Emmy award-winning and Golden Globe-winning comedy writer, actor and comedian Monica Piper is a staple at The Braid Jewish theatre company. After a smash-hit run off-Broadway, her one-woman show, “NOT THAT JEWISH,” returned to Santa Monica.
“NOT THAT JEWISH” is a love letter to being Jewish, as she shares stories of her family – particularly her funny father and passing on the humor gene to her son – and her foray into comedy.
“Someone asked me what’s my favorite thing about being Jewish, and that’s such a weird question, because there’s so many things, but right up there was food,” Piper told the Journal. “They said, ‘Even gefilte fish?’ Yes, even gefilte fish.”
In fact, Piper said that a chopped liver sandwich is one of her go-to comfort foods. And it is something she strongly associates with her Jewish identity.
“There’s a moment in my play that is from my childhood,” Piper said. “We didn’t belong to a temple, but on the High Holy days, my mother would make us dress and stand in front of the apartment building, so it looked like we just got home from Temple.”
It was working, until at the age of seven, Piper’s neighbor – also seven – asked if they really went to temple. When Piper responded with the truth, the little girl said Piper was not really Jewish. Piper insisted she was, because all of her family members were Jewish. So the neighbor said, ‘Well, you’re not that Jewish,’ which became the name of her play.
Later, when Piper told her father what the neighbor had said, he responded, ‘There’s no such thing: you’re Jewish or you’re not.’
At the time, her mother was making chopped liver. He told her, ‘Gentiles don’t sit home making chopped liver; they can’t even eat it. … You love chopped liver. I rest my case.’
Growing up, Piper’s mother was not big on cooking. Fortunately, her aunt, uncle and cousin lived eight floors below in the same apartment building. Their family went to temple, lit candles on Friday nights and hosted her family for Shabbat dinners.
“I once asked my mother, ‘How come we never have Shabbat dinners?’” Piper said. “She said, ‘Would you rather cook for nine hours or take an elevator?”” All we had to do was go to Aunt Rose’s apartment.”
They had all the Jewish staples from kugel to chicken matzo ball soup. Piper remembers how much fun those Shabbat dinners were at her aunt’s house; her parents and aunt and uncle had a very eclectic group of wonderful friends.
“Food is so much a part of life and Jewish life, but it’s the comradery,” Piper said. “As a child, my memories of these people talking and arguing and laughing is so much a part of me, so I associate that with food.”
While Jewish people definitely love food, Piper feels it’s the same for other cultures – Italian, French, Chinese, Thai – as well. And in Judaism, so many holidays revolve around food.
“There’s that old joke: they tried to kill us, we survived, let’s eat,” she said. “That’s what we do: we eat and we laugh … even when times are tough, we find a way to laugh.”
Piper talked about a moment in her play, when they’re sitting shiva for her mother. Piper said she had never seen her father look broken.
“My instincts kicked in, I said, ‘Dad, we gotta find a way to laugh,” she said.
During the shiva, a friendly, pleasant, flirty neighbor comes over with a brisket, bats her eyelashes and says, ‘Roy, if there is anything, I could do, anything at all… don’t hesitate to call.’
So, Piper said to her father, ‘How about next time Gladys asks if there’s anything she can do, we think of some really funny, stupid stuff for her to do.’
Her father thinks about it, smiles, and says, ‘Let’s do it.”
The next time the neighbor asks if there’s something she can do, Piper’s father said, “Actually there is: I just sold my car to a lovely Czechoslovakian gentleman who doesn’t speak English. Could you please take him to the DMV and help him transfer the ownership?’
It took Gladys by surprise, and they had a good laugh.
“The moment you can find a way to laugh in really tough times, then you know you’re gonna be okay,” Piper said.
Piper was a high school English teacher, before she left to try comedy.
“I was a standup comic, and then I became a sitcom writer,” said Piper who was a writer on “Roseanne” before going into animation and becoming head writer on “Rugrats.”
She was working on “Mad About You,” when Ronda Spinak, artistic director and founder of The Braid, which was known as Jewish Women’s Theater at the time, called her up, and said she wanted Piper to write and perform original stories. This was 2008.
“I said, ‘But Rhonda, I’m not that Jewish,’ and she said, ‘Yes, you are; create from the heart,” Piper said. Over a period of eight years, while doing standup around the country, Piper started writing and performing for The Braid’s salon shows.
Then, Spinak suggested taking these stories, finding a common theme and writing a one-woman play. It was time for the next step.
“This was really a challenge and I love a good challenge,” Piper said.
She took a year, deconstructed her stories and with Spinak’s guidance and sense of story, created “NOT THAT JEWISH.”
“When The Braid first opened, and when it was at a different location, it was supposed to run for 6 weeks and it ran for 16 months,” she said. “A New York producer heard about it and brought it off-Broadway.”
The Braid brought the show back last year for the show’s 10 year anniversary.
“NOT THAT JEWISH” runs at The Braid through the end of May. Learn more at The-Braid.org/Monica. Learn more about their other shows at The-Braid.org.
Watch Debra Eckerling’s Sundays at The Braid conversation on @TheBraidStories YouTube channel.
For the full conversation, listen to the podcast:
Debra Eckerling is a writer for the Jewish Journal and the host of “Taste Buds with Deb.” Subscribe on YouTube or your favorite podcast platform. Email Debra: tastebuds@jewishjournal.com.
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