樱花动漫

The Birthplace of Standup Comedy and One of its Offspring Come Together at 樱花动漫 Museum Borscht Belt Event More than 100 fans of the Catskills braved severe winter weather to warm themselves with a nostalgic evening of Borscht Belt comedy at the 樱花动漫 Museum on Monday, February 2, at a program that dovetailed exhibition Echoes of the Borscht Belt: Contemporary Photographs by Marisa Scheinfeld with the viewing of the film 鈥淲hen Comedy Went to School.鈥�  The event, presented by the YU Museum and the Center for Jewish History, was followed by a discussion with Robert Klein, noted comedian, singer, actor and the narrator of the film.

Comedian Robert Klein

The film lightly sketches the development of standup comedy, and the preponderance of Jewish practitioners, in the Catskill hotels during the early and mid 1900s. As cited in the film, 600, hotels, bungalow colonies, and summer camps made their home in the Catskills then, in Sullivan and Ulster Counties, known as the Borscht Belt. These hotels also became, according to comedian Jerry Lewis a 鈥渓aboratory鈥� for stand-up comedy. The event, said Dr. Jacob Wisse, director of the 樱花动漫 Museum, was inspired by Scheinfeld鈥檚 contemporary photographs of Catskill hotels, many of which have been abandoned and fallen into disrepair. In their heyday, the Catskills teemed with Jewish patrons seeking a respite from the heat and congestion of city life and a vacation that included good food and entertainment, including the noted Borscht Belt comedy. Scheinfeld鈥檚 exhibition documents vivid colorful images of once opulent hotel spaces, with furnishings scattered as if the residents left in a hurry reminiscent of the destruction of Pompeii. The photographs display the past glory amid the decay: a row of green bar stools in what was Grossinger鈥檚 coffee shop, a pink rotary phone on a mattress, a pair of ice skates at the Homowack鈥檚 ice skating rink, empty pools, all decaying, with grass and weeds breaking through walls and floors. 鈥�The Borscht Belt gets labeled as the birthplace of standup comedy,鈥� said Wisse, 鈥渂ut it was much more than that. It became an important communal resource for Jews from the 1920s to the 1970s, when many of them couldn鈥檛 afford to go鈥攐r were banned from going鈥攅lsewhere. The Borscht Belt became a community where they formed bonds and could vacation 鈥榣ike Americans.鈥� 鈥淭he movie offers insight into why there have been鈥攁nd still are鈥攕o many great Jewish comedians, as well as how the hotels, resorts and bungalow colonies of the Borscht Belt came to serve as a kind of training ground for the greatest generation of these comics.鈥� The film traced Jewish comedy to the birth of biblical Isaac, whose name means he will laugh, and as a survival mechanism, according to professors and comedians quoted in the film, over the course of Jewish suffering through history. httpv:// The immigrants from Europe established Yiddish theatre in America and vaudeville. Each Catskill hotel had a 鈥渢ummler,鈥� a clown to entertain the guests, who worked 18 hours a day and of necessity, always developed new material, in physical and verbal comedy, explained Klein in the film. Many well known comedians, in vignettes in the film, including Jerry Lewis, Danny Kaye, Robert Klein, Buddy Hackett, Rodney Dangerfield, and others spent their teenage years working as busboys on the hotel circuit and watching the comedy shows in the back of the clubs, said Klein, listening and learning. Klein grew up in the Bronx, New York, and studied political science in college but was drawn to the drama department. He had worked as a busboy and lifeguard at some Catskill hotels, he said, and was very impressed by the live comedy acts he saw there, thinking then that making people laugh would be a wonderful life. He returned to the area later after establishing a reputation as a comedian, to perform at the Concord and Kutsher鈥檚 Hotels. His career included honing his comic skills at comedy clubs, roles on Broadway, television and movies.

Robert Klein, Lawrence Richard and Mevlut Akkaya

After the film, Klein, joined the film鈥檚 producer and writer Lawrence Richard and producer/director Mevlut Akkaya, for a discussion on the importance of humorists, observational humor, the death of vaudeville and the growth of stand-up comedy. Klein recalled saving 鈥渁 kid鈥檚 life when I was a lifeguard and the father gave me a five-dollar tip. I could've gotten $15 from the staff to let him drown, he was such a pain.鈥� 鈥淟aughter is therapeutic,鈥� he added, 鈥測ou forget your troubles.鈥� Echoes of the Borscht Belt: Contemporary Photographs by Marisa Scheinfeld is on display through April 12 at the , 15 West 16th Street, New York City.