Events

This lecture takes participants on an informative, enlightening, and hilarious journey east of Eden, west of the Moon, and 100 miles north of New York City, where a generation of mostly Jewish comedians honed their craft in the resorts of the Catskill Mountains. This "Borscht Belt" became the training ground for the modern American stand-up comic: the sad nebbish (poor soul) whose troubles are greater than life and whose kvetch (complaint) is cosmic as well as comic. Dorinson will reintroduce you to performers who mastered their craft on the Catskills resort circuit, ranging from Sid Caesar to Mel Brooks and Lenny Bruce, Alan King, and Woody Allen to Joan Rivers, Mal Z. Lawrence, and Jerry Seinfeld, to Sophie Tucker and Totie Fields. For decades, their comedy has brought relief from the tsores (troubles) that confront all Americans, and they will again during this program!