WTF with Marc Maron Podcast - Episode 1629 - Modi Rosenfeld

Episode Date: March 27, 2025

Some comedians think of comedy as a higher calling, but Modi Rosenfeld knows exactly where the call came from. He points to a story of two comedians in the Talmud, men who gave cheer to those who were depressed and who made peace between those who were at war. Modi and Marc talk about this lofty purpose and how comedy is rooted in not only Jewish scripture but in the patter of the Yiddish language. Modi also explains how doing comedy shows on Zoom during Covid changed the entire trajectory of his life and career.  Sign up here for WTF+ to get the full show archives and weekly bonus material! https://plus.acast.com/s/wtf-with-marc-maron-podcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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Find out more about moving to New Zealand to teach at workforce.education.govt.nz. Open to existing qualified primary, secondary, and ECE teachers. Note that this grant is only dispersed after teachers arrive to New Zealand and meets the other accompanying criteria. All right, let's do this. How are you? What the fuckers? What the fuck buddies? What the fuck, Nick? What's happening? I'm Mark Maron. This is my podcast. Welcome to it. How are you? What the fuckers? What the fuck buddies? What the fuck, Nick? What's happening?

I'm Marc Maron. This is my podcast. Welcome to it. How's everybody going? How's everybody going? How's everybody doing? How you going? That's what my Australian manager says. How you going? I don't know what that is. How are you going? I don't know I guess I'm going the way most of us go How are you going? I don't know. I guess I'm going the way most of us go That's at some point heart attack cancer, but I think that's reading into it. Maybe it's just relative to the day How's your day going? It's okay

Updates well, you know I got back on Sunday, I don't know if I told you but my cat Charlie has got this condition that apparently is a stress-induced colitis. So I came home to a lot of diarrhea, mystery places, just all over. He did a pretty good job on the whole house. If I asked someone to, hey, could you shit small puddles of diarrhea, like random places, but throughout the house, like throughout the house, to where I'm surprised by days later, I'd appreciate that.

Now, I've talked about this before, and I'm going to go ahead and start Charlie on the Prozac for cats, but I did not do it yet. And I talked about before that I have a resistance, because I project my own sense of self onto the cat and I think, well, I don't want Charlie to be a lesser version of Charlie. I don't want Charlie to have his edges tapered. I don't want Charlie to not be full throttle Charlie. But now that I'm trying some medication, I think that perhaps together,

you know, we can go on this journey together, but I will start that on Monday where I can make sure I get it done every day and and manage it. As for me and my medication journey that started, what is it? It's been about a week. I'd like to think it's working. I don't know. Do you feel a little queasy, maybe a little dizzy. Maybe it's taking the edge off some of my catastrophic thinking and compulsive panic. Don't know. Don't know. I don't know.

And then I watched this documentary about Andy Kaufman. I'm thinking like, dude, just do the TM. Just, you know, Lynn did it, just do the TM and nail this thing. I went through that today. Like, I'm gonna get off this medicine. This is stupid, why am I altering my God given, natural given, evolved, whatever, genetically given, however you wanna look at it.

Why don't I just live with that and learn how to transcend to TM it? To TM it, damn it. And then I realized like yeah I don't know let's just let's just see how this goes let's let's just do this let's just do this medicine I hope it doesn't make me queasy the whole time hey look you guys look today I'm talking to a guy named Mody Rosen. Goes by the name Modi. Now I've known Modi, I don't know, I feel like maybe 30 years, 30 years. I knew him, like I known him since he started doing comedy in New York at the cellar. I believe I did. I did know him then. He was always very intense, a bit loud, a lot of energy, very Jewish, Israeli Jew, Jewish,

but also very American Jew Jewish. And to be honest with you, according to him, and maybe he's right, we haven't spoken in 20 years. And he was making the rounds and we were asked if we wanted to have him on. I'm like, of course, of course we'll have Modi on. What's that guy been doing? But it also made me think this conversation about my own Jewishness. Jewness, Jewishness.

Yes, that's where I come from. I've tried on a lot of different hats, a lot of yarmulkes, a lot of larger hats, not really a hat guy, turns out, Jew or otherwise. Tomorrow I'm in Skokie, Illinois at the North Shore Center for the Performing Arts and Saturday, speaking of Jews, then Saturday I'll be in Joliet, Illinois at the Rialto Square Theater, Grand Rapids, Michigan.

I'm coming to GLC Live at 20 Monroe on Friday, April 11th, and then Traverse City, Michigan at the City Opera House on Saturday, April 12th. Also, new dates at Dynasty Typewriter in Los Angeles, Monday, April 14th, Saturday, April 26th, and Tuesday, April 29th. Those are all at 7 30 p.m. Running the hour. Then I'm coming to Toronto, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Brooklyn, New York. Finally, for my HBO special taping at the BAM Harvey Theater on May 10th. I think there's a few tickets left. They might be singles, go check.

And also I mentioned on Monday that the documentary about the illustrator Drew Friedman is screening this Saturday here in Los Angeles. Drew Friedman, Vermeer of the Borsch Belt, will be showing at the Arrow Theater with a panel discussion afterward, featuring Dana Gould, Cliff Nesterov, Leonard Moulton, Merrill Marco, Steven Weber,

and screenwriter Scott Alexander. You can get tickets at the Arrow Theater or go to americancinematheque.com. So I was at Largo last night, trying to get this hour down to size. I'm out there doing an hour 30, hour 40. Now I got to trim the fat, but none of it's really fat. This is the challenging part about moving towards a special because they want an hour. And I don't really understand that. I guess the idea is that they've decided that human beings in the current culture we live in are incapable of watching anything for more than an hour at best, which I think is

crazy. But maybe, what do I know? I mean, I can watch something for more than an hour, especially if it's compelling. And that's assuming that what I'm doing is funny and compelling. But it all works together for me for an hour and a half. And I know it's a long show, but last night I got on stage, Mulaney came by, Mulaney opened for me. That's always interesting when the guy,

the guy who's one of the biggest stars in comedy brings you up, just me and him. He wanted to run some stuff for tonight, during last night's talk show. It's always good to see Mulaney, it was funny. Nice chat. But then I got up there and I made an outline of the stuff I think would comprise the hour

out of my hour and a half. And I went at such a breakneck speed, I sweat. I broke a sweat about 40 minutes into this. And I've got a couple of pieces, this opening bit, well, it's probably the second bit, is just a story. And I was going at such a pace, the laughs were great, it was pounding away. And I thought, you know, I had done probably what would have in a theater show been probably about an hour 15, you know, hour 20.

And I got it done in under an hour. And because it was so intense, I started to think, well, maybe I should be working at this pace. It probably had something to do with the fact that I just watched Mulaney, and he works at a pretty good clip. And he brought me up, and I think he left some of his zone up there. And I think I stepped into it and I pounded away. And, but it was pretty satisfying.

But I don't really wanna break a sweat on my special. I do feel like I have my own pace, but I hadn't driven that hard in a long time, and it was pretty good. It felt like I was, you know, I was putting on a fucking rock show. And well, we'll see. We'll see. I don't know.

We recorded it. They wanted to have a look at it. So, so we did that. Hey, hey, let me ask you something. Do you ever hear about a new show or a movie that's coming out on a streaming service you don't already have and you really want to see it so you subscribe to that streaming service, but then you completely forget you did? Yes, I do that. I do that. It happens all the time. Yeah, to me. And those forgotten streaming services sure can add up.

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Cancel your unwanted subscriptions and reach your financial goals faster with rocket money go to rocket money comm slash WTF today That's rocket money comm slash WTF today Huh rocket money comm slash WTF stop wasting cash Stop it Yeah, so I think I hour's in pretty good shape. I'm not second guessing any of the material in terms of, you know, whether it's funny or not. I think when it comes down to me planning these hours, there are certain bits where I'm like, is that necessary? Is it necessary? You know, I want all the bits to be my sort of signature bits.

I don't really want to talk about too many topics that other people are talking about, but that seems impossible. But there are just some bits that push a certain envelope where I'm like, do I have to do that to them? And then I just watched this documentary on Andy Kaufman, and obviously I'm nothing like him, and I would never compare myself to them. And then I just watched this documentary on Andy Kaufman, and obviously I'm nothing like him, and I would never compare myself to him, but there is a point where that question, if you ask that question of yourself, do I have to do that to them?

If you're Andy Kaufman or whatever precedent he set in this world, which was a big one, it's a yes, yes, you absolutely have to. There's no question that that has to be done. So I talked to this guy, Modi, today, and as I said earlier, we do go back, we were never pals or anything, but I've certainly known him for a very long time,

and I really haven't seen him in 20 years, and we had a very, it's and I really haven't seen him in 20 years. And we had a very, it's kind of a unique and great discussion, and it's pretty dewy. And he kind of brought me back to something that, we land on similar, not heroes, but in the zone of comedy that kind of started him going, thinking about comedy. I was in that zone. My Jewish identity was, what it is now is me saying I'm Jewish.

I guess that some people know that I'm Jewish. But there was a time when I was a kid, I mean, all of my comedy heroes, most of them from very early on, I mean, I'm talking when I was 10 or 11 years old. Yeah, there was something about my grandparents, Grandma Goldie and Grandpa Jack. My Grandpa Jack, New Jersey. He used to love the three stooges. I didn't love the three stooges.

My grandma liked standups. And I just remember there was this period of time where I couldn't have been more than 10 years old. And I would look forward to Parade Magazine, which used to come in the Sunday paper. And the last page of Parade Magazine was a thing called My Favorite Jokes. And they'd have a picture of a comic

and then they'd have a bunch of his jokes there written out. And a lot of them at that time, comedy was kind of a Jewish racket for a long time. And a lot of that is gone. It's sad to me, but things change. The tone of comedy changes. The culture we live in changes. But there was a period of time in the 70s and certainly before that where comedy both in stand-up clubs and in

movies were Jews. The Jews created the rhythm of that. You know, there was a lot of black comedy around as well, but it was kind of Jews and blacks in a couple of ethnic comics that were a bit over the top. But the Jews created the rhythm. And that was a rhythm I was brought up with. Gada-ba-da-boo-ba-da-bee-ha-da-bee-da-da-da-da-pa-pa. You know, like it was, it's just a pattern, it's a structure almost of modern joke writing. And when I was young and watching Buddy Hackett,

Don Rickles, I enjoyed Woody Allen's movies. There was Jackie Vernon, who I don't think was a Jew. I liked, I loved watching the old roasts with all the old guys, Jack Benny, Milton Berle to a certain degree. But Buddy Hackett and Don Rickles when I was a kid, it doesn't get much funnier than that, Rodney Dangerfield, Jewish guys. Well, now I think about it, there was quite a few who weren't Jewish.

They were Italian. Dean Martin, not a comic, but nonetheless, that generation of comedy performer, Richard Lewis was important. But there was, when I was younger, like 13, 14, 15, aside from smoking cigarettes and wanting to be Keith Richards, there was this thread that kind of ran through me comedically that I think was fundamentally Jewish that I could lock into. I worked at a deli when I was in college,

Gordon's Deli in Pottingham Circle in Boston. These were Boston Jews. And there was something so familiar about it. Even my grandma Goldie's house. My grandpa Jack used to have a poker game once a week. You had Joe Suskin there. You had Gerson Eisenberg. You had Shani Schanholtz, you know, these guys.

And it was a thing. It was a type, the sort of middle-class American Jewish thing was a thing and it was encultured into me. And my parents moved to New Mexico and there was some of those, you know, transplants from the East Coast, but a certain amount of that Jewishness kind of got washed out of me, not out of any desire to pass. It just wasn't culturally where I was living.

I mean, we were Jews, we were among Jews, but most of them were not New York Jews. And then I went on a teen tour and that was all New York Jews. It was always, I had cousins who lived in Long Island, but that Jewish thing was always there. And when I was in college, we did a show, a play. It was Woody Allen's Don't Drink the Water,

and I played the main guy. I'm forgetting his name now, the old man. And I locked in to this Jewish old man like he had been living in me, because it was how I was wired comedically from watching all these old guys that I just became this guy. What are you kidding me? Look at this guy.

What? Huh? So easy. Deli talk, post-synagogue talk, poker table talk, sales talk, whatever he is, whatever. It was in me. I can't quite explain it because I didn't really grow up with it, but I grew up Admiring it and wanting to be it. I wanted to be an old Jewish. I like if my parents didn't move to New Mexico and You know have whatever that half cowboy experience was growing up in going to high school there if they would have stayed in New Jersey

I would have been Jeff Ross for that, I doubt it. But I would have been in culture differently, being surrounded by Jews my whole life. I would have certainly been locked into it in a different way, in a sort of unavoidable way and unerasable way. But when I went to college, I got more into art and more into poetry and more into beatniks. And Alan Ginsburg, turns out,

was my least favorite beatnik, but he was the Jew. But nonetheless, something else started to happen. I no longer aspired to be like, what are you, baboobabibibi. So it kind of shifted, but there was no attempt to not do it. It just wasn't really who I was.

It was just sort of a personality I was trying on. But I remember when I started comedy, I was very aware of the comics that I idolized and the comics that made me laugh and the Jewishness of it. I think when I did some sort of variety night in college, I might've tried, I might've done a Woody Allen joke from a standup routine.

I mean, I wasn't a professional. I didn't see it as stealing. It was me trying to see if I could get a Woody Allen joke from a standup routine. I mean, I wasn't a professional. I didn't see it as stealing. It was me trying to see if I could get a laugh. But when I started doing comedy professionally or starting out in Los Angeles, out here at the Comedy Store, I did not, I knew that it was an option to culturally identify character wise as Jewish.

Like I had it in me. I'd done it in a play in college. It was part of me. It might've even been part of my Ashkenazi genetic makeup. But I made a conscious choice to not do it because I didn't want to speak that language. I didn't want to speak that language. I didn't want to do the stereotype. I didn't want to lean on stereotypes about Jews.

I didn't want to characterize myself like that. Even when I talk about it now, maybe not to Jewish people, but to some people it's probably a surprise that I'm Jewish. If I say I'm a Jew, sometimes I'll say like, well, I'm a Jew, you know, but nonetheless, it was not part of the stereotype because I talked to Modi a bit about Jackie Mason,

who I didn't like him as a person. I met him once, he was nasty to me. I didn't really love his comedy, it was not my thing because I thought he was doing a stereotype. And I didn't want to stereotype Jews and I didn't want to play that stereotype. So there was sort of a conscious decision on my part when I started doing comedy to not lean into the Jewish thing just because I thought it would box me in.

And I still don't, I talk about being Jewish, but I don't do the Jewish thing. Though I love it and though I could and sometimes there are moments where it happens and I'm happy it comes out, but it was not, it was not, it was a conscious choice. I mean, I had the option, I have the birthright to it, but I did not take it. And I didn't grow up in New Jersey or New York, so it wouldn't have been honest. So Modi is very interesting because he's Israeli born and he grew up in Long Island, so he has kind of this kind of dual dynamic of Israeli and American Jewishness. And this was kind of a great conversation. You can go to modilive.com to find out where he'll be. Plus you can check

out his podcast and here's Modi as well as watch his YouTube special, Know Your Audience. He became very big during COVID and it's an interesting story and this is me talking to Modi. Now streaming. What do you know about the Happy Face killer? He's my father. It's so good to see you, Missy. Experience the thrilling new series. He said he killed another woman.

Inspired by a true life story. If I don't deal with him, he will never leave us alone. You don't see how the births sang to you. Annali Ashford and Dennis Quaid star. I am not responsible for what my dad did. Let's go and how you feel. Lee Ashford and Dennis Quaid star. I am not responsible for what my dad did. It's going how you hoped.

Happy Face, new series now streaming exclusively on Paramount+. ["Spring Day"] Are you surprised by the whole operation? I always in my mind, even though I heard you referencing people like, oh yeah, there's nobody here. Nobody here. It's amazing. I know.

I just sit me and I see the levels and I figured it out. I got a new mixer here I just got. I don't know much about how to record much or anything else, but I can do this. It's pretty good. We're trying to figure out how to do it when we're on the road. Who?

I have a podcast as well. Audio? Audio and video. And YouTube and it's everywhere, but when we travel it's so hard to do it, so we bought all the equipment and try to figure, fuck travel it's so hard to do it so we try to be bought all the equipment and try to figure it fuck it's so much we so you got to make a studio in a hotel room yeah but we you know we we do it funny enough we do it at a place called what the fuck studios yeah WTF studios where in New York we just

plop yeah with a guest or without, do our thing. Who? Me, my husband, and Perrielle Ashenbrown. She's on, she's on the Comedy Cellars podcast. So she's our producer. Okay. So we put, she ended up, we ended up being together on the podcast with the guests and we, and we, 150.

Is it called, what is it called, Jew Talk? And Here's Modi. So, Jew Talk. Yeah. Are we recording? Yeah. We're already talking. Yeah.

No, my podcast is called And Here's Modi because of, because, you know, I did so many private Jewish events. Yeah. And there's always raising money for something. Yeah, yeah. And there's always showing a movie of some kid missing an earlobe or some God forbid cancer that hit God, what part of the body.

Yeah. And then like literally they go, and here's Modi. After the film. After the film, like right after the film. And here's Modi. I've been in that situation. Yeah, but I was in there for 20 years. So, you know, you guys popped in and out of those situations.

I was in those situations. You chose your life. Correct. And I'm very happy about it. So tell me about the prayer you said when he came. I haven't seen you in 20 years. So when you see somebody that you haven't seen 20 years, there's a prayer you say,

Baruch HaTah Mechayay Meitim, bless God, who brings back the dead. Even though you weren't dead, but I haven't seen you in so long, it's like you were dead. But that's a very, that's sort of a profound idea. Because you don't know, you know, you would have heard if I was dead.

But in terms of the, in your life. Physically, I haven't seen you. No, I get it. I recently saw someone un-chambering an entire machine gun in your life. Physically, I haven't seen you. No, I get it. I recently saw someone un-chambering an entire machine gun into your body. Yeah. In a movie. Yeah.

I just saw you being killed in a movie recently. Even more. Yeah. And I've obviously seen all your stuff, your specials and here and there, but I haven't physically seen you. I haven't run into you at the Comedy Cellar. It's crazy.

Well, I don't go in there anymore, really. Yeah, but I do. But like, so that's like where. I don't go in there anymore really yeah, but but I do but like so that's a Quirky right just like so so I haven't seen you at in Montreal comedy festival So we just have not run into each other Crazy because I feel like I must have you know I must have seen you I was there when you started I must have been there when you started yeah, because I do remember like all of a sudden there was this frenetic, loud Jewish guy jumping around everywhere and just like getting on stage and like, you know, just, just going at it.

I didn't know what, I didn't know what to make of you. I was, yeah. I didn't know if you were gay or straight or, or if you were, you know, where you came from, where you landed, I didn't know anything, were gay or straight or if you were, you know, where you came from, where you landed, if I know anything, but you were a force, right? Yes. I began. You look good.

Thank you, thank you. I began doing comedy in 1993. I was passed at the Comedy Cellar in 94. So think of where you were. You were doing, at the time you were like, oh my god mark marron stopping in so you were at the comic strip 95 you know, it's weird. Maybe the comic strip a bit, right? Yeah But like I don't think she let me work at the cellar until after I did that HBO half hour in 95 I wasn't I was around I was certainly in New York

Yeah, and doing alternative and I had a presence there, but yeah, I wasn't a big around I was certainly in New York. Yeah and doing alternative and I had a Presence there, but yeah, I wasn't a big shot. That's for sure. But yeah, maybe at the comic strip first Anyone could get in the comic strip. Well, I was I was an investor in banking I was an investment banking but wait wait, but you were born where I was born in Israel in Israel Yeah, we came to America and I was seven. So your parents are Israeli. So am I yeah born in Israel, right? Yeah, but you were seven when he got here, but your parents left Israel That's that that seems like the wrong direction generally no for Jews many Jews left Israel and came to America Israelis did that yeah, and the ones that did well stayed the ones that didn't said

How can you live in America and went back my father did well, so we we stayed What did he do? He was in gas stations and you know that kind of and where where'd you grow up the five towns in? Long Island so well the one of them I guess what which one? Grayneck became full like Persian Jews right Jews right? Yeah, that's a whole world I don't know anything about but they're the new Japs. They're the new Japs, yeah. Yeah, I just did a big event for them. I just did a huge event for them.

When I was growing up, my mother's cousins, the Hewlett and they were the Japs, but now they're all old and it's not even, but the Persian Jews seem to be the reinvention of the Jewish American prince and princess. They really are here and in Great Neck, yes, they are. And were they always a presence? Because I don't remember Persian Jews when I was growing up.

I didn't until my best friend married one. And then I was fully in their world. How different is it? Is it more like a... It's very insular. They're very... They're close knit. They're lots of cousins, lots of engagement parties, lots of, and they're

all in real estate on top of whatever they do. So, it's- But so, it's not like, did you grow up Orthodox? No, we grew up, we grew up traditional. I was more religious than anybody in the family. I used to go to synagogue every Saturday, yeah, and then I went to Yeshiva on my own after- Really?

Were they like, what's wrong with this kid? No, they loved it. I used to love the cantorial singing. So I used to go to the synagogue to listen to the canter. Yeah? And if you think about it, it's a drag. He's in the grove and the whole thing. It's wonderful. Were you going to Orthodox temples?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, Orthodox and it was a conservative synagogue too. Yeah, yeah. Great canter. And then you were like 11? I was, yeah, before my bar mitzvah and after. Yeah, I loved synagogue. You were obsessed. Obsessed with the Cantorial singing.

So you went to Yeshiva? I went to Yeshiva. When we first got here, my parents put me in Yeshiva, then I realized the community that we live in is 99% Jewish. So they put me in Hewlett High School, and they're like, well, I'm not spending all that money on Jews with all the Jews.

Surrounded by Jews anyway. Yeah, and then we went to the day school, but then after college, during college I went to BU. BU. I did too, yeah. I know. And liberal arts. Liberal arts, CLA, and then there was a yeshiva on campus that you don't, I don't think you know about it,

Lubavitch Yeshiva, I used to go and study there a lot. Let me ask you something about this. You know, because like I do a bit, you know, sometimes about being Jewish, about being culturally Jewish. You know, I'm a Jew and people ask, are you religious? I'm like, no, I'm a Jew. There's 15 million Jews in the world, there's 15 million ways to be Jewish. Right.

And then they go, do you believe in God? And I'm like, well, we don't really have to, we were chosen by God. So I don't have to, you know, I don't think that, are you religious? No. But I can't remember the tag, but it's, you know, we were chosen by God, we don't have to be religious. And I think that's really what upsets you people, is that we were chosen. Right.

But I think about it, about the Jews' relationship with God and what that means and the complexities of that. Because when you brought up Jewish conservative American Jew, no ability to really translate or read Hebrew or to understand it as it's being spoken. And I don't really remember, like, I always think, like, you know, you have to be taught how to use God. And I don't remember that ever happening. You know, it was, you know, there's a lot of talk about God, but like, how do you have

God in your life? Well, if my, you know, I believe, first of all, let's go back, you said the chosen people. So we were chosen, you know, but we weren't chosen to be the strongest nation in the world and the most ruling nation and the most powerful nation. We were chosen to be the nation that disseminates comedy. We were literally in the Torah, it doesn't say,

when you see hospitals and universities and schools and Jewish names, all of that, that's what we were chosen to do. To relieve pressure, to relieve, to bring healing and that kind of energy, which is what comedy is. It really relieves sadness. Yeah, that's what it says in the Talmud. So then going back to God, to make it simple for me, I'll tell you for me, the biggest line in the Torah

is, Shema Yisrael Danei Lehi Non Danei Yichad, the hero is who the Lord our God, the Lord is one, right? So it says the Lord is one. not that there is one God up above judging everybody, it's its oneness, me, you sitting here, the microphone working, that's God. God is right here. This is God. So if you connect to it, bam, you got it. You're in it. You're in it. You got it. So it's a given. It's a given that it's oneness, but it's gotta be with everybody. So the neighbor you hate,

that's also God.'s gotta be with everybody. So the neighbor you hate, that's also God. You gotta figure that out. Yeah. And also, like, it just seems like, you know, from what I gleaned over time, that the engagement with Jews, you know, biblically and the Talmud and everything else, is an active relationship. There's, in terms of God and interpreting God, that there's a conversation that goes on and on and on. Of course. Every day, again, what is oneness? What's happening in Israel? What's happening, it was happening in your neighborhood, what's happening in protests, all of that.

It's a constant struggle to connect to that oneness. Do you think that's what the struggle is? Yeah. That's how you see it. But do you think that's how it's seen by others? No, which is the problem. Which is the problem. Yeah. So when you're growing up, like, you know,

you felt that, when did that oneness part hit you? The oneness, that lesson of seeing it together, a lot of, I always, I don't know, I never really understood, understood everything. COVID kind of brought it all together. Oh really, so recently. COVID kind kind of brought it all together. Oh, really? So recent. COVID kind of really put it all together. So when you're going to Yeshiva, you just like the songs, you like the music,

you like that everybody's in the room, they're singing. And they're all men. The old guy. Women are upstairs. Makes it easy. Well, when you realized you were gay, I mean, was that something that was explored when you were young in Yeshiva? Did you find other men, other boys? No, I didn't like, I was, I'm really bi.

So I'm really, you know, and, but I focused more. So in Yeshiva, I was like, I'm just being in Yeshiva. I'm not straight or gay. I was literally just like, I'm into the studying. I want to learn. I want like, I'm just being in Yeshiva, I'm not straight or gay. I was literally just like, I'm into the studying, I wanna learn. I'm a Jew, yeah. I identified as a Jew. And I learned as much as I could.

But not ultra-orthodox, just orthodox. Yeah, just like. No payas and... No, I think I went to a very Hasidic Yeshiva that I loved. I tell you what I really loved. It was the singing and the Yiddish. So we learned a lot of the text in Yiddish,

which I was just obsessed with. You still speak? Yeah, yeah, yeah, I love, it's the best, in comedy, it's on another level. Well, it's interesting because when I grew up, you know, like my grandparents were not, they spoke Yiddish when they didn't want us to know what they were saying. It was in them, but it wasn't the language

of the house or anything. But I think that for most of my childhood, the comics that I looked up with, I really think the drive shaft of comedy was a Yiddish rhythm. And it doesn't exist much anymore. You haven't seen my act. No, well, I know you're there.

But it was interesting because like Kathy Ladman reached out to me and she's my age and her 60s and she's doing comedy still. And I watched her stuff again and it's that rhythm. It's that New York Jewish rhythm with good jokes. And I'm like, I don't hear it anymore. Like there are guys that, you know, that undeniably, you know, like, you know, Rickles, Dangerfield.

You know? Yeah, who I never liked. Too Jewish. Too Jewish. It was too Jewish. It's funny. It's just part of his act, but. He annoyed me because like when I started doing comedy,

it wasn't that I didn't want to be Jewish, but I didn't want to be Jewish, but I didn't want to talk about it in a way that was stereotypical. Like with Jackie Mason, everything's like, you know, Jews just want to sit down, they want to do this, we want to eat something. Everything is with the Jew does this, the Jew does that. I'm like, we can't all be that. That's been done, and it doesn't apply to me.

So I can't talk about it until I know how to talk about it, you know, for myself. And I figured out a way, but it wasn't through a Jewish identity. It was through, you know, being Jewish. Like I'm Jewish and this is how I see it. Not like we all Jews do this, all Jews do that. It bothered me. Right. Listen, Jackie Mason was the voice of Jews when he had that show on Broadway. Yes. So he was three years a sold out show on Broadway, which is wow. Yeah.

Because there was no Facebook and no Instagram. Right, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, he was popular, yeah. We used to go see him once a month. You did? And back then, yeah. The whole family. And when we didn't see him, we had him on tape in the car. The whole family.

The whole family. We knew that I could do his entire Broadway show. Huh. The show, it was such an amazing, just to see it. And now, you know, the New York Times wrote that I'm the new Jackie Mason. I'm Modi, I'm not Jackie Mason. Right. But it's a voice now where I'm on stage

and no longer is the voice of Jews like, hello, I'm trying to get a deal, I'm trying to get a it's a it's now It's proud good-looking guy. Yeah, he's married to a man who's not Jewish. Yeah, he's Israeli Yeah, he's knows his Torah. He knows is this he knows is that and and he's um, and That's the new voice of Jews and you know, I'm performing in all over Europe. I'm performing in Berlin, Munich. Do you ever perform in Hebrew? No, I do very well in Israel.

I just did the Brougham Center, 3000 seats. But in Europe, they come out to see me. And when you meet the fans away from the show, they come up to me. They say, for us in Berlin, to see somebody standing on stage, screaming that they're Jewish, and they're proud, and they're laughing,

and how great we're doing, and all that, you just don't see that. He says that, you know, I met this kid on the street, he was blonde, beautiful, boy, and his girlfriend was a, was beautiful Ethiopian Jew that he met in Israel. And they're a couple. They live, but the Jews are still quiet.

They don't put Mrs. up. They don't, they keep it very low key until all of a sudden see somebody on stage screaming that they're Jewish and proud of it and all that. I'm finding that with just liberals now in my audience. Now, but what about in the sense of, I mean, you know, we don't need to go in this too much because it doesn't need to you know I had a discussion with Moammar, you know recently, you know You know in his experience in America, but also as a familial experience, you know having family in Palestine Now what the Jewish identity?

Currently that now how is it now how do you handle, well, I mean, it's not your responsibility, but there is two ways of thinking about Israel as Jews. Yes. And I imagine as Israelis too. Okay. Right? Yes.

Yes. Being Jewish and being Israeli, and then just because you're Jewish, everybody thinks you're representing Israel. Yes, right. Like when they're yelling at the kids on the college campus, free Palestine. These kids at college, it has nothing to do with freeing Palestine. Right. When people write, you know, on my comments, they write free Palestine. It's not an app that I can just go and free Palestine. Yeah, yeah, yeah. What do you want? We were in Israel, I had a tour in Israel

right before October 7th, and we were in Israel when it happened. So, and then we had that day, a flight to Paris to do four shows in Paris, starting the month. So the war began on Saturday, and on Monday, I had a show in Paris Yeah, four sold out shows and like what are we gonna do? Do we cancel? Yeah, we didn't cancel. Yeah, and I started to sing at the end of the show

Hatikva we sing the Israeli national anthem at the end because I just do a full hour 10 15 minutes of comedy And you got to like just remember where our hearts our souls our thoughts are Yeah, you know with all of Israel everybody there Yeah, and it's just that's devastating But as somebody like I was trying to do bits about it, right, you know, and I waited a long time, you know because You know when you're a Jew of any kind And we talked about the spectrum of Jewishness, that you're expected to have comment. Where do you stand? And there's no gray area for most Jews. Either you make

a position that you think what is going on there is wrong, but you understand the state of Israel, or you take a position that doesn't matter what the State of Israel does and it has to survive, right? So those are your options. And it took me a long time to figure out an angle that was resonant. Because I think that as middle-class Jews, me, having the discussion we had about God, is like, I don't remember being taught about God in a specific way that would make me understand God, but you were certainly taught that Israel was more important than anything.

That's right. You know what I mean? That there has to be this place. Right, and we had the little boxes to make the donations for J&L. Sure, sure, the trees, you buy trees. Right, right, right. But it is a complicated issue just to either have your thoughts about what's going on to yourself, but if you're a public person and you speak, then you're going to be used by either side, one way or the other. And it's tricky.

So I put a lot of intention. And I'm avoiding it right now. I'm avoiding it So I I've so in the first in the first few Months I avoided I avoid I just did my act as if that was the act Then I dropped that special know your audience and then I began to slowly talk about the war. And then just talking about how the whole world's really looking for a messianic energy. And that's what the goal is.

And I talk about Muslim men. Cause two Muslim men saved my father's life. At NYU hospital, two doctors, both of them Syrian Muslim men saved his life Straight up what happened to him? He had he had a probably had clots in his heart and he put stents and balloons and all that stuff and they were both And you know that was that's like the goal of life that right just what happened there that messianic energy that literally that's mashiach energy Yeah, the two two arab men saved saved my father's life, you know?

And it's just so, it was so amazing to just, when that happened, and especially because I never really spent time with my father. We never really talked, talked until he got sick. We got him to the hospital. Why didn't you talk? Was he busy? It wasn't that, we love each other,

we just never spent time speaking. Yeah. And like, you know, it was just, we wasn't a car. You got a lot of siblings? I had two older sisters. Yeah. They're always questioning why they never spoke. I go, he was busy.

Yeah. He was working. He was, he was a wife, three kids, mortgage, boy, you know. Sent us to school, you know. He wasn't a conversationalist. But here we were, hours and hours together in the hospital. He told me this amazing story. Because he never told me about him,

because he was in three wars in Israel. The Kippur War, the Sinai War, the 67 War. And he was telling me this story that he was in charge, he wasn't in charge, he was a sergeant in front, in this brigade that had three or four trucks that were half trucks, half tanks. And they were- Armored trucks. Yeah.

So it was a new thing. He was the driver, he was driving the front one and the captain was next to him and they got to the, in the middle of the Six Day War, and they get on the desert, and they face the enemy. And they also had, like, four cars of whatever they had. And then my father, so I go, so what did you do? He goes, I took the wheel, and I went left. And before the captain had the chance to call the move. Like, do we start firing now?

And then, and the people that were opposite them, the enemy, they did the same thing. They went and they just, they both left each other. Oh. That one moment, that one move of him moving the steering wheel and just going the other way. He said, I saw them. They were also reservists.

Yeah. 67, 67 war, he had my two sisters. I wasn't born yet. Yeah. But he just bought a business, he bought a house, he bought, you know. Yeah. 67 war, he had my two sisters. I wasn't born yet. Yeah. But he just bought a business. He bought a house. He bought, you know, he needs to start firing at them and then firing at him.

Yeah. He needs to get out of this. So he made, and I don't know if some kind of energy maybe that, that moment, all those lives were saved at that moment, you know? Yeah. Maybe that's, and then now two Syrian men saved his life. Yeah.

Mashiach energy. Yeah. Yeah, because like it becomes impossible, you know, even from the beginning, you know, and I tried to explore this on stage and even for myself, you know, I think the fear of even, you know, middle-class American Jews to speak out, you know, in the name of saving lives, you know, in the name of saving lives, you know, Palestinian lives against genocide. I think their deeper fear, you know, morally is that like,

well, I don't wanna, you know, I don't wanna, I wanna make sure I get in. If I have to go. To heaven. No, to Israel. To Israel, okay. I don't wanna be on the list of shitty Jews. Shitty, the list of shitty Jews.

You know, I don't want to get there and they're like, well, you made some public statements. So, you know, and I think that the fear of having a public discourse as a Jew, knowing that what's going on there is heinous, is tricky. And I don't think people understand that. It's so- It's not tricky for Zionists.

Well, whoa, whoa, whoa. So there's this broad way So what is these words Zionists and anti-semitists and all it's just it's so crazy. Yeah But it's in broad strokes. It's everything's horrible. These these are these are these are brothers We're both we're all the children of Abraham. Well, yeah sons of Abraham cousins We're brothers. And you just put that into your head and work it, and they're so, we're so similar. The prayers, the way they pray, if you ever hear Sephardic Jews pray and you hear Arabs pray, you can't

tell the difference. The customs, the five times a day they do, but we came from the five times during Yom Kippur, there's a whole thing that was so similar and to just, instead of clicking on that, it clicks on everything else that's wrong and then the politics can fall off and no one's good and no one's good and the real problem is, this is a crazy thing and you're going to be in shock that I'm saying, if the Knesset, if Israel began to unite, if the Israelis began to unite, they would all go away. If the Jews got along with each other, all the problems in the world would go away. Those of you, there's no visual here, but if you could see Mark's face right now. Well, it's hard for me to talk about because you grew up there, this thing's been going on

one way or the other for hundreds of years over this piece of property. I mean, I used to sit at that table in the back, in the cellar with Manny. Oh my God, yeah. You can figure out where he would be, but for you in America, now was there a point where you thought maybe you'd be a rabbi?

No, I would have been a cantor, but I got, God told me I'm a comedian very early, like in my career. God did. God did, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And then later on I could really clicked in. But you didn't go right, you went to college, you learned finance, what did you do? I went to college, I learned psychology. Okay. And then, but in college, I was also at the Yeshiva. Right. I don't know if you remember, Buswell Street.

Yeah. The South Campus. Yeah, I lived on Park Drive. I lived at Park Drive in Buswell. So there was a big Yeshiva behind there. I used to go there. I was there more than I was in my classes. Huh.

I loved it. And, but I was- Was it part of the school? No, it wasn't a part of BU. It was a torn yeshiva. It was like this big mansion that they turned into a yeshiva. And it was-

I wonder why I don't remember it. You would have no idea it was there. Unless it was like, you would probably went to Hillel or the Chabad house. Not really. But whatever. I know what that is, yeah. Yeah, but I love that.

I really studied there. And then- You studied Torah? Yeah, Torah. Yeah, but I love that, like, I really studied there. And then- Study Torah? Yeah, Torah, and again, a lot of the Rebbe, it was a Lubavitcher Shiva. Oh, so Messianic. I like that that's where your head goes when you hear the word Lubavitcher.

Yeah. But it was like the teaching of the Rebbe. Yeah. The Lubavitcher Rebbe. Okay. So we would learn his discourses in Yiddish, and that just brought me in. I was just picking up Yiddish words, and it was so great. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then, like, I didn't realize how much I grasped of Yiddish and that just brought me in. I was just picking up Yiddish words and it was so great.

And then like, I didn't realize how much I grasped of Yiddish until someone gave me this link to these old Jewish comedians. Like Myron Cohen? That was in English. I'm talking about Jiggy and Schumacher. These are two Yiddish comedians. I listen to them. I'm like, oh my God, the timing, the cadence, the words. Yeah.

Mark, it's in another level of comedy. Yeah. It's like the next, it's like a movie where it's like it's another zone of comedy. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh my God. It's like the origin story. Yeah. Wow. Yeah, like that. Yeah, wow, yeah, like that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

And they worked off of each other and it was brilliant. What was one of the, they had a joke about a guy driving. It's mentioned, foot and foot and foot and the dog get cockin'. He has to go to the bathroom, so he took a dump. He looks and there's no sign here, there's no sign. And there's no gas station, there's no diner, there's no nothing. There's no gas station, there's no diner.

All of a sudden he sees a washroom. He pulls in, runs inside, he does what he has to do. And then he needs toilet paper. There's no toilet paper. So there's a sign, he says, Shrei for toilet paper, yell for toilet paper. So he shrieks, I need toilet paper. So Shrai, Dardav toilet paper. And the owner comes in and says,

Svansek Dola for toilet paper, $20 for a piece of toilet paper. And he begins to go, he's got no Breyra, Hottnishkin Breyra, so he has to take it. And then afterwards he goes outside, he sees the owner taking the $20 and putting it into his pocket and goes, so this whole business is yours? He goes, yeah. And you get Svansek D the owner taking the $20 and putting it into his pocket and goes, so this whole business is yours? He goes, yeah.

And you get $20 for a piece of toilet paper? He goes, yeah, yeah. He goes, are you looking for a partner? Then he goes, the owner says, a guns took a whole day, itch our pishers. Mit them all, kym to kaka. All day long, people come to pish. One guy comes to take a dump, he wants to be a partner.

But the way they tell it is, it's the most, you die, you can't catch your breath, it's so good. It's funny because of the Israeli accent, the adjustment to Yiddish, which is informed by the Israeli accent in a way, right? In the Hebrew, like, it's a that's the organic basis of that rhythm You know you take right to it. You're not you don't have to manufacture it, right? Like for someone like me if I'm like I am a bit the bit, you know I got you know, I know it but it doesn't live in me But I think because the Israeli it lives in you that too, but you know also I want to tell you something

I've been leaning into it and it's in my my new show now I'm on tour now doing pause for laughter. Yeah, because it's literally like and It's been so good I leaned into the fact that I am the last Catskill comedian. Hmm You're literally with the last Catskill comedian. How so how so because you were performing for the Jews up there, for the Orthodox. No, no, no. In 1995 or six, whatever it was, the guy that booked the Catskill, there was the Catskill Mountains, for you listeners who don't know what I'm talking about, it's a little bit north of New York. What hotel? There were like five left. There's Kutcher's, Concord, the Raleigh. Oh, most of

them are gone. Kutcher's, Concord. the Raleigh. Most of them are gone, Kutcher's, Concord. All of them are gone now. But I caught the last, the tail end of those years. But that was when it was primarily, it wasn't middle class Jews, it was Orthodox Jews. No, it was still the middle class Jews that did well, but their parents still liked going up there. They went with their parents, it wasn't Orthodox. I was kosher, but their parents still liked going up there. They went with their parents. It wasn't orthodox.

I was kosher, but it wasn't orthodox. But I was picking up gigs there all the time, to the point where I bought an apartment off the money I made in the Catskill Mountains. I worked up there with some of the best comedians in the world that no one ever heard of. And you were how many years into doing comedy? Two, three years.

Like who was up there still? Stewie Stone, Alan King. Alan King. He played it for that long. Malzy Lauren. Malzy Lauren. Yeah, yeah. I mean, I learned my cadence from comedians

that were the top of the top. Of that time. Of that time. Of that type. Of that type. Because I was like, out of all of them, I never loved Alan King. When people ask me, who's your number one, that's him. Yeah. Type of that time because I was like I never had of all of them. I never loved Alan King you I

Make people ask me who's your number one? That's him Yeah, if you you really and now I watch myself and I'm like, oh my god I'm literally doing Alan King, but you know so much more intensity, you know, you have quicker. Yes You know, he was he was you know long-winded. Yeah, so I okay, so I I think I The last set I watched of myself. I thought I was a little long-winded. Yeah, so I, okay, so I think I've, the last set I watched of myself, I thought I was a little long-winded. I had to move it a little quicker, yeah. Well, that's interesting, because I saw him,

I thought he was pompous. And I also felt that about Jackie Mason, that there was this arrogance to it. And I think Alan King, if I have it historically correct, he was the guy that, you know, made middle-class Jews, gave them a voice. He was the guy that, you know, was... We're doing well. We're doing well. Right. We're out on the island, you know, we...

Right. Right. And that was different than, you know, the, you know, shtetl Jews or the Lower East Side Jews. It was the... He was the generation that was no longer in the Lower East Side. Correct. And then it became sort of a middle-class conversation, right? Because I listened to some old Pat Cooper records, and he was the same for the Italians. Right.

That, you know, we're not down there Lower East Side anymore. Right. Now we got a big house and we can, you know, family comes over and it's different. Our problems are different. That's why I fell in love with him, because it him. Because here is a Jew, he's doing well. He's in a tuxedo. His special, he taped in Carnegie Hall. And it's big, and it's good.

It's good, it's not like, you know, it's not take my wife please, you know. And the young man, it was a step up. I loved it, I loved it. Yeah, storyteller, but the stories of the Jewish middle class. Yeah, but the other people can relate to. But like, yeah, but Myron Cullen was still telling, you know, Hasidic jokes.

Right, right. Right? And it was still, you know, stories that have a biblical resonance, a story about a rabbi or this or that. It was still, it was different. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, because like because I saw Alan King in Vegas once when I went to, you know, I must've been in high school, and we'd go meet my grandparents out there, I went to a show.

It was one of the, it made me realize, it was before I was doing comedy, obviously, but I really saw Guy, it was in one of the, it felt like a ballroom more than a showroom, but I saw Guy go out there, and it looked like he had to do it, that he was only gonna do a certain amount of time. You know, 45 minutes, it was in and out.

And it didn't seem like he really gave a shit. It seemed like, you know, this is just, I gotta do this. And it was disappointing. And then like, you know, he was a pretty good actor. I don't know why he didn't click with me. For me, it was like, Rickles, Buddy Hackett. Buddy Hackett I loved as a kid. So when we came to America, my parents were figuring out

what are we doing, what's our jam? Like what are we gonna do with the kids? We tried Disney and we hated it, hated it. Then my people told my parents, you know, this is in the 70s, so the Catskills was still going on. So we went for one weekend to the Catskills. We left early. My mom's like, we're not staying here.

This food is disgusting and they just, all they do is eat and sit in the lobby. This is not for us. But that Friday night, I saw Buddy Hacking and I was blown away. I was like, oh my God, I can't believe this is happening. And the entire room is just, he has them like at that, and you know, and I have that in my show.

I have them, I know where I'm gonna get them. I massage a priest and rabbi joke into my act. And they'll just, boom, you hear the boom, boom. You know, when you're at the beacon, all of a sudden, boom, you feel it, you know? Wow, yeah, it's, I love Alan King. And I'll tell you one other, if we're doing Alan King stories,

one time I was, he was in a hotel, he was at the Neville. I was next door, I finished my set, ran over there, and sat with him, there was a delay because something happened. I saw him finish a bottle of Tangrey. Yeah, that's what he always used to have there. Oh my God, and it was a little left, he always used to have that. Oh my God. Yeah.

And it was a little left, he pours into the cup and tells the guy on the stool stage left, walks on, does an hour and 30 with a bottle of Tangray and destroyed. Yeah. I never saw, like, phum, phum, phum, just every joke, just waves of laughter and,

these guys are guys that worked every night. Yeah, I remember he did Conan one time when I was there, I think in, you know, Stu, not Stu, Frank, Frank Smiley, that segment producer over there. He, I went over to Alan's dressing room and I don't know if he was there, but they had a bottle of tank right, he needed it just to get it in,

get it tanked up to get out there. That's something, you never had to do that I never I know yeah, I mean there were guys who like Allen's white Bell and Richard Lewis that wrote for those guys That's how they started. Yeah, you know in the 70s. They were just you know selling those guys jokes. Yeah. Yeah, they take them They would take them. Yeah, and they and they reuse them and they so well So what happened with with the with the money job, you know before? So I was doing comedy full-time and I was at the cellar strip So what happened with the money job before comedy? So I was doing comedy full time, and I was at the cellar, strip, gigs, synagogues,

everything, and still stayed at Merrill Lynch for five years. And then I had to leave in 99. What were you doing there? I was in international finance. No, my husband said I was a personality hire. The more I tell him stories about what was going on there. They like having you around. Yeah, I was just, I was good with the clients.

I didn't know anything about finance. I was just like, I didn't, I didn't. I was just like, but I knew where the money was gonna come from and wait, they had money somewhere else and I was good at that, but I wasn't like, I wasn't a banking guy. So I was doing both jobs. I was at the Comedy Cell on the strip in a suit.

Do you remember me? I used to go right from the bank to like a nine o'clock spot in a suit. In a suit. And back then it was just over the top characters. I would just imitate the secretaries. It wasn't a Jewish voice yet. So I was like within a year closing the show

at the comic strip. Esti put me on writer work a year in. I was hosting there. It was just over the top character. Then the voice comes together, became a very Jewish voice. When you start yelling? I stopped, I still kind of yell. Well, I don't know if I'm yelling, I just, I'm loud.

Manic. Manic? But you're a little manic, I remember. Like you get- Back then, yeah. Yeah, yeah. I was doing over the top character. Yeah, Yeah, I was doing over-the-top character Yeah, yeah, yeah, and then that one of the characters was close to you and he stuck with that one

I think so is that how it works? Is that comedy works? Yeah, you're going in at these characters and you know, whatever you're doing to set them up. Yeah, then that becomes you Yeah, I guess so. I guess that's a great way to see it. Yeah. Wow. But when do you start, because I mean, I remember you were around and people do their lives and they make their money

in ways that I don't know in terms of what they're doing out there on the road or whatever. But it felt like for outside of doing the cat skills, I mean, you were still kind of trying get make a living right trying to scrap together I was an audience. I was working you know back then you couldn't collect your audience There wasn't there weren't followers right you just had to kill where you were and hope that the word got around So I was working on but synagogues charities, so you would do that Yeah, you you early on you saw that there was a market for that.

Early on, you know, so don't forget, they saw me in the Catskills in a tuxedo. Yeah. I was performing in a tuxedo. And then they would see that and say, this would be nice for our synagogue, this would be nice for our charity, my wife is on the cancer board.

You're relatively clean. Very clean, I never curse on stage. I never curse, and so that also helped. Yeah. And then you pick up up and then I picked up Comedy clubs as well. I was still you know, yeah all over and I was making a living bought an apartment Yeah, you know is great. Yeah, and then things really really clicked with me when

COVID hit COVID was the best thing that ever happened to me. So that's recently Yeah but like so before you were just kind of like making ends meet, running around doing this and that because like I don't know that it didn't seem like the logical path where you know you do a Letterman, you do a you know you do a Fallon or whatever that wasn't that was not in the cards for you. No. Why is that?

I never did any I sent them here's my four minutes here's my whatever I was never in that world. you? No. Why is that? I never did any, I sent them, here's my four minutes, here's my whatever, I was never in that world. I was never- So you had to figure something else out. I was never in that world, I was making more money than any of those guys in that world. I was picking up, you know, I was doing these fundraisers, charities, huge events, but I never had a Letterman,

I never had any of those credits, back then it was so important, coming to the stage now- Yeah, Letterman, I never had any of those credits. Back then it was so important. Coming to the stage now. Yeah, Letterman, Carson. I used to always say, just say, you may have seen him on Letterman. You may not. You may not, they may not have seen me.

They may, but they may not have seen me on Letterman. So you weren't quite lying. I wasn't, Comedy Central never looked at me. Never? Nah, they never took anything with me. And so- Why, cause you think he was too Jewish? Maybe they thought I was too Jewish. Maybe they weren't sure it was too loud.

Maybe it was too loud for them. You didn't get mad about that? I didn't. I was too busy making a living to be worried about that. Really? It never bothered you? Yeah. It irritated me. It irritated me.

Comedy is such a profession. It's such an insane, it's such a craft in a profession. If you were in a hospital and you were hiring a doctor, who should be hiring doctors? Other doctors, right? Your comedy, it should be by other comedians that like, it's a crazy thing that the people who judge who goes. Well, he was a comedian, but then they're acting

on behalf of the show's interests. So they get to make the decision, like, we don't fit in with this. Yeah. But again, it never bothered me. I'm like, thank God I'm working. I always have my schedules always full. I always had gigs lined up, this synagogue's coming up,

that, the Stress Factory, the Funny Bones somewhere have gotta hold of me and said, come here, we wanna do something. And it was just- Do something for Jews? Sometimes Jews, but then you came back, you know, for the non-Jews. Right. And then I was on, I had a stint where I toured with-

Ilan? No, with Stuttering John from the Howard Stern Show. Yeah. For two years. What? It was so much fun. I didn't realize how much fun we were having back then. How did that happen?

So you're getting all the Stern audience? We got the Stern. It was the most insane thing. And so I did all the comedy clubs all over the country. Yeah. In the best way you could ever do them. Stuttering John was on the Howard Stern show. Yeah. He decided he's a comedian. Yeah. Showing. Now he's a comedian. in the best way you could ever do them. Stuttering John was on The Howard Stern Show.

He decided he's a comedian, showing. Now he's a comedian. And now he was booking shows with me, Nick DiPaolo, Jim Florentine, Jim Norton. It was in the beginning, before they all blew up. So he would take a comedy club, and he'd like, hey, I'm hosting and come. And so The Stern Show, if Howard Stern turned to him

on Friday and said, hey John, where are you and the boys gonna be this week? Me, Modi, Nick DePaul and this are gonna be at the Comedy Connection in Boston. We end up adding two shows. Just from that. Boom. When was this?

This was right after 9-11. So 2002 to 2003. We did all the clubs all over America. It was so much fun. And Howard would plug them. If he did, you couldn't ask for the plug. But if he turned to John and said, where are you guys gonna be?

And then we did a big show for Howard in Atlantic City. I don't know if you remember John had a boxing thing. I wasn't a stern follower. I didn't know what was going on in the show. But he just liked you. I wasn't a stern follower. I didn't know what was going on in the show. So like. But he just liked you. So what it was was this. You understand you have Jim, Nick DiPaolo.

Yeah. Okay, you have Jim Florentine. These are all guys guys. Yeah. But they came there with a girl. Yeah. So he put me on at the end. I was talking about my aerobics class.

Even though I wasn't gay, I was like, the aerobics class and then this and the denim doesn't match with that. I didn't realize how gay I was. But if- We did. We- I never hid it from the comedians.

No, no, no. Comedians all knew I used to come with boyfriends to the table, I was always- Yeah, yeah. Yeah, but that was a fun stint. It was a fun, and then back to working. And then, you know. Do you talk about it now, being out?

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah, oh, amazing stuff. Amazing. It was, it was never really a part of me. I was more Jewish than I was gay. Now I have a husband who took over my career and changed my life. During COVID?

During COVID. Well, explain this COVID epiphany, this catharsis. COVID hits, COVID hits, and we're stuck at home. You have a podcast, you're already in COVID. So I have 7,000 followers on Instagram. Now I'm home, I'm like, oh, a year off. I have a year off. I'm ready to not work.

People are calling for Zoom shows. I was the king. No one could do a Zoom show better, Mark. I never saw God bless me more than when it came to, I said, I'm not doing a Zoom show, you crazy? You want me to tell my jokes into a computer? Yeah. Luckily, I saw, God showed me, what's Martin Scorsese interviewing Fran.

Leibowitz, the writer, yeah. And I watched it, and I saw that he was her laugh track. Right. He was the entire audience of her laugh track. So I began to do the Zoom shows. Congregation Beth Anywhere in the World. Okay? Beth Anywhere You Want hires me for their event. So now I said, okay, it's gonna be me on the Zoom

and three other people. Everybody else is hidden. And you guys, I would train them. You are my laugh track. When I say something funny, you are my laugh track. When I say something funny, you have to laugh like you have a problem. The other comics?

No, the other three, like the board president, the rabbi, and Sheldon, some guy. But the idea is that, but there's still a hundred-some people watching. Thousands, that's how I built my entire, I did two events in London, for a London organization. Now I sell out the palladium. I built my entire London audience out there.

This Zoom was the best thing. Those horrible shows on Zoom built me. I went like 30,000 followers, 40,000. And my husband took over the whole thing. The social media. You need this, you need that. You need an agent, you need a promotion. We, and we began to, he just took over and just like, imagine having a millennial in your life.

It's just the most amazing thing that could ever happen to anybody. How old is he? He's 32. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. And like a genius and whatever he does. So you just kept doing Zoom shows.

I was doing Zoom shows. And that could be anywhere in the world? Anywhere. Australia. We just sold out like a whole tour in Australia. Because of those Zoom shows, they built that. And then the audience kept following me, and now we're feeding the machine. And I had these two characters I did, this Israeli character, Nir Natfar, and people, they couldn't get enough. And I did this Hasidic character. I got up in Hasidic drag, Nier Natfar, Nier, hi, it's Nier Natfar, and people love, they couldn't get enough.

And I did this Hasidic character, I got up in Hasidic drag, and I would just do this Hasidic guy, and people loved both of those characters. It went viral on WhatsApp groups throughout the Jewish world, and Leo's like, okay, when COVID ends, we need to figure out what you're gonna do.

And he began to, he found a promoting company, he found the- No shit. Yeah, oh my god. And we finally got to UTA with Michael Grinspan, who is like beyond a blessing from God. Booking agent. Yeah, he's our booking agent and like, we couldn't be happier. That's crazy. So now, like now when you do this, is it still primarily Jews? It is.

And then I went with like, be true to your audience and the rest will follow. Right. So now, yes, it began the first round of touring as Jews. And then the Jews brought their non-Jewish friends. Like you gotta see this. Let me show you Jewish comedy. Come, come, come, come.

This is gonna be fun. You're gonna love it. And then the gay thing, like the gay clips went out. So now we have goyim gays in the days. That's the new audience besides the Jews. And then anybody who caught me that wasn't Jewish would tell all their Jewish fans, have you seen this comedian?

You've gotta come see this. And they would bring them. And it's just like, and that's... So now when I go go who here's not Jewish Half the room sometimes. No kidding. That's so great. It's my favorite thing, but it's funny because you are the Jew Yes, I am and it's not it's unique. Yeah, right I mean do you I do I do you have peers like Israeli comedians or you do, you know? People that represent like you do?

No, I don't. I don't. I don't. Israeli comedians are Israeli comedians. I perform in Israel. I have them as opening acts and all that. My Israeli audience used to be mostly Americans and England people and they moved to Israel, ex-PACs, I don't know what you call them.

And then, now Israelis found me. So now I just did the Brofman Center in Tel Aviv, which is 3,000 people, half was half Israelis and half that just moved there. All live in Israel. And I was able to relate to both of them because I'm from America, I'm from Israel, I'm from this and that.

And you speak to all that. And I speak to all that. And I was able to drop all the Hebrew and all of that. And it was amazing. So when you do like in England, so you get the full spectrum, you got Orthodox there, you got... Everything. 18 to 88. 18 to 88 is the age range. And you see yarmulkes, you see black hats. And then you see gay couples. Yeah.

That one's not Jewish and one is Jewish and all of that that you see in the whole room. Yeah, it's amazing. Huh. Yeah. So now you're a big star. I'm a big star. I'm a huge, my husband made me a big star.

We added something to, when we got married, we said we have to, we live by three rules. Hydrate, moisturize, and be nice. We added one more, monetize. He monetized me. So now you're gonna do it at the will turn here, sold out. Sold out. Thank God, he loves to sell out. He out he when he when we put a show out

He goes into a mode of like, you know Like when you're in college and you have an exam or a paper you have to hand in until it's sold out He feels like it's like he has to do all that work. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, it's finally sold out. Okay, we're done with that Yeah plug it. We just say it's sold out and And you just do all the plugging on the Instagram? Instagram. TikTok? He runs, we have a whole social media thing. I only look at the Instagram account and I answer and then-

What's the followers now? How many? 365. Yeah. A thousand. It's really nice and it's growing steadily and all the TikToks and everything else he runs I don't look at any of it and we caught company and by the way

Even though we haven't seen you in 20 years. I want to just tell you for Congratulations congratulations congratulations on all of your success. Well, thank you, and I hope you're enjoying it and I will tell you that Your podcast with Chris Hayes was insane. Oh good. It blew me away. Oh good. On a treadmill for an hour and 40 minutes or something. It was so good I stayed for the guitar.

It was so good, I was like, no, no, this is his real passion is in there. I gotta listen to that. You were unbelievable. Listen, you're in thousands in your podcast. We began doing, Leo said, we're doing a podcast. Okay, we're doing a podcast. We did a podcast.

And now we're 150 in. We had our 100th anniversary one. We did it at the 92nd Street Walk. And we're just like, you are unbelievable at this. And that one was like, wow. Oh yeah, I'll give you the book yeah it was so good it was you always like um talk about like the the your audience brings you gifts yeah but you have to understand your connection to your audiences I do I do it's you know I'm bad you I've grown more gracious you

know I've always was pretty gracious because they do have a relationship with you and you have to honor that. You know, they like being, when you do a podcast, they know things about your life, you know, and they ask you questions about the thing that you talked about and you don't know them, but you know, it makes me happy. There's a familiarity to it all. They're familiar with me. It's what's going to get you into heaven.

I don't know if you know that. Oh, thank God. So in the Talmud, it talks about comedians. It literally speaks about comedians in the Talmud. And it talks about in the marketplace, in the marketplace, Elijah the prophet was there. And so two people asked him, who here has a place in the world to come in heaven? In other words, you're done. You did it. You don't have to come back in another reincarnation.

And he goes, the two guys over there. So they go and ask him, what do you do? And he said, we are, men of laughter, of jokes. They're comedians. They're comedians. They're comedians. We, and then they say then what do we do? We make people who are sad happy.

And when there's a riff, through comedy, we bring peace. That's their job. So one night on Ketamine at a rave, at a techno rave, I'm like with my husband in my arms, just like shirtless, bopping back and forth. And I'm just, this is what's going in my head. There's two comedians. I'm like, why is there two comedians?

Why would there, if the tom doesn't waste words and stuff, it'd be, if you want to say the comedians have a portion in the world to come, you say, the guy over there is a comic, I'll go ask him what he does. But it's two. And I realized, the comic can't be alone. He needs, you got this podcast, those of you who don't know, I'm blown away. Mark sat down, hit the buttons, and we began.

But you're sending it to somebody. And they're gonna figure it all out. That's the other guy. That's the other guy. I could be working the back of synagogues the rest of my life, but my husband came into my life and now I'm came into my life now performing for You know, yeah Arena, but it also could be the guy who you go like tell me is this funny

I'm not gonna you tell me if it's funny like the the second guy Could be the guy that gives him the punch lines It is it is your friends who you run who you run material on but it could also be let me tell you what else it is It I really saw again again, during COVID, some guy had a huge synagogue in Scarsdale, big synagogue. And there was a rift in the synagogue because COVID's like coming to an end, but not coming to an end.

You can't imagine the young people like in the synagogue, no masks, and the older people were like still in those FEMA tents outside pretending being outside is okay. And one guy said, what would it cost to bring Modi here to do a show? He called, he paid, he cut a check, boom, for Modi to come and do a show.

And for that night, everybody came in, they took the main ballroom where the bar mitzvahs happened and put the spread out chairs. And it was the first time that the whole synagogue laughed together and there were no rifts and everybody was happy. And that's Mashiach energy. There's a moment of messianic energy in that room, oneness. And that guy was the second guy in the two comedians over there. He doesn't say comedians, he's, Anshe Bediche, men, not men, people. We are people of laughter. So he created that laughter.

He brought me in. That's like an insane energy man. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Did the riff go away permanently? It definitely helped. Listen, they came in, they all put their dumb masks for a second, they gave it a break, and they laughed. And it was amazing, and it was such an amazing evening.

And they reminded me of the time during 2016, when Trump got elected the first time. There was a synagogue in Pennsylvania, and there was a riff right down the middle. People like brothers wouldn't talk to each other who were in the same synagogue. And then the first thing that brought everybody back together was a comedy night.

Comedy night brought everybody back together. It was to the point that they had two different services. Can you imagine how crazy that is? How ungodly that is? Because just because they were in such a riff over over Trump. Yeah, it's an insane situation Well, I'm glad that that I that we were each other's second person today. Yeah today There's the answer to be here right here to two comics to two men of laughter Yeah, making people who are sad happy and bringing peace. Yeah. Well, I'm glad to be part of it

I'm it's an honor to be on shipshu Biddyche with you today. Yes, good to see you, man. Good to see you. There you go, again, very Jewish, very Jewy, I know. Again, you can get his tour dates, listen to his podcast and check out his special at modilive.com, M-O-D-I. Hang out for a minute, folks.

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Hey, people! We've got more outtakes from recent episodes up on the Full Marin this week. You'll hear stuff that didn't make it into the episodes with Moe Amher, Carrie Coon, and this bit of manic research during the talk I had with Chris Fleming. Wild outfits. Yeah, what was her name? Oh, God, why am I forgetting her name? The bangs, the famous bangs of his, you know, the one who kind of invented that haircut.

She was an actress. Cleopatra? No, it was, oh man, my- Liz Taylor? Nope, nope, nope, nope, nope. We could Google her. Famous, famous, who invented bangs? Lulu Brooks, was it maybe Lulu Brooks?

No, there was another one, a Vixen. A Vixen. Lulu Brooks was it maybe Lulu Brooks? No, there was another one of Vixen a Vixen Lulu Brooks was a silent actress and she did the Bob bangs thing Oh, yeah. Yeah, sure sure How am I gonna Google this Lulu Brooks or no. No, I know Lulu Brooks. It's not what I'm thinking of when you say Vixen Do you are you saying like you personally find her to be a Vixen or she identity? Well there's Louise Brooks and she was definitely part of it. Oh yeah, those are pretty straight, that's like a ruler across the forehead. But there was another one, the most iconic bangs in history, maybe that'll do it. What about famous vixens of yesteryear?

Famous vixens of yesteryear, these were all too new. I'm thinking Ozgo, she's That's kind of like she um Bangs Actress With wait I'll look on my phone to bangs. Let's get the whole problem old days Okay, okay the most iconic bangs throughout history, this has got to be it man, okay, we got jet Louise Brooks Yeah, I got that okay Clara bow Betty Paige

Betty Paige Betty Davis nobody page hold on let me see if I'm right well She's not number Audrey Hepburn. She's not in the top Betty pays number five look you got her. That's it. You got her That's it. That's the haircut Betty pet. Oh, yeah. her. That's it. You got her. That's it, that's the haircut. Betty Pay, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yes, yes, yes. You can get that episode as well as all the bonus episodes we do twice a week by signing up for the full Marin. Just go to the link in the episode description

or go to WTFPod.com and click on WTF Plus. And a reminder before we go, this podcast is hosted by a cast here's some guitar you know the kind of guitar that I do you you know here we go So So So So So So So Boomer this, Monkey and La Fonda, Cat Angels everywhere.