For all those longing to let out their inner Henny Youngman, there’s a stage, an audience and an open mic waiting, courtesy of Bill Schechner.
The longtime reporter at KPIX Channel 5 lately has branched out into producing shows at Berkeley’s Jewish Community Center of the East Bay. On April 15, just to ease the pain of tax day, he will present “An Evening of Jewish Jokes.”
He probably won’t wear rainbow suspenders or a propeller yarmulke, but for the evening’s panel discussion he will bring along an august group of jokesters, jesters and, for extra laughs, a U.C. Berkeley professor who studies jokes for a living.
As moderator, Schechner, 68, will fill his customary role: asking questions.
“The premise of the show is to laugh a lot and discuss some smart ideas,” the Berkeley resident says. “One of them is, as Jews assimilate more and more, what is the future of Jewish jokes? Will there be such a thing?”
Answering those questions, as well as presenting his take on the Book of Esther, will be Jeff Raz, a monologist, professional clown and founder of San Francisco’s Clown Conservatory. Comedian Joseph Ngyuen — yes, he’s Vietnamese and Jewish — will be on hand to tell his own Amerasian brand of Jewish jokes.
Also on the bill is Mel Gordon, who teaches the history of theater at U.C. Berkeley. He not only knows a pickle-barrelful of Jewish jokes, he knows their DNA, their origins and how they spread across Jewish culture.
“He says he can trace the origin of the Jewish joke back to the 17th century,” Schechner says of Gordon. “He believes in joke family trees.”
Schechner also plans to unleash the audience, allowing anyone to take the stage, tell his or her favorite Jewish joke, and turn the JCC into a Berkeley version of the Borscht Belt. Schechner’s only rules: Use polite words for body parts, and no scatological humor.
Otherwise, it’s all about three Jews walking into a bar.
Schechner plans to tell a few jokes himself. As the youngest of four boys growing up in a Jewish home in New Jersey, he found humor was a great way to avoid sibling torment.
“I love jokes, and the sillier the better,” he says. “I speak 25 words of Yiddish, so I’m not by any stretch a specialist. But someplace in the back of my mind, I wondered, ‘Wouldn’t it be great to figure out some way to have two hours of jokes and then talking about them, to explain where they come from, how they’re connected?’ ”
Bay Area news junkies will recognize Schechner right away. Over a 40-year career in journalism, the Emmy-winner worked for NBC News, KQED and KPIX.
In 2008, he and 14 KPIX newsroom employees, several of them on-air reporters, were laid off. That was no joke to Schechner, who had spent 20 years at KPIX, and he filed a lawsuit against the station, claiming age discrimination. The suit is currently working its way through federal court, but Schechner wants his old job back.
Until that happens, he has enjoyed producing concerts at the JCC. So far he’s staged a blues concert and a dialogue with San Francisco Chronicle columnist Jon Carroll, with another blues concert coming up. But right now it’s all about the laughs. And just to whet the appetite, here’s one of his favorite Jewish jokes.
“Abie is in the park in tears,” Schechner says. “Max comes up to him and says, ‘Abie, what’s the matter? You just got married.’ ”
Abie tells his friend, “This morning before we got out of bed my wife and I made love. Then she made my favorite breakfast. Then we made love again, then she laid out my clothes, then I came out to the park and here I am.”
Max says, “Sounds wonderful. So why are you crying?”
(Get ready for the rim shot.) Says Abie, “I don’t remember where I live.”
“An Evening of Jewish Jokes: Where They’ve Been … and Where They’re Going,” 7:30-9:30 p.m. Thursday, April 15 at the JCC of the East Bay, 1414 Walnut St., Berkeley. $7-$9. Information: (800) 838-3006 or www.jcceastbay.org.