Stand-Up with a Yarmulke: Charedi Comedians in Eretz Yisroel סטענד-אפ מיט א יארמולקע: חרדישע קאמעדיאנס אין ארץ ישראל

The First One

In Eretz Yisroel, stand-up is a big deal. But a Charedi stand-up comedian? That's a whole new story.

Yaakov Chemo is called the first Charedi stand-up comedian in the country ^[1]. He didn't grow up in a Torah world. He's from Kiryat Ata, and it was a tough environment.

And here's the twist. Before he did teshuva, Chemo was already a known stand-up comic. He performed on every stage in the country ^[2].

From the Stage to the Shtender

Then came the big change. Teshuva, yeshiva, and saying goodbye to his old world. So what does a comedian do with a story like that? He turns it into a show.

His show is exactly about that: how he did teshuva and how he went into yeshiva ^[2]. You could call it going from stand-up to the shtender.

Today he's on the radio too. He has a regular segment on "Kol Barama" ^[1]. On top of that, he's a lecturer with Hidabroot, where he talks about chinuch, family and Yiddishkeit, all with a smile ^[3].

The Man with a Hundred Voices

Yehuda Shukron brings a different kind of Charedi humor. He doesn't do classic stand-up. He does impressions.

Shukron is a Charedi broadcaster, and he can imitate Bibi Netanyahu, Aryeh Deri, Bougie Herzog and more ^[4]. You hear Bibi, you look up, and it's a Charedi yungerman standing there. He also does media personalities and singers.

He often appears with Elad Cohen. The two of them do sketches together and share the airwaves on "Kol Chai."

An Old Path

The road wasn't totally empty. Kobi Arieli brought Charedi humor to the wider Israeli public long before, on stage, in books and on air.

But when a heimish guy steps up to a mic in Eretz Yisroel today and gets a room laughing, it's good to know someone already walked that path before him.