On December 24, 25, and 26 comic extraordinaire Lisa Geduldig returns with the latest incarnation of Kung Pao Kosher Comedy, a Jewish stand-up show produced for Christmas. There will be two shows a night, a 5pm dinner show and an 8:30pm cocktail show at the Imperial Palace Restaurant in Chinatown. The shows will also be live streamed on YouTube live for those who can't make it in person.
Kung Pao Kosher Comedy was created in 1993 when Geduldig was 31 years old. 32 years later the show is going strong and has become a Christmas tradition in San Francisco. This year's show is especially meaningful to Geduldig as she is grieving the loss of her mother Arline Geduldig, who passed away in August at the age of 93.
Over the past few years the elder Geduldig had been a fixture on Lockdown Comedy, Lisa's monthly online show, as well as at Kung Pao, performing from her retirement community in Florida. This year's show will be dedicated to the memory of Arline, and a clip of her comedy will be shown.
Eating Chinese food has become a Christmas tradition among Jews. After all, what else are they going to do on Christmas? In an interview with the Bay Area Reporter, Geduldig shared her own ideas as to why Jews eat Chinese food during the holiday.
"Because the food is plentiful and often eaten family style," she said. "Even for some people who are kosher, there's something about just a little hidden piece of treyf (non-kosher food) that's okay. I used to do a joke: You know Jews aren't supposed to eat pork? But there's a small unknown clause in the Torah that says if it's wrapped up in a wonton, it's okay. There's actually a study done on that called 'safe treyf.'"
Coast to kosher
Geduldig did recall one unpleasant reaction she got from an Orthodox publication.
"I think I had sent a press release to a Jewish publication and didn't realize they were Orthodox," she recalled. "They basically treated me like a heathen in that they were not going to list my event because in their eyes I had blasphemously used the word kosher. Clarification, the comedy is kosher, the food is not. There's one shrimp dish on the menu, but it's kosher. Blessed by a very, very, very, very reform Rabbi."
As always, Kung Pao will be donating some of its proceeds to two charities that are near and dear to Geduldig's heart. One of the beneficiaries is Shalom Bayit (peaceful house), a Jewish domestic violence organization. The other is the Chinatown YMCA Food Pantry, which provides food to members of the local community who are in need. Geduldig said that she wanted to give back to the Chinatown community and has named them as a beneficiary for the past two years.
New comics
In addition to hosting the evening, Geduldig will be performing her own comedy. She'll be joined onstage by three very talented comics, such as Matt Kirshen, who hails from London, and Becky Braunstein, who is from Alaska.
"Becky is one of two Jews from Alaska," Geduldig said. "She will talk about that in her set."
This year's show marks the first time Kirshen and Braunstein have performed at Kung Pao, though the final comic, Ophira Eisenberg, has been on the Kung Pao stage before. Eisenberg told the B.A.R. that she often thinks about why she wants to be a comic, that it goes deeper than just wanting to make people laugh.
"There is that discovery that something you've been thinking about in this world, about humanity, about yourself, might be something that other people related to and then you throw it out there and you find out that you were right," Eisenberg said. "And that kind of connection is so gratifying. And sometime you find out, nope, just you. Back to the drawing board. But doing comedy and having that relationship with the audience makes me feel less alone and hopefully that's how the audience feels too."
Chicken joke?
Eisenberg added that she is a parent, and that being a Jewish parent definitely informs her comedy.
"I'm someone who draws one hundred percent from my life for my material so who I am and what I am going through plays into my material at a one-to-one ratio," she said. "Comedy runs through my Jewish family and we were always telling jokes to each other and trying to make each other laugh. Comedy and humor have always been a way for Jewish people to cope with adversity and struggle and I think I can say the same thing about parenting. Parenting is not easy. As they say, if you don't laugh, you'll just cry all the time."
Geduldig wants everyone to know that Kung Pao is a show that the whole family can enjoy.
"Sometimes people come with their kids and their parents, so it's three generations at table," she said. "The tables seat ten people. There's no age limit. I don't think a five-year-old would get the humor but sometimes, when people bring kids, they say how they are growing up in the Bay Area and have a sophisticated sense of humor. I do request, however, no crying babies, or roosters. One year someone brought a service animal I thought was gonna be a dog, but it was a rooster named Vern and he clucked when people laughed!"
Kung Pao Kosher Comedy, December 24, 25, 26. 5pm dinner show ($90) and 8:30pm cocktail show ($65). Imperial Palace Restaurant, 818 Washington Street. Also live streamed on YouTube Live. www.koshercomedy.com
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