Jerusalem comedy tour triumphs against all odds – review

The four comics who performed at the Jerusalem Theater on Sunday night suffered collectively through nine canceled flights on their way here.

They came via Addis Ababa and Abu Dhabi.

But they made it. And the laughs they received from the packed audience, as well as the good cause they supported, made it all worthwhile.

Avi Liberman, Judy Gold, Tom Cotter, and Nick Griffin made Jerusalem the start of their tour that benefits the Koby Mandell Foundation, which helps bereaved family members of victims of terror and tragedies.

Gold, who has won two Emmy awards, said everyone she knew in America screamed at her “Don’t go,” which made the strong Israel supporter even more determined to come.

'People are so dumb'

“It’s crazy in the States,” she told the crowd. “It’s really awful. People are so dumb. This is exactly why I didn’t go to an Ivy League school. And the fact that I didn’t apply.”

Gold said she loses followers on social media every time she posts something pro-Israel, but she doesn’t want those people.

A member of the LGBT community, she mocked the organization Queers for Palestine.

“They should go to Gaza, and their pronouns will be was and were,” she said.

Wednesday’s assassination of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar provided fodder for the comedians and even for Mandell Foundation co-founder Sherri Mandell, who received applause for saying Sinwar is dead.

Liberman mocked Sinwar for throwing a stick at an IDF drone. He said the drone operator was probably not believed when he told his superior that Sinwar’s weapon was not a machine gun or an RPG but a stick.

Cotter, whose flight was canceled three times, joked that he flew dressed to kill, which meant in a turban.

An Irish Catholic, he said his community and Jews had a symbiotic relationship.

“Jews pass the bar and become lawyers, while Irishmen can’t pass a bar and need lawyers,” he said.

But his best jokes were about marriage. He said he had been married five happy years and 22 total.

“Marriage is about commitment,” he said. “I want to commit homicide.”

Cotter, married to a comedienne, said she surprised him once on his birthday with a car, “but she missed me.”This year, he said, her present to him was “a pager made in Israel.”

Liberman joked that every El Al flight has been sold out since 1977, and exasperated travelers to Israel have been paying $14,000 for a middle seat in coach. 

He also mocked the Israeli outlook on the American election.

“I know it’s no big deal here, where you have elections every four weeks,” he said.