Just the funny at JCafeLA

‘Twas the night after Yom Kippur and hundreds of young Jews gathered for some flirty fun. It was the inaugural event of a new “club” for the romance-ravenous yuppies of Jewish LA. There was music and comedy and a microphone cacophony. There were men with bar tabs and women with beauty and brains. There was an eccentric host, an eclectic crowd and exuberant entertainment. It was an unusual evening, with the quintessential kinks that transform an ordinary Sunday night into something memorable. It was fun but it was also peculiar…

The Calendar Girls’ Top Ten Moments at JCafeLA:

10) The ear-splitting screech of the mike – interrupting nearly every performance. (DK)

9) Host Richard Rubin’s strip-tease-in-reverse entrance. (DK)

8) The Camp Talent Show From Chelm: with the majority of the crowd more interested in getting digits than digging the arts, disgruntled performers improvised irritation, chastised the “single” minded and interacted with interested folks encircling the stage. (DB)

7) Aaron Kemp announcing that the fire marshal would close the party down if some of the over capacity crowd didn’t shift to an adjacent room. No one moved. (DK)

6) Someone asking if The Calendar Girls Blog is “the one with swimsuit photos.” (DB)

5) Playing Jewish Family Feud, I walked up to a random guy and handed him the card with the survey question he would answer for me as part of the game. The question was, “What is the worst thing a girl could do on a first date?” He wrote his initials, DK, next to the answer he agreed with most – “talk about an ex.” When I saw his initials, I said, “We have the same initials!” He replied, “That’s funny. My ex had the same initials too.”(DK)

4) The not-so magical “mindreader.” Dikla volunteered the naked contents of her brain to the mysterious, mind-reading magician (a.k.a. Seth Grabel). She discovered she has a new favorite color (red), two of her sisters vanished completely, and suspects her randomly chosen word was selected from a trick novel. A skeptical spectator shouted, “It’s fixed, it’s fixed! The Calendar Girls are in on it!” (Rest assured dear readers, we comply with the highest standards of truth in reporting and ethical journalism.) (DB)

3) The Klezmer Keyboardist on Crack. His ebullient arpeggios were so wildly energetic, his yarmulke kept leaping off his head. (DB)

2) Smooth E aka Eric Schwartz venting about the supermodel-thin crowd lingering for the final act: “What am I doing up here? I’m supposed to be the big headliner and there’s four people left.” (DK)

1) One of the organizers walking around with a jar of peanuts and propositioning everyone for a “taste of [his] salty nuts.” (DB)