Jeff Mann

Coming to the Greenpoint Shul: Chanukah Comedy Night

To help celebrate the Festival of Lights and to raise funds to renovate, The Greenpoint Shul is holding its first ever Chanukah comedy show. At 8 pm on the second night of the holiday, Wednesday, December 21st, Greenpoint’s only synagogue will feature stand-up from some of New York City’s best comedians.

Danny Lobell, most likely the only Scottish-Jewish comedian on the planet (or on this side of Newtown Creek, anyway) will emcee the show. Lobell is the host of Comical Radio, a popular podcast that features interviews with the industry’s top entertainers. He has toured internationally, across the United Kingdom, Spain, France and South Africa, and recently appeared on BBC Radio. His debut album, “Some Kind of Comedian,” is due out next spring.

The lineup for the show is an impressive one. Myq Kaplan, a 2010 “Last Comic Standing” finalist who has appeared on “Late Show with David Letterman,” “The Late, Late Show with Craig Ferguson,” and “The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien” will perform. In 2010, his CD “Vegan Mind Meld” made the top 10 best selling comedy albums on iTunes.

Jamie Lee, another “Last Comic Standing” alum, will also appear. Lee wrote for Rob Dyrdek’s MTV show “Ridiculousness” and for “Kid Farm,” an Atom.com original that parodies “19 Kids and Counting.”

Adam Newman, whose festival credits include the New York Comedy Festival, Just for Laughs Chicago, and North Carolina’s Laugh Your Asheville Off Festival, will keep the crowd laughing with his “punny” brand of humor. He released his debut album “Not for Horses” this past summer.

Comical Radio co-host Chris Iacono will entertain with jokes about his brassy grandmother, being freaked out by kids on wheelies, and his life in Bensonhurst. Iacono has appeared on commercials for “True Blood” and regularly takes his act to colleges and cities across the nation.

Rounding out the list is Nick Vatterott, a Williamsburg local and alum of Second City in Chicago. He has performed in the New Faces category at the Montreal Just for Laughs Festival and on “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.” In 2008, Chicago Magazine deemed him “the Funniest Man in Chicago.”

What would a Chanukah party be without food and drinks? For $10, you get kosher pizza and snacks, liquor and beer courtesy of Sixpoint. All proceeds will go towards fixing up the 102-year-old shul, which is in need of new wiring and fixed stain glass windows, as well as structural repairs.

The Modern Orthodox Greenpoint Shul welcomes people from all Jewish backgrounds. It offers a number of free classes each week, including introductory Hebrew workshops, Torah study groups, Talmud discussions and conversion courses. The Interfaith Gift Garden in the Shul’s backyard provides vegetables to the homeless and needy at the weekly soup kitchen at the Greenpoint Reform Church.

Tickets will be available at the door the night of the show. For more information, visit www.greenpointshul.org.

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