A Comedic Hunger For Yunger

About a year ago, Stefanie Yunger did a set at Stand Up NY. She impressed club owner Dani Zoldan, who invited her to perform at The Chosen Comedy Festival at The Orpheum Theater on February 14.

“She was very funny, and I could see she was really talented and someone to watch,” Zoldan told the Journal.

Elon Gold, who will host the event with Modi Rosenfeld, also had high praise.

“If you’re asking me who is someone that can break out, that is maybe under people’s radar, that really is great and has the brains, the beauty and the ability to pull observational humor into her act, it’s Stefanie Yunger,” Gold told the Journal.

“I’ve done it all,” Yunger told the Journal. She’s been a buyer at a fitness boutique, she’s walked dogs, she was an assistant to an interior designer and a dance fitness instructor.

“But you die a little inside when you aren’t doing your true passion. My mom has been very supportive, encouraging me to do what I love. I’ve done acting, improv, writing and I love to create sketches and also love to be on stage.”

She’s made short videos where she plays both a person ordering real milk in LA and the shocked worker who can’t deal with that and offers options,  as well as a few videos where, on command, she switches to 10 different accents.

Yunger said she loves the flexibility involved in making videos that allows her to tap into her creativity. But with her experience in theater, she enjoys being on stage as well.

“Stand up is its own medium and it’s a different beast,” Yunger said. “You can use some of the same concepts you find funny but it’s a different structure and delivery.”

She said Gold, who found her through her online videos, gave her good advice that she will be using when she takes the stage.

“One of the things he told me is that stand up is not storytime,” she said. “You have to talk about things in a creative way and be economical and precise with your words.”

“I’m pretty chill in real life,” she said. “I have gone out with my friends wearing a wig. I got kicked out of a club once, but thankfully I was wearing a wig, so I still go back to that place often. My dream is to be on a  great, long-running show and to create long form content for TV and film as well.”

Originally from Chicago and of Ukrainian descent, Younger splits her time between Los Angeles and Miami. She speaks Russian and English fluently and also speaks Spanish and Hebrew, the latter picked up while living in Tel Aviv for almost four years.

She said Israelis are a strong-willed people and cited an example of someone who tried to ask her out. “I was walking by and I smiled at a guy through a window,’ she recalled. “He came out and said ‘Hello, so you want to go to dinner?’ I didn’t know him or why he even thought I wanted to, so I said no. So he asked. ‘Why not? You smiled at me! Life is short. Come with me one time!’  Israelis are persistent. If you tell them you have a boyfriend, they ask why you weren’t engaged. If you tell them you’re engaged, they ask why the schmuck didn’t marry you yet. If you tell them you’re married, they ask where your husband is and that they would never let you walk alone. It’s hysterical. It was always harmless, but the character study I got from living there was priceless.”

She was honored to be chosen for The Chosen Comedy Festival, and is amped for her performance.

“I’m a little bit nervous as it’s a great event with so many talented people and I’m really excited,” she said.

“I’m nervous and excited and might throw up, but I can’t wait!,” she said.