Amusing Jews

Glenn Kirschbaum is a documentary writer, producer, and director whose latest film is Remembering Gene Wilder. He also wrote episodes of Unsolved Mysteries, and has overseen hundreds of hours of programming on The History Channel, A & E, Discovery, National Geographic, The Travel Channel, The Food Network, HGTV, The Weather Channel, and more.   Co-hosts: Jonathan Friedmann & Joey Angel-Fie...

Debra Caplan is an associate professor of theatre at the Graduate Center and Baruch College, City University of New York. She's the author of Yiddish Empire: The Vilna Troupe, Jewish Theater, and the Art of Itinerancy, and co-editor of The Dybbuk Century: The Jewish Play That Possessed the World.   Co-hosts: Jonathan Friedmann & Joey Angel-Field   Producer-engineer: Mike Tomren   The Dybbuk Ce...

Sam Firstenberg is an independent film director best known for his work with Cannon films, including Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo and the American Ninja series.   Co-hosts: Jonathan Friedmann & Joey Angel-Field   Producer-engineer: Mike Tomren   Sam’s website https://samfirstenberg.tripod.com/   Sam’s YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJpfRkG6T_kUII7sCRO5uAw   Sam’s IMDb https:...

Joel Silverstein is an artist, curator, teacher, critic, and a founding member of the Jewish Art Salon. His new book is The Brighton Beach Bible, an autobiographical painted narrative based around the Exodus story.   Co-hosts: Jonathan Friedmann & Joey Angel-Field   Producer-engineer: Mike Tomren   Joel’s website https://joelsilversteinart.com/mu.html   The Brighton Beach Bible https://www.ama...

Peter Benjaminson is a former reporter for The LA Times, Detroit Free Press, and Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He’s the author of several books, including The Lost Supreme: The Life of Dreamgirl Florence Ballard; Mary Wells: The Tumultuous Life of Motown’s First Superstar; and most recently The Life and Times of Betty Boop: The 100-Year History of an Animated Icon.   Co-hosts: Jonathan Friedmann &...

Stan Mack is a cartoonist best known for Real Life Funnies, which ran in The Village Voice for over two decades. His new book, Stan Mack’s Real-Life Funnies: The Collected Conceits, Delusions, and Hijinks of New Yorkers from 1974 to 1995, is published by Fantagraphics.   Co-hosts: Jonathan Friedmann & Joey Angel-Field   Producer-engineer: Mike Tomren   Stan Mack’s Real Life Funnies https://www...

Margalit Fox is a journalist and author whose latest book is The Talented Mrs. Mandelbaum: The Rise and Fall of an American Organized-Crime Boss. Her previous books include Conan Doyle for the Defense, The Riddle of the Labyrinth, Talking Hands, and The Confidence Men. As a senior writer in the Obituary News Department of The New York Times, she wrote sendoffs for some of the leading cultural figu...

Dr. Rafael Medoff is founding director of The David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies, based in Washington, D.C. He’s the author of more than 20 books, including the graphic novel Whistleblowers: Four Who Fought to Expose the Holocaust to America and his latest, Cartoonists Against Racism: The Secret Jewish War on Bigotry.   Co-hosts: Jonathan Friedmann & Joey Angel-Field   Producer-eng...

Avi Decter is managing partner of History Now and the author most recently of Exploring American Jewish History through 50 Historic Treasures. He has served as director of the Museum of American Jewish History and the Jewish Museum of Maryland, head of education at the H.F. DuPont Museum and Gardens, and special assistant to the director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History.  ...

Phil Baron is a voice actor, singer, and songwriter best known as the voice of Teddy Ruxpin. He also voiced Piglet on the 1980s Disney Channel series Welcome to Pooh Corner.   Co-hosts: Jonathan Friedmann & Joey Angel-Field   Producer-engineer: Mike Tomren   Phil’s IMDb https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0056295/   Phil’s Teddy Ruxpin Wiki https://teddyruxpin.fandom.com/wiki/Phil_Baron   Teddy Ruxpin...

Nolan Gasser, a composer, pianist, and musicologist, is the architect of Pandora Radio’s Music Genome Project. He’s also the author of Why You Like It: The Science & Culture of Musical Taste.   Co-hosts: Jonathan Friedmann & Joey Angel-Field   Producer-engineer: Mike Tomren   Nolan’s website https://www.nolangasser.com/   Why You Like It (book page) https://www.whyyoulikeit.com/   Nolan’s...

Gabrielle Newman is a cantor and emo aficionado. Her cantorial thesis is titled, “Say Anything: The Significance of the Jewish Voice in Contemporary Mainstream Music.” Co-hosts: Jonathan Friedmann & Joey Angel-Field   Producer-engineer: Mike Tomren   Say Anything, “Hebrews” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Qq-LoFCjEU   Say Anything, “Alive With the Glory of Love” https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

Eli Valley is a writer and cartoonist whose work has been featured in The Nation, The New Republic, The Village Voice, Jewish Currents, The Guardian, The Daily Beast, and elsewhere. He is the author of the critically acclaimed book, Diaspora Boy: Comics on Crisis in America and Israel, and the forthcoming book, Museum of Degenerates: Portraits of the American Grotesque.   Co-hosts: Jonathan Friedm...

Rob Kutner is an award-winning author and television writer whose credits include The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien, Teen Titans Go!, Ben10, and many more. He’s also written for the Oscars, Emmys, Writers’ Guild Awards, MTV Movie Awards, and other awards shows. His books include Apocalypse How, Snot Goblins and Other Tasteless Tales, and The Future According to M...

Ari Richter is a visual artist and comics creator who’s a professor of fine arts at LaGuardia Community College in The City University of New York. His debut graphic memoir is Never Again Will I Visit Auschwitz: A Graphic Family Memoir of Trauma & Inheritance.   Co-hosts: Jonathan Friedmann & Joey Angel-Field   Producer-engineer: Mike Tomren   Never Again Will I Visit Auschwitz https://www...

Allen Frishman is the archival officer of the Borscht Belt Museum in Ellenville, New York, which celebrates the golden age of the Catskills resort era, when millions of mostly Jewish urbanites sought refuge in the mountains of upstate New York. He’s also the author of two books: Tales of a Catskill Mountain Plumber and More Borscht from a Catskill Mountain Plumber.   Co-hosts: Jonathan Friedmann &...

Joe Alterman is a jazz pianist who’s performed at such prestigious venues as the Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center, Birdland, and Blue Note with his own trio and alongside legends like Houston Person, Les McCann, Dick Gregory, and Ramsey Lewis. Downbeat describes his sound as “rooted in the blues, and with a touch reminiscent of the great pianists of the 1950s—Red Garland, Ahmad Jamal, Bill Evans.”  ...

Margie Haber is a renowned acting coach whose celebrity clients include Brad Pitt, Halle Berry, Tiffany Haddish, and many others. She runs Margie Haber Studio in Los Angeles and is the author of two books, How to Get the Part Without Falling Apart and F*ck Your Comfort Zone: Take a Risk and Become the Lead in Your Own Life.   Co-hosts: Jonathan Friedmann & Joey Angel-Field   Producer-engineer:...

Esther Friesner is a prolific and award-winning science fiction and fantasy author known for her humorous style and thematic focus on gender equality and social justice. Her many books include the Nobody’s Princess, Sphinx’s Princess, the Chicks in Chainmail series, and Threads and Flames, a YA novel about a Jewish girl caught up in the tragedy of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire.   Co-hosts:...

Aaron Fruchtman is a musicologist and composer whose work examines Jewish film composers during Hollywood’s Golden Age. He holds degrees in music composition from Berklee College of Music and the University of California, Riverside, and a doctorate in musicology from UC Riverside. He also earned an Advanced Studies Certificate in Music for Motion Pictures and Television from the University of Sout...

Jeff Treistman is founder of the Jewish Comics Library of Seattle and the author and publisher of Graven, the library’s newsletter. He also has a Substack blog, Son of the Wicked Child.   Co-hosts: Jonathan Friedmann & Joey Angel-Field   Producer-engineer: Mike Tomren   JCLS Website https://sites.google.com/view/jewish-comics-library/catalog?authuser=0   JCLS Catalog https://www.librarycat.org...

Andy Muchin is an occasional freelance writer and host of the Sounds Jewish radio show, which has aired weekly since 2010. Sounds Jewish is available on Mississippi Public Broadcasting, Radio-J.com, and PRX, the Public Radio Exchange.   Co-hosts: Jonathan Friedmann & Joey Angel-Field   Producer-engineer: Mike Tomren   Sounds Jewish https://exchange.prx.org/series/32262-sounds-jewish   Some of...

Jerry Sroka is an actor, writer, and producer known for his roles in Godspell, Antz, The Wild Thornberrys, and many more. His latest film is Our (Almost Completely True) Love Story, co-written with and co-starring his wife, Mariette Hartley.   Co-hosts: Jonathan Friedmann & Joey Angel-Field   Producer-Engineer: Mike Tomren   Jerry’s IMDb https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0820293/   Our (Almost Compl...

Seymour Chwast is one of the most highly-regarded graphic designers in American history. In 1954, he founded the design group Push Pin Studios with Milton Glaser, Edward Sorel, and Reynold Ruffins. Seymour has executed hundreds of advertising campaigns, designed multiple popular typefaces, and illustrated numerous books. His new book, an illustrated adaptation of Mark Twain’s War Prayer, was just...

Jeffrey Braer is a creative marketer, media developer, and brander of food, themed entertainment, consumer products, and companies. His long list of brand partners includes Barbie, Apple’s Beats, ABC, Disney, Doritos, Sanrio, Amazon, Mattel, NBC, Universal, Toyota, Sony, UPN, Betty Crocker, McDonald’s, Good Humor, General Mills, Minute Maid, Coke, Smurfs, NASA/JPL, and many more.   Co-hosts: Jonat...