Chosen Comedy Festival Ready to Rock Los Angeles

The Chosen Comedy Festival, (February 14 at 8 pm at The Orpheum Theater) hosted by Elon Gold and Modi Rosenfeld, is one of the hottest tickets in Los Angeles.  Asked if an iconic athlete might be invited and — if they were traded to a local basketball team — would another player be welcome, Gold told the Journal, “LeBron James gets a free pass to come … I will proudly be wearing my LeBron sneakers.” On the other hand, he said “Kyrie has to purchase a ticket.” (The Lakers are off that night; Irving was traded to the Dallas Mavericks after this interview took place).

The festival is the brainchild of Dani Zoldan, owner of StandUp NY, a prominent Manhattan comedy club. I attended the first event in Brooklyn and was still laughing so hard as I left, I almost got into the wrong Lyft.

The festival is the brainchild of Dani Zoldan, owner of StandUp NY, a prominent Manhattan comedy club. I attended the first event in Brooklyn and was still laughing so hard as I left, I almost got into the wrong Lyft.

The numbers show there was great demand for such an event that combines the best of Jewish comedy and music.  “The Brooklyn and Miami show sold out and we expect this one to as well,” Zoldan told the Journal.

During difficult days of the pandemic, Zoldan organized a comedy show on a truck for a handful of customers on the street. When conditions improved, Zoldan had an extra motivation to make up for the joy people had been missing. “I felt like I wanted to give back and make thousands of people laugh,” Zoldan said. “I spoke with Elon (Gold) and Modi and it was clear that we could go from there with the first show in Brooklyn and do cities across the country and, eventually, in Israel.”

The lineup for L.A. includes Jeff Garlin of “Curb Your Enthusiasm” fame, Dan Ahdoot of “Cobra Kai,” comedians and podcasters Moshe Kasher and Natasha Leggero, who married in 2016, as well as Moshav, one of the best Jewish rock groups of all time.

“For me, I don’t look at it as just a show and it’s done,” Zoldan said. “I know that with Elon, Modi, and other amazing performers, there are great memories that people will take with them forever.”

”A Jewish audience must eat to attain maximum happiness. Kvetching sets in when hunger pains are there, and we don’t want that. So, the more you eat, the better.” – Elon Gold

Zoldan said there will be more than enough food with several vendors, including La Gondola. “The difference between a Jewish audience and a non-Jewish audience is a non-Jewish audience will drink to achieve maximum happiness,” Gold said. “Hence, a two-drink minimum at clubs. However, a Jewish audience must eat to attain maximum happiness. Kvetching sets in when hunger pains are there, and we don’t want that. So, the more you eat, the better.”

Gold and Rosenfeld appeared on HBO Max’s “Crashing” and have great chemistry. While they play at the best clubs across the country, they cornered the market on Orthodox fundraisers and events with their ability to riff on intricacies that only Orthodox Jews would know. But their versatility means that anyone will enjoy their comedy.

Gold recently released a YouTube special “Sets In The City: Elon Gold’s Favorite People” that showcases his prowess doing impressions of people from different countries, as well as his great Donald Trump impersonation.

Gold is mostly laid back-on stage, while Rosenfeld is often high-energy, at times shouting. How does he have such stamina? “I’m super-low-energy off stage,” Rosenfeld told the Journal. ‘That’s my secret.”

The comedian, who dishes on everything from the difference between Sephardim and Ashkenazim to an impersonation of an angry Lufthansa flight attendant, was recently featured in Variety and The JTA, said his husband and talent agent Leo Veiga has helped his career in many ways, including his online presence. Veiga can be seen with comic Periel Aschenbrand who cohosts the podcast “And Here’s Modi” with Rosenfeld.

While I have seen Rosenfeld perform more than 20 times, my family saw him perform once, at The Raleigh Hotel in the Catskills more than 25 years ago. My mother laughed so hard, I thought she might fall over. The only other person who could make her laugh like that was Jackie Mason. Were she still alive, she would love Rosenfeld’s characters of an Israeli named Nir and a Hasidic man named Yoely, who may run for president in 2024. Rosenfeld showed his ability to riff when the festival was in Miami, when he joked to the DJ about his loud shirt selection. As for giving up his Wall Street career for comedy, Rosenfeld said that “everything is bashert.”

Dan Ahdoot gave up a possible career as a doctor to be a comedian. The man who plays a coworker of Ralph Macchio’s Daniel LaRusso at a car dealership in “Cobra Kai” said his parents weren’t exactly thrilled when he announced his change of plans. “I think they wanted to disown me,” Ahdoot told The Journal. “They escaped Iran to give me a better life. I got into medical school and then decided to tell jokes.” The writer, producer and actor who moved from Great Neck, New York, to Los Angeles, said people used to ask him things he had no way to answer. “They used to ask if I knew if Iran was getting a nuclear bomb, but with what is happening now, it has turned to a general concern for the people,” he said. As to whether he ever tried the crane kick on Macchio, he said he had not, and in a scene, he got beat up by Johnny, played by William Zabka.

Ahdoot has a popular food podcast called “Green Eggs and Dan,” which recently featured Ilan Hall, a Jewish winner of Bravo’s “Top Chef.” He co-wrote the film” Public Disturbance” and there’s a scene where he is a Jewish cab driver and it marks the first time some Australian teens have ever seen a Jew.

Garlin, who plays Jeff Greene on “Curb” played the father, Murray Goldberg, on “The Goldbergs” and recently appeared as a movie producer in “Babylon,” doesn’t often do standup. I saw him perform once at Caroline’s on Broadway and he battled through a throat issue and was very funny.

Kasher and Leggero can be seen in “The Honeymoon Stand Up Special” on Netflix. They roast four couples in the third episode so it will be interesting to see if any couples are called up to the stage at the festival. In his routine, Kasher often lets the audience know he is the son of deaf parents and when he grew up, his family was on welfare.  He and his wife are both authors and Leggero often jokes about the challenges of being a mom and how she and her husband differ in parenting styles.

The show will also include Leah Lamarr, a Los Angeles comic, who during a performance at NYC’s The Stand, joked that “a toilet is my favorite chair because it’s the only seat you sit in where you lose weight.”  

Zoldan said this is a big moment for Stefanie Yunger, who debuted at his club about a year ago, and someone he said has a bright future. Yunger speaks Hebrew, Russian and Spanish and in one funny YouTube video jokes about the difficulty of ordering regular milk in L.A.

Dan Levy, who joked on “Late Night With Seth Meyers” that he drinks coffee like a homicide detective and said people confuse him with MSNBC host Rachel Maddow, will also perform.

Moshav, featuring guitars and vocals by Yehuda Solomon and Duvid Swirsky, will get people’s feet tapping. Both men lead services at Los Angeles synagogues. Will Solomon tell a joke? “If one of the comedians will sing a song in between jokes, I’ll say something funny in between one of my songs,” Solomon told The Journal.

Gold said he expects it to be a show to remember.

“It is going to be a night of great Jewish comedy, music and Jewish pride,” Gold said.

The Jewish Journal is a media partner for the event.