A typical stand-up comedy act ends with a final over-the-top joke or story, followed by uproarious applause and a standing ovation — perhaps even an encore, with everyone leaving with smiles on their faces.
Since Oct. 7, 2023 comedian Modi’s shows end with the audience joining him in singing Hatikvah, the Israeli national anthem, but the audience still leaves with smiles on their faces and in the hearts.
“Everybody just gets so emotional,” Modi told the Intermountain Jewish News in an interview ahead of his upcoming Dec. 5 show at the Paramount Theatre in Denver. “It reminds everybody where our hearts and prayers and minds are.”
The name of Modi’s current tour is “Pause for Laughter,” which he says is inspired by the non-stop barrage of bad news in the world, especially for Jews.
Mordechi Rosenfeld — stage name stylized as MODI — was born 54 years ago in Tel Aviv and emigrated with his family to the US at age seven.
His comedy, told through the lens of a now-New York Jew, includes observations on life growing up with two Israeli parents, and on how Jews of all stripes interact with each other and with those outside the Jewish world.
He performs regularly in New York and Los Angeles comedy clubs and to audiences all over the world.
Modi believes that comedy, and particularly his brand of Jewish observational comedy, works much like salve to provide temporary relief during fraught times.
“At this time, when everybody’s watching the news that every day just gets crazier and crazier, we need to — like the name of the tour — pause for laughter,” he says.
Modi agrees that enjoying a comedy act is reflective of the Israeli ability to move on with life despite hardship and existential threats, but he say’s it’s not just Israeli. “It’s all over the world. I’ve been doing shows all over Europe. We were in Dusseldorf, Frankfurt, Berlin, Amsterdam. Places where there were those crazy marches and protests, and people are truly scared. And still they can’t keep us from laughing.”
Modi had four shows booked in Paris for the week of Oct. 9, just two days after the atrocities of Oct. 7.
“We had to make the decision: ‘Are we doing this or not?’ We decided ‘yes.’ And it was an amazing decision.
“One of the reasons why Jews are so into comedy is that sense of escapism for a few moments, a block of time where we are in a world of laughter and forgetting what is happening in the world. I talk a little bit about the war and anti-Semitism at the end of the show, and then we sing Hatikvah, and it builds a big sense of community.”
If comedy is his audience’s escape from the news of the day, singing in shul is Modi’s escape from the hustle and bustle of performing comedy.
A graduate of Boston University, Modi also studied cantorial singing at Yeshiva University’s Belz School of Music.
When he is at home in Manhattan between gigs, Modi serves as a volunteer cantor at his shul, the Sixth Street Community Synagogue.
“I love cantorial singing. I love the songs, the sounds — they resonate in my head. If I am in town for Shabbat, the rabbi will ask me to daven Musaf.”
Modi says he can’t always sing in shul because he often needs to give his voice a rest after being on stage and shouting jokes all week.
Modi does a lot of shows as synagogue or other organizational fundraisers.
“In this past year, we’ve done some synagogues where’ve packed in 1,500 people. It’s crazy — the rabbi says, ‘We don’t get these many people during the High Holidays.’”
Modi’s audiences on the commercial circuit — in comedy clubs, concert venues or on Netflix and Amazon prime — draw a lot of Jewish audience members, but not exclusively.
“I make fun with us, the Jewish people, rather than at us. When people who aren’t Jewish watch me, it’s like looking through a portal in the Jewish world through pride and laughter. I show them how funny we are and how much fun we can have.”
Modi recently performed at the Palladium in London. In the front row was an Arab man who brought many friends with him.
“I always think, if people are sitting and laughing with us, they can’t hate us. They can’t kill us. Once you laugh with somebody, it’s a different connection you have.
“I would love the entire world to laugh with us.”
© IJN 2024
