Amusing Jews

Joshua Dolgin, aka Socalled, is a Montreal-based pianist, accordionist, producer, journalist, photographer, filmmaker, magician, cartoonist, and puppet maker. His collaborators have included, among many others, Itzhak Perlman, Fred Wesley, Andy Statman, Irving Fields, and Matisyahu. He was the subject of The Socalled Movie, a 2010 feature documentary produced by the National Film Board of Canada....

Harris Shore is the original, live-action Mario of the Donkey Kong and Donkey Kong Jr. commercials for ColecoVision in 1982-1983. He sits down with Amusing Jews to review the new Super Mario Bros. Movie. Co-hosts: Jonathan Friedmann & Joey Angel-Field Producer-engineer: Mike Tomren IMDb https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0794928/ Harris as Mario – Donkey Kong Commercial https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

Co-hosts: Jonathan Friedmann & Joey Angel-Field Producer-engineer: Mike Tomren We talk with longtime film editor Gary Pollak, whose recent credits include the Netflix docuseries Last Chance U: Football , Last Chance U: Basketball , and Gunther’s Millions , about a dog with a trust fund and a wacky handler. IMDb https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1909602/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1 Gunther’s Millions – trailer h...

Veteran TV producer Eric Mazer is perhaps best known for his work on true crime series and the UFC. He’s executive producer of iCrime with Elizabeth Vargas and co-executive producer of Killer Siblings. His projects have aired on Oxygen, Spike, NBC, Fox Sports, TBS, Sci-Fi, History, Travel, MTV, VH1, and most of the Discovery Communications networks. Co-hosts: Jonathan Friedmann & Joey Angel-Fi...

Dr. Reba Wissner is assistant professor of musicology and coordinator of the public musicology undergraduate certificate at Columbus State University in Columbus, Georgia. An expert on music in 1950s and 1960s television, she’s the author of A Dimension of Sound: Music in The Twilight Zone; We Will Control All That You Hear: The Outer Limits and the Aural Imagination; and Music and the Atomic Bomb...

We spend time with Noah Segan, who wrote, directed, co-produced, and stars in the 2022 movie Blood Relatives , now streaming on Shudder. Noah also has roles in Glass Onion, Knives Out, Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Looper, Brick , and a bunch of other films. Co-hosts: Jonathan Friedmann & Joey Angel-Field Producer-engineer: Mike Tomren IMDb https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0781913/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1 Bloo...

We chat with actor and author Melanie Chartoff, who starred on Fridays (ABC) and Parker Lewis Can't Lose (FOX). She played George Costanza’s recurring girlfriend Robin on Seinfeld, and voiced Didi Pickles and her mother Minka on Nickelodeon's Rugrats…and a whole lot more. Her first book, Odd Woman Out: Exposure in Essays and Stories, explores the risks of becoming an actor before becoming a fully...

Co-hosts: Jonathan Friedmann & Joey Angel-Field Producer-engineer: Mike Tomren We chat with legendary screenwriter Michael Elias, an award-winning writer, actor, and director who has written film, television, theatre, and fiction. You may know Michael as the co-screenwriter of The Frisco Kid , starring Gene Wilder and Harrison Ford, or The Jerk , starring Steve Martin, both from 1979. He also...

Co-hosts: Jonathan Friedmann & Joey Angel-Field Producer-engineer: Mike Tomren We sit down with singer and actress Rena Strober, the voice of Esmeraude, a member of the villainous Black Moon Clan, on the anime series Sailor Moon . Her Broadway credits include the role of Cosette in Les Miserables and a national tour of Fiddler on the Roof , playing Tevye’s oldest daughter Tzeitel. Recent telev...

Co-hosts: Jonathan Friedmann & Joey Angel-Field Producer-engineer: Mike Tomren Joey talks about Hanukkah and its many spellings with Jonathan Friedmann, professor of Jewish music history and dean of the Master of Jewish Studies Program at the Academy for Jewish Religion California. He is also director of the Jewish Museum of the American West, president of the Western States Jewish History Ass...

Amusing Jews Ep. 1: A Festivus for the Rest of Us – with Seinfeld actor Harris Shore Co-hosts: Jonathan Friedmann & Joey Angel-Field Producer-engineer: Mike Tomren We chat with Harris Shore, an actor, writer and director who takes his place in American pop culture as the original, live-action Mario of the Donkey Kong commercials for ColecoVision (1982), and as the original Mr. Lippman on Seinfeld...

Introduction to Amusing Jews