When Jews Were Funny
When Jews Were Funny | |
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Directed by | Alan Zweig |
Produced by |
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Written by | Alan Zweig |
Distributed by | Sudden Storm Productions |
Release dates |
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Running time | 89 minutes |
Country | Canada |
Language | English, Yiddish |
When Jews Were Funny is a documentary film by Canadian director Alan Zweig, released in 2013, which explores the role of Jewish comedians in the history of North American comedy and humour from the Borscht belt to the present day.[1]
The film features interviews with and/or performance clips of a wide variety of Jewish comedy performers and writers of the 20th and 21st centuries, including Howie Mandel, Gilbert Gottfried, Rodney Dangerfield, Eugene Mirman, Marc Maron, Bob Einstein, Andy Kindler, Shelley Berman, Alan King, Judy Gold, Elon Gold, David Steinberg, Jackie Mason, Jack Carter, Norm Crosby, Henny Youngman, David Brenner, Shecky Greene, Mark Breslin, Cory Kahaney, Harrison Greenbaum, Simon Rakoff, Lisa Lambert, Larry Josephson and Michael Wex.
The film premiered on September 10, 2013 at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival. It subsequently won the festival award for the year's best Canadian feature film.[2]
References
- ↑ "TIFF ’13: Zweig remembers the “Funny”". Real Screen, September 16, 2013.
- ↑ "TIFF 2013: 12 Years a Slave wins film fest’s top prize". Toronto Star, September 15, 2013.