer the uh weekdays before the weekdays. You prefer the weekdays. But the problem is that we charge like $14. Right, right, right. We could raise the cover $5 on the weekend, right?

You don't think you could do it during the week? No. No, I think people would be trying to help. I guess you could take some of the money from the weekend and sprinkle it through everyone. Okay. You should just do a bucket like back when they used to do it. Yeah, like pooling tip.

You know? A tip bucket? Yeah, like back when they used to do it. Yeah, like pooling tip. You know? A tip bucket? Yeah, like back when they used to do at the coffee houses. I'm okay with a tip bucket. All right. I'll stop bringing mine up. Or you could let every comedian sell merch after the show. Just have seven comedians at different tables selling merch.

I really have this probably irrational fear of raising my prices. Yeah. I think it needs to be. When everything else is going up, it hardly seems unreasonable. As everything goes up, I feel like. He's thinking about the customer. We're getting a competitive advantage. And we're opening a new place soon.

It's going to cost millions of dollars to build. And I want to make sure that I have the overflow that I have now there, ready to fill that place. If we were already open there and I saw how we were doing, then I mean, I can commit to you that if we open the new room and it's doing well, then I will definitely raise everything. I just, I'm worried about doing it now. All right, fine.

But maybe a dollar or two. To the cover. Also, I feel like the other clubs can't raise their prices because we don't. They're so high already. Right. When is, so apropos of the new club, when do you have a better idea of when it's going to open

because before you just said sometime in 2025 you couldn't really be more precise but maybe maybe a year from today a year from today now now what's your what's next what's your next topic okay yeah we've exhausted that time ask my wife anything about her sexuality? Are we exhausted that topic? Okay. Do I have another topic? My special is out. Renan has a special at Brave and we've mentioned that.

Brave on YouTube. Check it out. On YouTube. Yeah. Filmed here. Nice. My special that we have that Periel named it

by the way. What's the name of it? A Little Bit Bananas. I think that's it. I do like that. That's a reference to the joke that I do about... I don't know if you know the joke. I know the joke.

Great joke. The condom joke? Yeah, that's the one. It's a great joke. And a reference to the fact that I am, as it happens, a little bit bananas. A little mentally unwell here. You know, and so that's special.

It is now... Now, the company that did it, they're putting it out you have to pay for it. No but that's not true because I also did another special that's going to be on that and I don't think you have to pay for it on Amazon. If you have Prime membership. Yeah yeah which I guess most people do. Otherwise you got to pay like four bucks

and it's on Apple and if you have Spotify or Apple Music you can listen to it. So anyway it's out there. Are you happy with it? I haven't watched it. Oh, my God. You'll know. But I'm told that...

What's that, Brennan? Correct me if I'm wrong. We're the only club that gives out the room for free to do specials, right? Yeah, you're really generous with the room. Not only do you give it out, you... Yeah, yeah. We what? What do we do? We give us some of the room. Not only do you give it out, you like, yeah, yeah. Wait, what? What do we do?

We give us, you know, some of the door. I hope. We give you all of the door. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Oh,

shit. We give you all of the door and we let you go. No, not all the door, but some of the door. Well, I didn't get it.

Was it all the door? No, 100%. When I did my taping, am I supposed to get any of the door? Oh, my God. What the fuck's the matter with you, Ryan? I don't know. I mean, hardly. I did my taping, am I supposed to get any of the door? Oh, my God. What the fuck's the matter with you, Ryan?

I don't know. I mean, hardly. I did the taping. It depends. It depends if you did it on a night at a time slot that we're normally dark. Right. Or if it's normal business hours. If it's a time we're normally dark, like you probably did your special like at a six o'clock hour or something like that.

Yeah, something like that. Let's go with that. Then either we ask the comedian to double the cover, essentially, and they can take their extra share or add to the... If you want to do your special at a time we normally charge $20,

if you think you want to charge $30, we'll give you the $10. Okay, okay. But if you do it at a time when we're normally dark, because a lot of times, like six o'clock hours, whatever it is, then we will give the comedian away.

I taped the album. So I have a special out that you can watch. And I have an album out that I sent to Sirius, and hopefully they play it there. What do you call that? That's just called In Deep. It was a name we came up with. Who came up with that?

Who gives a fuck what the name is? It sounds kind of gay. In Deep. In Deep. I'm not saying it does. You the name is? It sounds kind of gay. In deep. In deep. I'm not saying it does. You don't say. It sounds like a porno. In deep, yeah.

Well, anyway, so I taped it here on Mother's Day at 5 p.m. and then I did it a week later at 10 p.m. So I don't know if that's dark. It does sound like an anal fisting porno. It wasn't a huge turnout, so I wouldn't expect much anyway. It might have been the name. I mean, I don't know if I would tune into something that was like... No one's going to know the name.

It's just tracks to send to Sirius, so they play it. They don't even... Does Sirius get to change the name? It doesn't matter. You don't even see... I don't even think you see the name on the fucking... I think you do. Yeah, you do.

The names come up. It's good that wasn't the Amazon name. When you're listening to Sirius Radio and your clip comes on, do you see the name of the album? Yes. Or when your show comes on, you see the name.

This is just clips for Sirius. You don't have Sirius, do you? In deep? In deep. Have you ever watched gay porn? No. He's like, I just called out porn. No, I mean, I used to watch Midnight Blue In deep In deep Have you ever watched gay porn? Uh no He's like I just called out porn Well no I mean watching

I used to watch Midnight Blue And there would be advertisements for gay porn That would come up in between the straight stuff Have you ever watched it? No Why'd you have to It's a hesitation I've watched a lot of porn

I had to kind of go through my memory That's a kind of long road I have watched transsexuals have sex with women. That's not gay porn? I don't. Well, I can leave it up to you. If it's gay porn, it's gay porn. I've watched women peg men.

You've watched women what? Peg men. Women peg men. But that's not gay. No, you learned the definition to this a couple of shows ago. Peg? Yeah, he didn't know it. So anyway, what's the line of questioning you're driving at? No pun intended. the definition to this a couple of shows ago. Peg? Yeah, he didn't know it. I just learned it now.

What's the line of questioning you're driving at? No pun intended. Have you ever watched gay porn? Define gay porn. Two people of the same sex? You don't mean lesbian? I've watched lesbian porn. No, not lesbian. Two men.

Not lesbian? No, that doesn't count. But that's not gay porn? It is. Have you ever watched male Not lesbian? No, no. It doesn't count. But that's not gay porn? No. It is. Have you ever watched male gay porn? No. I mean, not. If you're asking a guy if he's watched gay porn, it's assumed that you don't mean lesbian porn. I've never watched a porn, but I've watched these HBO movies that have a lot of sex, and

no one will walk in and be so embarrassed. He'll be like, why are you watching all the sex? Wait a second. I'm like, it's an actual movie. You've never seen porn? Never watched a porno. Really? Not with a person or by myself.

Never. Wow. Yeah. Where are you keeping her? Did you grow up religious? Nope. Is that unusual for women, do you think?

I don't know, but I did see this documentary on HBO. I did watch an episode of Gigolos. Is that good or porn? I don't think. They had sex on the, that was like male prostitutes that had sex with,

I was like, what woman is buying a male prostitute? So I tuned in and I watched an episode. That might be porn. Yeah, and also a lot of porn films.

Well, it is like, and actually I also watch, no, that's true, but I've never watched like a porno film. Right.

I don't know if they're like, I'm going to rent this film and watch it. Well, I've never done that either. Well, in the old days, Renan's younger, but in the old days, porno movies were actual movies. Yeah, I've never watched a porno. Wait, wait, what do you mean movie? We're not sitting through an hour and a half. No, I think it was. No, they did have those.

They had a section in the video store that was curtain off that were like pornos. And there was like sequels. It was like a franchise. It was like Marvel. Debbie Does Douse was an actual movie with a plot of sorts. I've never seen that. I saw it. What's that?

Devil and Miss Jones. So you like to watch pornos with plots? But now it's not. I don't know. Now it's not like that. Now it's like. Now it's. I know.

With the attention span. Now they're very short. Yeah, I mean. Every porn is like, yeah. Don't know. Now it's not like that. Now it's like. Now it's. Yeah, I know. With the attention span now, they're very cool. Yeah, I mean, there's. Every porn is like, yeah. Don't worry, I'll send you some good stuff. We'll watch it together. And then there's like Cinemax would have the softcore stuff in the old days where it was a, it was softcore porn, but there was a plot and. Right, cab.

Something called something with cab in it. What was it called? Taxi Cab Confession. Yeah, yeah. That was not porn. That wasn't porn? I watched that. I used to watch that.

Maybe I'm thinking of something else. What was the shit Cinemax? There was like a porn show. I remember watching. It was like a series like Cove. Dave's Old Porn. Dave's Old Porn, yeah. No, but that wasn't really porn, was it?

That was Dave Till. What about your special? My special? Well, I did one of those. It's called It Could Have Been Better because it could have been better. That's a name. You don't like a little bit of bananas.

A little bit of bananas. I like that. Brave, yeah, is on YouTube. I just released it four days ago or five days ago. Yeah, watch it. It's doing well, I think. Why did you name it Brave?

It's a joke, right? About being brave. Yeah, I think. Why did you name it Brave? He has a joke, right, about being brave. Yeah, I have a joke about being brave, but I also, I was actually struggling with satire. Originally, I was going to call it Fat Lispy Jew, but then I worried that when I... Fat Lispy what? Lispy Jew.

Fat Lispy Jew. But then I worried that if I went on podcasts, every time they plugged it, I'd feel like bullied. You know, I'd just get bullied myself. I mean, you have a lisp. I'm aware. Our son has a lisp. Oh, really?

I haven't noticed. It's not a pronounced lisp. It's fairly subtle. The doctor's coming Saturday morning. He came last week. Yeah, we need the whole world to know that right now. Were you bullied for that as a child? Yeah, yeah.

Probably bullied more as an adult as a comic. Is it painful? is it a painful memory no i mean i i got bullied a lot more for being fat so the fat distracted from the uh now i was fatter than i was uh lispy so that that you know and that was painful now a lot of people will say you know oh well why don't you just lose the weight? So I think that's an interesting discussion. You were bullied for being fat. Yes.

But you didn't lose the weight. Did you try to lose the weight? I feel bullied right now. This is the worst bullying I've ever had. I think people need to know. People need to know. What's the matter with you? What the fuck? People need to know.

Why are you so gluttonous? Why would you not lose the weight? They're bullying you. They are you so gluttonous? Why would you not lose your weight? They're bullying you. They're telling you to lose it. Why would you defy them? No, that's not what I'm getting at. What I'm getting at is that people need to understand that it's so hard to lose weight that people will endure bullying because losing weight is sometimes impossible depending on

your metabolism. It's certainly exceedingly, exceedingly difficult. And I think people need to know and understand that. And I'm certainly doing anything the opposite of what you guys were joking about, what I was saying. I'm saying the very opposite. And what about a lisp? Is that hard to get rid of?

I don't know anything about that. How old is he? He's seven. Okay. Is he like mine? A little less, but I feel like I, I feel like,

I feel like I bully him every day because sometimes he says things to me and I go, speak English. Oh, sorry. He goes, mom,

he laughs actually. So you're concerned about the bullying. She does. He goes, mom, I am saying. She's so mean. I am mean to my kids.

So I'm like, repeat, like repeat it. Like I make him repeat himself, but like. Does he go to a, I went to speech therapy. so mean. I am. So I'm like, repeat it. Like, I make him repeat himself. But like. Does he go to, I went to speech therapy. I asked for speech therapy. Which is a term very hard on the list, speech therapy.

But it didn't, did it help? Did it used to be worse? Yeah, I know. Is there something you don't want to talk about? It's a little bit late for that now. Well, I was engaging and I thought a good line of questioning that completely got sidetracked. No, no, you're right. Metabolism, it's tough.

It could probably have worked out more, but the bullying leads to getting sad and then eating. So it's a vicious cycle. That's what I'm going to say. Weight is not just your, it can be emotional. Now to conquer the lisp, you have to train, on the S, you have to train your tongue to stay behind your teeth, right? Yeah. I never could really.

I do think it was worse, and I think I had some other impediments, but I could never fully figure it out how to really do that. Is it something anatomical? I actually don't know. I really don't. I mean, if it's less than mine, I mean, I don't think mine's bad. It is fascinating. Don't do that.

I'm using my tongue to help you talk a little. Don't do that. It is fascinating. It's like a little clip you took. It's not anything major. I guess I don't know. I guess I don't know. But I will say, like, he's also seven.

Yeah. So kids have lisps a lot of times. We'll see how it turns out. But we're going to try to get him help. It is fascinating. I think it's great. I think he should be part of the community. And I think it's great.

I think it's cute. But thank God he's thin. Yeah, thank God he's thin. Now. But now he'll get made fun of with the lisp. He has no distraction. He'll get made fun of with the list. He has no distraction. He'll get made fun of about the list, and then he'll gain weight, and it'll be a whole thing.

Yeah. Sounds like he's getting a lot of practice from you, so he's, you know. I'm like bullying him at home. I'm like, listen, get this, like, you know. No, I think the list's good. Yeah, I like it. She makes fun of his small dick, too. I think.

I'm not kidding. Roasting him. I think, yeah, kidding Roasting him I think Yeah I don't think It's a problem I have a lot of good jokes About it in the special You know

Yeah I think that It's fine I think it Just leave it I mean you get him Like a little bit Of speech therapy

I mean I just don't think No but I'm saying Like if there's something You can do to correct it Then of course You want to correct it Right So I think like

There's a lot of Like did you ever I don't know if it's As far can do to correct it, then of course you want to correct it, right? So I think like there's a lot of like – I don't know if it's as far as whether it's anatomical. If it's something to do with your tongue or something that you can fix medically. Max, I don't know if you want to Google whether it's anatomical or – I don't – I just – yeah, I never – You know, people that speak foreign languages, if they don't, for example, if they're not exposed to the th sound, for example. Right, like Spanish. After a certain number of years, they can't make that, or they can make it,

but they have to really make it concerted. Wait, is English not your first language? No, no, it is. I have no kids. No, the point is that there's other factors as to whether you can pronounce certain sounds. So I'm making the point that people that weren't raised with a th sound,

it's a real effort that they have to make to make that sound. What are we talking about? Were you raised with a th sound? No, I'm just saying there's other factors. So I don't know what it is. Max is supposed to be Googling. Yeah, it can be anatomical. I don't know if they had that information back when I was... Yes, a lisp can be caused by anatomical. I don't know if they had that information back when I was...

Yes, a lisp can be caused by anatomical factors such as an enlarged tongue, jaw misalignment, or tongue thrust. You can cut his tongue out. I have all of those. No, not cut his tongue out. There's a little thing that if you look at the bottom of your tongue, there's

a little skin that attaches to the bottom. Overbites, narrow dental arches. Well, could there's like a little skin that attaches. Overbites. That maybe you can cut it a little or something. Well, could you scroll down a little bit, see what other... That sounds really traumatic. Did you suck on a pacifier for a long time? Is there a lisp? Were you a thumb sucker? No, I don't remember that.

I don't remember being a thumb sucker. I mean, someone just recently commented on a thing saying your tongue is really big. So maybe that is something. I think Benny might have a big. Do they have lisp porn? Lispy cunnilingus? Yeah, I'm sure they have, you know, Schindler's Lisp. I can see that.

I'm trying to think of another one. But yeah, I mean, you know, it's I don't another one But Yeah I mean you know I don't think I mean I don't think mine is that bad So if it's less than mine I feel like less than mine is not a lisp Right? It's not that bad but you know when you're a parent

Of course I would not worry too much You know sometimes making it Trying to you know overly correct can be a little traumatic. I think it's mild, but when you have, I have four children, you can tell. You should stop maybe making fun of him. Just tell him he's embarrassing

you all, and he'll get better. He'll understand. The way I'm handling it is I'm teaching him a lot of synonyms to S-words. That's good. He'll get the, unfortunately, the Thoris. But other than that. You can learn very cleverly.

Yeah, you become verbose. You become learning different words. And that's great. Yeah. So now when he says something, when he does something, instead of saying, I'm sorry, he says, I'm contrite. I'm contrite. It is tough.

It is tough. I'm showing contrite. It is tough. It is tough. I'm showing contrition. Atonement. It is tough. The one thing is, as you get older, like, dirty talk can be tough. I can't ever say pussy. It sounds like she's fucking a child in bed, you know, like, yeah, give me that pussy. So, you know, I'm just, I'm very clinical in bed.

I'm like, yeah, I'm crushing her vagina, you know. You can't say nothing. You say, give me that pussy. So, you know, I'm just, I'm very clinical in bed. I'm like, yeah, I'm crushing your vagina. You know? Yeah, you're talking the same thing. You say, yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm destroying that vulva, you know, or whatever. But, yeah, it's fine. He'll be fine, you know? He's thin.

That's all that matters. Just don't be fat and you're fine. And don't be a Jew. Don't be a Jew. Well, he's a Jew. My kids are Jew. He's part Jew, yeah. Did you, was that an issue as growing up in Kentucky or did Jew. Well, he's a Jew. My kids are Jew. He's part Jew. Was that an issue growing up in Kentucky,

or did you go to a Jewish day school? I did go to a Jewish day school. I was the only one in it. You said school. Your S was perfect there. Yeah. Wait, school? You said school.

I don't perceive him as having much of a lisp. If it is, it's not a particularly severe lisp. I mean, maybe it's a Wizard of Oz thing where I just think I have one and I don't. But it feels like you all think I have one. No, you have a little one. I feel like maybe because you told us you have one, we're like, yeah, you have one. I mean, I do jokes on stage and the audience laughs.

So that's a good, I mean, that's like a barometer. It's like people are like, some people are like, you're not that fat. I'm like, yeah, but I do fat jokes and the audience laughs. So it's like, you know, you're fat. Critical mass. People always like, like, I was losing weight a little bit. I stopped, but people were like, man, you can't do

your fat jokes anymore. I'm like, yeah, I can. I am. They're working. I am doing them. But yeah, but yeah, so, oh yeah. So Lispy Fat Show. I was going to call it that. But the bullying. So I called it Brave.

I have a joke about being brave. But I also thought, I don't know, a lot of the jokes are like not ideological, kind of making fun of both sides. And I remember this person, sometimes I'll post a bit like that and someone will comment like, wow, so brave, not taking a stance. And I just thought, that's a funny comment to me. Because it's like, yeah, that's so brave, not taking a stance. I just thought, that's a funny comment to me because it's like, yeah, that's what I look for

in a comedian, courage. You know what I mean? I'm not brave. You call a comedian brave because funny is not the first thing that came to mind. So it's kind of like

an ironic title. But maybe you are a little brave because you're taking a stand for Israel in a public forum. That's true. Or maybe you could have

called it funny brave. Funny Brave? I like that. I created a website. On YouTube, it's hard to type my name, and the website makes me seem a little special. You have to go to bravespecial.com, which is a little make-a-wishy.

All right, Dan, you have any other issues for Ranan? No issues for Ranan. No, it's not Ranan. It's Ra-an-an, right? Or it's Ranan. I don't know anymore. It could go both ways, I think. How do your parents say it?

The newspaper Haaretz, people say Haaretz, but it's Haaretz. So, yeah, so in Hebrew, there's a guttural sound that you can't really create in English. It's Ra-an-an. She can do it. Dan got mad at me when I called you that. Well, the other day, Periel mentioned ranan and said, and gave it the full Israeli pronunciation. And it was infuriating.

That is the only, because that's the only really correct way to say it. But you don't say it that way, so why the fuck is Periel doing it? I don't know how to pronounce my own name correctly. But it's a question of whether it's two syllables or three. It's two. I mean, it's three. But also, you gave it the ha.

The ha. That's pretentious. That's another language. That is. He doesn't pronounce it that way, so you should not. Similarly, Ra-an-an instead of Ra-nan. Here's the problem, okay? So, if you translate it into English and you said Ra'anan,

that's a very cumbersome thing to say in English. It's linguistically, like, tough. You have to go to a lot of places. So the more you say Ra'anan, you will eventually say Renan. You'll say Renan. So that's why I say either way. But Ra'anan is much nicer than Renan. Ra'anan is nicer, but it's just like, it's a hard thing to...

It's a beautiful name. Wait, how do your parents say it? How do they name you? My mom... It only matters what your parents named you. My mom... How everyone else pronounced you. My mom is like Renan.

My mom's like Renan. Renan. She's American? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Somebody's Israeli? No, no. Kentucky Jew. Are you serious?

What kind of a crazy name did they give you in the middle of Kentucky? I don't know. I guess they just middle of Kentucky? I don't know. I guess they just liked the name. I don't know. Yeah, all my siblings have kind of relatively normal names, too. But you grew up religious because you went to Hebrew day school, so I assume you grew up Orthodox or conservative. I grew up conservative.

Conservative, at least. By the way, I was doing a show at a synagogue, at Chabad Synagogue, the other day. Apparently, a guy in a keffiyeh kind of came in without a ticket, and they kind of asked him if he had a ticket and kind of walked out, but I think he was going to yell something. Oh, wow. That's scary. Yeah. And it wasn't Purim.

It was not Purim. Purim is like the Jewish Halloween. I did a Purim show. There were people wearing cowboy outfits and performing for a bunch of Jews in costume. It was odd. Yeah, yeah. But yeah, I grew up conservative, kept

kosher until I went to college. I kept kosher, went to college, had my first un-kosher food in the cafeteria. No turning back at that point. Well, I woke up the next day with a cold sore. It psychologically affected me. You felt that God had punished you. Yeah, and then I ate un-kosher food again and next day with a cold sore. It psychologically affected me. You feel the God had punished you. Yeah, and then I ate uncoastal food again, woke up with another cold sore,

and then I ate it again, and the third day there was no cold sore. But did you also have unprotected oral sex? Shit, you're right. I did not have that in college, but not for that reason. Not for the Judaism. Did you get laid in college? Yeah, I got laid. I lost my virginity junior year.

I lost mine a year out of college. A year out of college? My only hope for my daughter. Dan, did you go to all... I didn't know you went back to school, Dan. No, I went to UPenn, which is a very Jewish school, but it's not a Jewish school per se. No, I went to

normal school. Where are you from? Stanford, Connecticut. Which is just about 40 minutes up the road. Honestly, I want to say something to Periel, because I used to give her shit about just sending her kid to an old Jewish school, but now with everything that's going

on, I'm like, you know what? I think you're on the right track because a lot of these Jewish kids who are raised in America and with all these mixed kids, they have mixed feelings. And I think that, yeah. I almost want to take that back.

I'm like, you know what, Periel? I think you might be, you're on the right track. You want to try sending our kids to a Jewish school? No, I think that it's a little too late for our kids. It's not for Manny and Benny. Would any of them kick and scream if you sent them to it? I think my daughter would have. I did.

I was Jewish. They always kick and scream. I went to Jewish elementary school. There's 10 kids in my class or nine other kids in my class. Yeah, but that's in Kentucky. There were nine other kids. We're in New York. Yeah, it was really small.

How many kids are in Ari's class? Like 18. Yeah, that's a normal size. That's what we have in our... But there are bigger schools, too. Jonathan Randall, didn't he go to a Hebrew Day school? I don't know. I think he did.

Didn't he tell us he grew up in a religious home? Well, he had a reaction. Well, he grew up in a religious home with a very religious father, I think he did. Didn't he tell us he grew up in a religious home? Well, he had a reaction. Well, he grew up in a religious home with a very religious father, I think, who was really, he has an extremely contentious relationship with, if I recall correctly. You seem to suggest that on the show that you asked him if his position was in direct. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He said yes. Yeah. I don't remember what he... Fun anti-Semitism story, though.

You all know Blood Libel, right? Yes. My great-grandfather was accused of murdering a kid. What? Yeah, in Poland. He was accused of... He lives in a shtetl, and the gypsies were in town for a night,

and there was a commotion at the Jewish cemetery. He came over. There was a dead four-year-old girl, gypsy girl were in town like for a night and there was a commotion of the Jewish cemetery came over. There's a dead four year old girl, gypsy girl in a grave. And he was like, he went in. I didn't do it. Yeah.

The mother immediately pointed at him and goes, you did it to the, to him. And there was a whole riot in the town. So they believe the gypsies over the Jews. They believe the gypsies over the Jews, the whole ride in the town. He ended up going to jail, which actually

protected him. And then they had actually another girl in town said she saw him killing the child and drawing Oh my goodness. He did it. Yeah, this is a twist. He did it. I'm not Chamalian twist. The Mel Gibson twist.

And this girl said she saw him and they lined him up with a bunch of other Hasidic Jews and she pointed to the wrong one. Which is why they all looked the same to get out of that. And he got off but no one, he couldn't work anymore so he left to Shtetl. This was like 10 years

before. He was Hasidic? Yeah, Hasidic. So no one could prove that it was him, but they couldn't prove that it wasn't. Yeah, and someone wrote a newspaper article saying it was him, and he lost business. It ended up being a blessing in disguise because he left with his family,

most of his family, 10 years before the Holocaust. You put it at zero probability he did it? I mean, I'd say zero because gypsies, they just moved. It'd be weird that it was like the gypsies just came in town. It's like, I got to kill one of them. Are you saying something racist about the gypsies? No, no.

I'm saying like gypsies can only be in town for like 24 hours back then when they traveled around Europe. Somebody killed the gypsies. Maybe the gypsies killed them. Yeah, well, the story is that the... That's what I'm saying. The story came out that the kid was ripping up some money and the father beat the kid. Oh, then it makes it even more sensitive.

I love these true crime stories. I'm so into it. And she actually had a ruptured... I don't know if I get exactly right. My cousin did a lot of research on it. She had a ruptured liver or something that made it look like she was drained of blood or something.

But if she was ripping off money, then it would make sense that a Jew would have... That's a good point. I actually went back to the town when I was opening for Louis in Europe. It was kind of spooky. I had someone on Twitter today attack me. I did a Twitter post

today. It went crazy. I got a few Twitter today attack me. I did a Twitter post today. It went crazy. I got a few hundred retweets and all these important Jews comment on it. And one guy writes, what do you expect from the place who owns the comedy cellar where known sexual predators hang out? Oh, Lord. Talking about Dan? Should I get my lawyer involved in it? Yeah, you should. Oh, Lord. Talking about Dan? Should I get my lawyer

involved in this? Yeah, you should. That's outrageous. What was the tweet? No, that's not an act. I don't think there's anything actionable about saying that.

It's outrageous. I mean, do you know how I didn't even know that was still out there. But this is how small-minded people are. And by the way, they said plural.

But also, better to be known than unknown. An unknown sexual way, they said plural. But also, better to be known than unknown. An unknown sexual predator is much more dangerous. No, you know, if that's not your thing, you know to walk away. The unknown ones you gotta really look out for.

The fucking internet is down again. Do you get a lot of anti-Semitism? Almost again. Do you get a lot of anti-Semitism? Almost none. Do you? On social media? So I haven't said with Israel stuff, I've only really posted a couple things

about kind of like a concern for anti-Semitism and they have been kind of attacked by people. It's not like outright anti-Semitism but the fact that I'm posting concern for anti-Semitism and people are getting mad at me for that, I guess would be called anti-Semitism. Earlier in the show, you said you were like unfollowing people

that wrote anti-Semitic things. I block a lot of people. You block them. Do you go back and look to see what they're writing now? No, because I block them. Some of them I mute. You can't see it after you block. Block is intense.

I have blocked a couple of people. Blocking means they might find out. I blocked Jonathan Randall. Yeah, I blocked him. And I bumped into him a couple of days later. It's kind of awkward. I'm trying not to. You know he could listen to this.

Yeah, well, you know. I'm not blocking anybody. I'm like, write it because I know who you are now. I got some crazy ass messages the other day. Like personally? Yes. Somebody remixed one of my reels. And I mean, it was insane.

Like I got so many insanely vicious anti-Semitic comments. Like it was wild. Yeah, it was really intense actually i mean at the end of the day i'd rather that than be called fat so i did a post that got um 320 retweets and that's great uh uh one over a thousand likes just a few hours ago. Let me find the sexual Wait, but what was the tweet? It's long. You have to read it.

It's about Baum and Api. It's not just like a short tweet. It's a whole little essay. But I was shocked. I almost didn't even send it. I wrote the whole thing and I said, you know, who the fuck do I think I am? Why would I think it was

my dumb thoughts, right? Right, right. But the dumber the thought, the more it'll go viral. Yeah, that's true. And then I sent it. Keep it simple. So, but where's the, and I got some really amazing comments here, but let me find the guy who said sexual

predator sexual. Which also, what is that? I mean, it has nothing to do with your tweet either way, right? I can't find it now. But yeah, it didn't have anything to do with my tweet. Which made it kind of fun. Do you think this guy is anti-Semitic?

No, I think he's like he's, you know, he's I didn't think he was anti-Semitic. You should be like, I let everyone perform here. I also have a lot of victims who perform, you know? He didn't say anything about me being Jewish. I had someone email me before a show going, do you talk about Israel on stage? They wanted to make sure I didn't talk about, like, support for Israel on stage? I wanted to make sure I didn't talk about support for Israel on stage

before they came to see me. Would you? I do do jokes about Israel, but I told them that's fucked up to ask me that. Either buy a ticket or don't. You don't get to ask a comedian what his set list is.

That's a good answer. Was it a woman or a man that wrote it? Is it just a line known sexual predators? Yeah, that's basically what it said From the guy who wrote it Who wrote it, a guy or a woman? A guy I'm assuming it's a guy Actually, you know what?

You're right, sweetheart It could have been a woman? A guy. I'm assuming it's a guy. Actually, you know what? You're right, sweetheart. It could have been a woman. It could have been a woman. That's like, you know. But it was so. But you've gotten that before, haven't you? Not in a long time. Not in a long time.

I didn't think I was still on the radar for that. I know it's really moved over to the Zionism stuff. Yeah. After all that. But whatever. And so the guy says, I dare you to debate me on this. stuff. After all that. Whatever. So the guy says, I dare you to debate me on this. I said, I'll debate you. Then I didn't hear from him again.

I'll have you on. No word back from Amir Zahar speaking of debates. He's a comedian slash law professor from Michigan that's very, very, very, very anti-Zionist. And he tweeted something like, you know, I dare anybody to debate me in a public setting. And so I think Perrielle, I said, Perrielle.

So you dared him and no response. Well, I don't know if maybe it wasn't a public, maybe, I don't know, whatever. He never wrote me back. Did you, you know, I think he wanted like a live, I don't know what he wants. Okay. Anyway. Well, I mean, he could have written me back and said, yes, but I'd like to do this. I don't know what he wants He could have written me back and said yes but I'd like to do this

I found it His name is Porky the Little Eater No stop it I think that's why I thought it was a man Hilarious is his favorite Porky He has his picture there

Porky was also He's a comedian? Somewhat problematic movie. Oh, that's what's his name. Porky P. What's his name? He's Ray Romano's Kevin James. Yeah, Kevin James.

That's not him then. So he's into comedy. This guy's into comedy. And we could probably look at his... Anyway, I don't want to get in trouble. But it says, Noted sex predator hangout. The comedy seller is the worst performing arts venue

of any form in New York City. But thank you for the toilet paper, Norm. Wait, what is that about? All right, Norm. Toilet paper? Like, I wrote a long tweet. Now he could wipe his ass. But it's digital. It doesn't make sense. It doesn't mean it's digital tweet. Now he can wipe his ass. But it's digital.

It doesn't make sense. It doesn't mean it's digital. He's going to wipe his ass with his phone. His phone? He's going to stick his phone up his asshole? He's going to wipe his ass. He's going to wipe his ass. And wait,

he said, I dare you to debate me on this? I can't go. At some point, I said, I don't understand. Can I shush life? For this is my attorney. This is ridiculous. And at some point in the back some point, I said, I don't understand. Can I shush life? For this is my attorney.

This is ridiculous. And at some point in the back and forth, he said, well, you know, if you let me come on to debate you, I'll give you point by point. And I'm like, sure, you can come on. Sexual predator hangout is a pretty cool name for something, you know? Sexual predator hangout. It seems kind of cool. It's better than in deep. Porky the Little Eater

doesn't use his real name or his real picture. He's really nobody real. Like, it's... No, it's outrageous that you're going to say this is a full circle. Like, okay,

so let's have a real conversation and then they just fucking disappear. Right, yeah. Well, that's why social media is just awful and that's why I don't post that much about stuff, just because it's like, you can't have a real debate. I don't mind posting,

but I don't really engage. Like, I will not go, I learned my lesson. If you know not to engage, because that's my worry. It's just like, you want to have a conversation, I'm happy to have a coffee with you. Really, I really genuinely am. I'm not going to go back and forth with you on social media. My worry is if I post something and people message me and piss me off,

I'm just going to be spending more time on my phone. Just block them. Yeah, I just want an answer. Yeah, just block them. But I think it's just good to speak to people in person in general. Yeah. I had a guy, a comic, we talked about Israel, and he had very nuanced views.

Nuance, what does that mean? And then a couple days later he posted something that was somewhat like anti-israel but because i'd already talked to him in person it didn't bother me because i knew his full self but if i hadn't talked to him in person i just saw that post i would have imagined a much more simplistic person in my head and that's the problem with social media we are like i mean some people are off the walls crazy, but we're also projecting a character that we don't know. Someone might post

something anti-Israel and we assume they're completely, you know, way more anti-Israel than we think or way more, you know,

you can't express everything in one post. So I just think it's better to talk to people in person, you know? Yeah. I think we're done here.

Yeah, I think so. No, we should do another like three hours. I get it because social media, like I'm not big on social media, but I did start a separate social media about Israel. You did? Well, talking about, you know, I was reposting other people's posts about it. Yeah.

For my own family who are not Jewish, obviously, because I felt like they didn't understand or were educated enough to understand where everything was you know that they would fall into this thing where people were doing these protests and saying genocide and not knowing what genocide really meant or things like you know

as an American I think everyone's raised to believe that Jews are Europeans they're all white people they just don't know you Yeah, yeah. You know, so that's why I started my thing because I was like, you guys speak against any of my kids or whatever. There's going to be an issue.

So I started posting it for my family, but then I got banned. I got shadow banned. Oh, wow. I was like, from what? You know, so it's crazy. And it wasn't even my post. I was just reposting other people's posts.

Right. So then I decided, you know what? I'm just not going to post any Jewish people. I'm going to post all Arab people. So I posted Arab people saying things about Israel that were like, was correct. And I still got shadow banned. I was like, what is going on here? It's just crazy.

But then I see other people have really explicit things on their feet that show killings and things like that. And they're not banned. Right, right. So I'm like, what is going on with this? Yeah, it's hard to say. Yeah. It's hard to say.

Because you have to get reported. Yeah, I think you're getting... Your family's been reporting. My own family has been reporting me. Would that shock you? Yes. Oh, we should do an episode about your family. No, we can't do an episode.

About your Vegas trip. Yeah, I don't think that they would... Oh my God, no. There an episode about your family. No, we can't do an episode. About your Vegas trip. I don't think that they would. Oh, my God, Noam. There is something wrong with him. He's got diarrhea of the mouth. He is like the worst gossiper. It is like you can't tell him a secret. You can't tell him anything.

Okay, so I think we're ready to wrap. Yeah, yeah. I think we're ready to wrap it up. Oh, yeah. So Brave. Brave is Renan's special, and you can see it on YouTube. My special, a little bit bananas. You can check it out.

If you don't want to spend any money, you go on Spotify or Apple Music, or if you have Amazon Prime, you can see it there. And I guess that's it. Podcast at ComedySeller.com for questions, comments, and suggestions. Bye-bye.