January 20, 2000

Come to Un-Cabaret

http://www.jewishjournal.com/ old_stories/article/come_to_uncabaret_20000121/

Comic Andy Kindler thinks prime-time TV has too many shows that play on racial stereotypes. So he has come up with his own idea. "I'm still trying to get my sitcom, "Jewey," off the ground," he confides. "In the pilot episode, I get chased by a pig."

Then there's New-Age-Jewish comedian Beth Lapides, who remembers her epiphany during a yoga class. "I looked at the sign on the plate glass window and saw that when you read 'yoga' backwards, it says, 'a goy.'"

Welcome to "Un-Cabaret," the mother-show of L.A.'s alternative comedy scene, which has generated a CD, Website, Comedy Central TV special and now a two-month-long comedy project to take place at the Skirball Cultural Center.

"Comedy and Commentary for the New Millennium" kicks off tomorrow with "Spirit in the Sky," where Jewish and non-Jewish comedians will yuk about religion. You'll hear from Kindler, Moon Zappa, Dana Gould, Jewish-Latino comic Taylor Negron and Lapides, who'll reminisce about the dominatrix who came to Passover dinner, leaving her slave in the car. "Every time we read the word, 'bondage' in the Haggadah, everyone giggled," she says.