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Nytimes chinese jewish restaurant12/31/2023 In March 2020, the younger Geduldig flew to Florida to visit her mother - and stayed there for 17 months. “One of the silver linings of the pandemic was not only living with my mother, but getting to know each other, finding out how funny she was,” Lisa Geduldig said. Joining Kung Pao on the virtual stage for the third time is Geduldig’s mother, Arline Geduldig, 91, who will Zoom in from Boynton Beach, Florida. Lisa Geduldig will emcee in her customary tuxedo, accented this year with a Cuban guayabera shirt. This year’s lineup of comics includes Mark Schiff (Jerry Seinfeld’s longtime opening act), Cathy Ladman and Orion Levine. “People bring all kinds of things,” Kessler said. “Given what’s going on in the world, this is a very nice way to manage the depression,” Kessler said.Īt Kessler’s table, her core group of five always bring tchotchkes and booze - though the synagogue has asked this year’s guests to refrain from red wine, to avoid any accidents on the carpet. The charitable aspect is part of what keeps Shelley Kessler, a long-time California labor leader, coming back to the show. Past beneficiaries include a variety of Jewish and secular organizations this year, the charitable proceeds will go to the San Francisco-Marin Food Bank and The Center for Reproductive Rights. In keeping with the Jewish tradition of social responsibility and tzedakah, meaning “charity” or “justice,” Geduldig has given a portion of the proceeds from ticket sales each year to two different charities. (The doctor was extended an invitation to the show, but did not attend.) It turned out to be just acid reflux, and the emergency room doctor told Berman he could go onstage. “I go, ‘No! I can’t kill another one!’” she recalled. Ten years after Youngman’s final performance, Shelley Berman, then in his 80s, was scheduled to perform at Kung Pao when he called Geduldig complaining of chest pains. The SF Weekly published an article titled “The Gig of Death?” But in that same article, Youngman’s daughter, Marilyn Kelly, exonerated everyone involved in the show, saying the travel was a strain on her father’s health, but he was “delighted to have done it.” For six months after Youngman’s death, Geduldig and other Kung Pao promoters and staff were convinced that they killed him. Youngman - famous for his quick succession of clever one-liners and interludes from his favorite prop, a violin - died of pneumonia just two months after giving his final performance at Kung Pao Kosher Comedy. Geduldig - who is now a publicist and comedy show producer, in addition to a comic - said the show that put her project on the map was when well-known Jewish comedian Henny Youngman headlined in 1997, at 91. Many of the show’s comedians return - Wendy Liebman, who has been doing standup for 38 years, has performed at Kung Pao four times. Over the years, an impressive roster of comedians has performed, including names such as Marc Maron, Margaret Cho, Shelley Berman, David Brenner, Judy Gold, Gary Gulman and Ophira Eisenberg. The Chinese banquet room at New Asia Restaurant, where the show had been hosted since 1997, became a supermarket in 2020. This time, the event has moved into a synagogue - the Reform Congregation Sherith Israel in the Pacific Heights neighborhood, one of the country’s oldest Jewish houses of worship. The show received a heap of local press, and the next year it earned a three-quarter page spread in The New York Times.įast forward and this year marks the 30th Kung Pao Kosher show, and the first one back in person since the COVID-19 pandemic. The kitchen of the Four Seas Restaurant was completely unprepared for the volume, as Geduldig didn’t expect anything close to the turnout. It was an instant hit, with around 400 guests, and Geduldig said nearly 200 people were turned away at the door. (Geduldig liked the alliteration, even though it doesn’t involve kosher food.) She had enough time before the holiday to find other Jewish comics who liked the idea, write her own press release and partner with a restaurant in San Francisco’s Chinatown with banquet room space open on Christmas Eve to organize the event, which she called Kung Pao Kosher Comedy. After ruminating on it, she thought: why not start a Jewish comedy night on Christmas Eve?
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