Rabbi Sol Solomon interviews comedian Shecky Greene
Topics include: comedy, show business.
Segment originally aired April 30, 2011 as part of the “Dave’s Gone By” radio program hosted by Dave Lefkowitz.
Please Note: Interview segments extracted from “Dave’s Gone By” may have music and other elements removed for timing and media re-posting considerations. For the full interview with all elements, please visit the audio of the complete original broadcast: Full Episode
All content (c)2011 TotalTheater Productions.
More information on Dave’s Gone By: http://www.davesgoneby.com
More information on Rabbi Sol Solomon: http://www.shalomdammit.com
Click above to listen to the episode (audio only).
Here is the 352nd episode of the long-running radio show/podcast, Dave’s Gone By, which aired live on UNC Radio, April 30, 2011. Info: davesgoneby.com.
Host: Dave Lefkowitz
Guest: comedian Shecky Greene
Featuring: Rabbi Sol Solomon chats with legendary comedian Shecky Greene. Plus: Inside Broadway (NY musical reviews), Saturday Segue (green songs), Bob Dylan – Sooner & Later (green), Dave Says Bye to Phoebe Snow, and Rabbi Sol Solomon’s Rabbinical Reflection on the royal wedding.
00:00:01 DAVE GOES IN 00:15:30 SATURDAY SEGUE – green 00:31:00 INSIDE BROADWAY – Broadway news & reviews (Anything Goes (00:50:00) & How to Succeed in Business… (00:56:00)) 01:02:00 BOB DYLAN – Sooner & Later: green 01:30:00 GUEST: Rabbi Sol Solomon interviews Shecky Greene 02:19:00 DAVE SAYS BYE – Phoebe Snow 02:33:30 DAVE – Sponsors 02:42:00 Rabbi Sol Solomon’s Rabbinical Reflection – royal wedding 02:57:30 DAVE GOES OUT
April 30, 2011 Playlist: (part one) “Green Onions” (14:30:30; Booker T. & the MG’s), “Green Shirt” (00:17:30; Elvis Costello); “The Leaves that are Green” (00:19:30; Simon & Garfunkel); “Little Green” (00:22:00; Joni Mitchell); “Green Rocky Road” (00:25:30; Tim Hardin), “It’s De-Lovely” (00:47:00; “Anything Goes” 1962 off-Bway cast); “Wiggle Wiggle” (01:03:00), “House Carpenter” (01:05:00) “Let Me Die in My Footsteps” (01:09:00), “Baby, Where are You Tonight?” (01:12:30) & “Three Angels” (01:18:30) & “Copper Kettle” (01:21:00; Bob Dylan); “Shecky Greene at Italian Earthquake Benefit” (01:27:30; youtube excerpt), “Somewhere That’s Green” (02:14:00; Little Shop of Horrors, off-Bway cast), “Poetry Man” (02:20:30), “Every Night” (02:25:00) & “Majesty of Life” (02:28:30; Phoebe Snow), “Wedding Bells” (02:46:30; Benny Bell); “Bein’ Green” (02:57:30; Van Morrison).
Shecky GreeneAnything GoesHow to Succeed in Business . . . Phoebe SnowgreenRabbi Sol Solomon
RABBI SOL SOLOMON’S RABBINICAL REFLECTION #13 (4/24/2011): Easter
Aired 4/23/11 on Dave’s Gone By. Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AgmT5qW-5Vc
Shalom, Dammit! This is Rabbi Sol Solomon, with a Rabbinical Reflection for the week of April 24th, 2011.
April 24th is a big day for our Christian brethren because it is Easter Sunday, the day that commemorates Jesus rising from the dead. According to the story, Jesus was crucified, pulled off the cross, and buried in a tomb. Three days later, they move away the rock – because that’s what you always do after you bury someone, you go back in and make sure they’re dead – and lo and behold, no corpse. The cave was empty.
And then, depending on which gospel you read, Jesus started appearing to his followers. He returned from the dead and visited his old pals. He saw the apostle Peter, and Paul, and Thomas – the famous “doubting Thomas.” Jesus said to him, “You don’t believe I’m dead? Stick your fingers in my wrist holes.” That’s actually in the book of John. Jesus telling Thomas, “You don’t think it’s me? Why don’t you blow in my feet like an ocarina? What? Disgusting? I spend seven hours bleeding to death on a cross, and you don’t wanna get goo on your face? Forget `doubting Thomas’; I’m gonna call you `asshole Thomas.’ How do you like that, ha? Pussyboy asshole Thomas. Now shut up and put your thumb in my ankle.”
I dunno. Obviously, I don’t believe in the whole resurrection thing, or any part of the Jesus story. But what intrigues me is the accepted idea that Jesus rose on the third day, and on the 40th day, he ascended to heaven. That leaves 37 days – nearly a month and a half – when he’s the walking dead, strolling around Bethlehem and wherever.
Wouldn’t that have been enough time to…I dunno…do anything? The gospels are very cryptic about his whereabouts all those weeks. Which is another reason they’re so suspect. If somebody rose from the dead, wouldn’t you follow them everywhere? Wouldn’t you take notes on every single thing they did? Instead: one visit here, an appearance there, a possible sighting in New Mexico.
And what if you were Jesus coming back to earth – what would you do? Was he still wounded? If he was part-human; maybe he went to a hospital, got himself re-hydrated, a couple of splints, maybe a chest x-ray.
And when he felt better… I don’t think they had guns in those days, but don’t you think he would’ve grabbed a sharp sword and gone looking for some people?
If I were Jesus, I’d be like, “Hello, there. Remember me? Oh, that’s right, you didn’t see my face. You were too busy looking at my back while you were whipping it 39 times. Ohhh..no hard feelings. You were just doing as you were told. But, see, I’m the son of God now. So you have two choices: I can either put this sword through your head, or you can take me to Herod, and then I’ll put this sword through your head. Who? Pilate? Oh, I’ve been to Pilate. His courtroom, as a matter of fact. Let’s just say I put his gavel in a very interesting place.”
Now, see? If the New Testament read like that, I’d believe in it. Here you’ve got the son of God coming back with six weeks on earth to wreak havoc, get revenge, maybe get a little somethin’-somethin’ from Mary Magdalene. Or the reverse – maybe he uses his post-mortem super powers to unite everyone on the planet, prove that he’s divine and turn the whole world Christian.
But no. He comes back, a few people see him, and then he goes off to God. What a wasted opportunity! Which is why I’d sooner believe in the Easter Bunny than Jesus. But that’s just me. I certainly wish our goyische friends and neighbors a happy holiday, with lots of good family gatherings and frilly bonnets and chocolate bunnies.
Although speaking of food, it does occur to me that if the last supper was, as they say, a Passover Seder, that means for his final days on earth, Jesus could eat only Kosher-for-Pesach meals. Forget all the other tortures of the crucifixion; can you imagine how constipated he was? That poor bastard.
This has been a Rabbinical Reflection from Rabbi Sol Solomon, Temple Sons of Bitches, in Great Neck, NY.
Dave Lefkowitz interviews actor and director Ari Gold
Topics include: The Adventures of Power, filmmaking.
Segment originally aired April 23, 2011 as part of the “Dave’s Gone By” radio program hosted by Dave Lefkowitz.
Please Note: Interview segments extracted from “Dave’s Gone By” may have music and other elements removed for timing and media re-posting considerations. For the full interview with all elements, please visit the audio of the complete original broadcast: Full Episode
All content (c)2011 TotalTheater Productions.
More information on Dave’s Gone By: http://www.davesgoneby.com More information on Rabbi Sol Solomon: http://www.shalomdammit.com
Click above to listen to the episode (audio only).
Here is the 351st episode of the long-running radio show/podcast, Dave’s Gone By, which aired on UNC Radio, April 23, 2011. Info: davesgoneby.com.
Host: Dave Lefkowitz
Guest: filmmaker Ari Gold Featuring: Dave chats with filmmaker Ari Gold (“The Adventures of Power”). Plus: Inside Broadway (NY reviews), Saturday Segue (NY songs), Bob Dylan – Sooner & Later (Bard on Bard) and Rabbi Sol Solomon’s Rabbinical Reflection on Easter.
00:00:01 DAVE GOES IN 00:12:30 SATURDAY SEGUE – New York City 00:34:00 DAVE GOES OFF – Back in NY 00:59:30 BOB DYLAN – Sooner & Later: “Bard on Bard” 01:32:00 GUEST: Ari Gold 02:24:30 DAVE – Sponsors & weather 02:37:00 Rabbi Sol Solomon’s Rabbinical Reflection – Easter 02:46:30 INSIDE BROADWAY (Arcadia (02:46:30), Jerusalem (02:49:00), Good People (02:52:30)) 02:56:00 DAVE – Friends 02:59:30 DAVE SAYS BYE – Ross Higuchi 03:04:00 DAVE GOES OUT
April 23, 2011 Playlist: “Dirty Boulevard” (12:30:30; Lou Reed), “Spring in New York” (00:16:00; Tony Bennett); “New York City” (00:18:30; Suzzy & Terre Roche); “New York, New York” (00:22:00; Tiny Tim); “Manhattan” (00:25:30; Jim Caruso); “The Only Living Boy in New York” (00:30:30; Simon & Garfunkel); “Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again” (live; 00:59:30), “Lone Pilgrim” (01:05:30), “Desolation Row” (alternate take; 01:08:00), “Floater” (01:19:30) & “Po’ Boy” (01:24:30; Bob Dylan); “New Jersey Nights” (01:28:30) & “We Are Power” (02:23:00; Ethan Gold).
Frances McDormand in Good PeopleMark Rylance in Jerusalem
RABBI SOL SOLOMON’S RABBINICAL REFLECTION #12 (4/10/2011): Killer Whale
Aired April 9, 2011 on Dave’s Gone By. Youtube: Rabbinical Reflection #12 – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StApRbPeamA
Shalom Dammit, this is Rabbi Sol Solomon with a Rabbinical Reflection for the week of April 10th, 2011.
If I go to a pet store and bring home a poisonous rattlesnake, at some point, if I make one little boo-boo, I’m dead.
I could feed it a thousand times with no problem. But there’s gonna be one time that I’m dangling a tasty mouse in front of the snake. The mouse wriggles away, I instinctively grab for it, and my hand goes in the terrarium. Before you can say Moishe Rabenu, a pair of venomous fangs will sink into my knuckles. At which point, my hand will swell up bigger than J-Woww’s boobies, and my blood would be so contaminated, you’d think I’d gotten a plasma transfusion from Rip Torn.
Is there a moral to this story? Yes. This is why we don’t bring home poisonous snakes.
But tell that to the yutzes who keep snakes and lizards and tarantulas and have no problem until the day they have to evacuate the whole apartment complex because a cobra’s on the loose.
Much as I sympathize with the agony Roy Horn must have felt when they were re-attaching his face, I still would have shouted into his reconstructed ear: “IT’S A TIGER! That thing with stripes on it and razor-sharp claws? It’s not a goldfish. It’s not a puppy, you moron, it’s a tiger. It’s a man-eating tiger. Now I know you’ve been eaten by men before, but this is different!”
And so we come to the story of Dawn Brancheau, a pretty, athletic young girl who was a trainer at Sea World in Florida. In February 2010, she was doing her usual act with Tilikum the Whale. You know: roll over, jump for the fish, ride on your back, thrash me underwater until my lungs explode. That kinda thing.
As you may recall, Dawn Brancheau slipped in the water, and Tilikum went into a frenzy. By the time he was done, Dawn was dead.
Shocking and horrifying for the spectators; public-relations nightmare for Sea World. After all, if it weren’t for putting wild things in captivity and making them perform like Dumbo, Sea World would just be a fish-tank with a gift shop. So what did they do?
Despite the fact that Tilikum drowned one trainer, and was involved in the deaths of two previous trainers, they not only put the whale back in public view, but onstage! As of last week, Tilikum was once again flipping, rolling, dancing, doing magic tricks and reciting passages from Othello.
Oh sure, new safety measures have been put in place. Like trainers can’t wear ponytails anymore – which I know makes all the difference. But how many people does this demon dolphin have to murder before Sea World thinks, “Ya know… Maybe we should have a laser show instead?”
I mean, the name of this mammal is Orca – killer whale. This stupid fish has a reputation so violent, they put “killer” in its name. Nobody says, “The depressed and vaguely poetic whale.” Or, “come see the mathematically gifted and hilariously flatulent whale!” No, it’s a killer whale. It kills! It kills trainers. If it had a rifle with a telescoping lens, it would kill presidents.
And you can say, “Oh, they’ve worked with Tilikum. He’s had a year’s hiatus from performing, he’s been in confinement, he’s been punished.” Let me tell you what he’s been doing for a year – that fish has been lifting weights, making weapons out of mackerel bones, he probably joined the marlin brotherhood… We should not be trusting this animal no matter what precautions they think they’re taking.
Look at Jaws. Scary, wonderful movie, but there’s one piece of logic that you have to check at the door when you see it: If you don’t go in the water, you’re fine. You could dance a jig ten feet from the shoreline; all the shark can do is growl at you and give you the middle fin. Now granted, the shark had to be dealt with because fishermen, cruises, coast-guard patrols need to be in the water. But nobody needs to see a fish twirl a basketball. It is a non-essential activity.
And so here’s my recommendation if we really want Tilikum to be a productive member of society: take him to Japan and let the whalers have at `im. It’ll be a fair fight, and if he loses, you get to feed a million homeless earthquake victims on blubber.
As for Sea World, well, you take a frog, you put him in a dress and you make him jump through a hoop. Hours of entertainment, and nobody gets hurt.
This has been a Rabbinical Reflection from Rabbi Sol Solomon, Temple Sons of Bitches, in Great Neck, NY. Ribbit.
click above to listen (audio file only)click above to listen (audio only)
Dave Lefkowitz interviews comedian Pat Cooper
Topics include: comedy, families, growing up Italian.
Segment originally aired April 9, 2011 as part of the “Dave’s Gone By” radio program hosted by Dave Lefkowitz.
Farewell to our Friend of the Daverhood, Pat Cooper, who passed June 6, 2023 at age 93.
Please Note: Interview segments extracted from “Dave’s Gone By” may have music and other elements removed for timing and media re-posting considerations. For the full interview with all elements, please visit the audio of the complete original broadcast: Full Episode
All content (c)2011 TotalTheater Productions.
More information on Dave’s Gone By: http://www.davesgoneby.com
Segment originally aired April 9, 2011 as part of the “Dave’s Gone By” radio program hosted by Dave Lefkowitz.
Please Note: Interview segments extracted from “Dave’s Gone By” may have music and other elements removed for timing and media re-posting considerations. For the full interview with all elements, please visit the audio of the complete original broadcast: Full Episode
All content (c)2011 TotalTheater Productions.
More information on Dave’s Gone By: http://www.davesgoneby.com
Click above to listen to the episode (audio only).
Here is the 350th episode of the long-running radio show/podcast, Dave’s Gone By, which aired on UNC Radio, April 9, 2011. Info: davesgoneby.com.
Host: Dave Lefkowitz
Guests: comedian Pat Cooper & singer-songwriter Gabrielle Louise.
Featuring: Dave chats with legendary comedian Pat Cooper and ecology-minded singer-songwriter Gabrielle Louise. Plus: Inside Broadway (naughty words), Dave Says Bye to Sidney Lumet, Saturday Segue birthday tribute to Tom Lehrer, and Rabbi Sol Solomon’s Rabbinical Reflection on killer whales.
00:00:01 DAVE GOES IN 00:09:30 GUEST: Gabrielle Louise 00:53:00 DAVE – Sponors & Weather 01:01:00 INSIDE BROADWAY – News & Naughty Words 01:24:30 GUEST: Pat Cooper 01:58:30 DAVE – Coming Up 02:02:00 DAVE SAYS BYE – Sidney Lumet 02:09:30 DAVE – More Sponsors 02:18:30 BOB DYLAN – Sooner & Later – Master pieces 02:48:00 Rabbi Sol Solomon’s Rabbinical Reflection – Killer Whale 02:53:30 SATURDAY SEGUE – Tom Lehrer 83rd birthday tribute 03:02:00 DAVE GOES OUT
April 9, 2011 Playlist: (part one) “Save the Arkansas” (00:09:30), “Make You Remember” (00:13:00) & “Journey” (00:49:00; Gabrielle Louise); Many Ways (01:21:30; Baxter Holvoe); “Friar’s Roast for Drew Carey” (excerpt, 01:23:00) & “On Italians” (youtube clip, 01:55:30, Pat Cooper); “When I Paint My Masterpiece” (02:19:00), “Lone Pilgrim” (02:22:00), “Masters of War” (demo version; 01:02:00), “Positively 4th Street” (02:29:00), “Slow Train” (live w/ Grateful Dead, 02:33:00) & “Every Grain of Sand” (02:38:00; Bob Dylan); “Bright College Days” (live; 02:53:30), “Who’s Next” (02:58:30) & “We Will All Go Together When We Go” (03:07:00; Tom Lehrer).
Pat CooperGabrielle LouiseGabrielle LouiseSidney LumetTom LehrerRabbi Sol Solomon
Shalom Dammit, this is Rabbi Sol Solomon with a Rabbinical Reflection for the week of April 3, 2011.
Japan, Libya, Syria, Gaza – all this going on, so what makes headlines? A guy in San Francisco who wants to ban circumcisions. Lloyd Schofield is trying to collect seven thousand signatures to put the issue up for a vote in November. If it passes, people will have to drive all the way to Orange County to get their bananas peeled.
Mr. Schofield claims he opposes circumcision on human-rights grounds, and that cutting off the foreskin is a cruel and pointless mutilation – especially when you’re doing it to babies who have no say in the matter.
I do not disagree with any of this. If I woke up one day to find a Rabbi hoisting me in his arms and giving me two drops of wine while his pen-knife does a rotato on my shmeckel, I’d be screaming, too.
Both sides of the issue claim health benefits. The anti-bris contingent says it’s traumatizing and causes nerve damage, and that at best, it’s cosmetic, elective surgery. And let’s face it – Jewish men are not black men; we need all the inches we can get. If I were a talking baby, I’d say, “Leave the penis, take the nose!”
The pro-circumcision group say that doing a cockwork orange is more sanitary, more aesthetically appealing, and has a lower risk of HIV, Chlamydia and penile cancer. Those findings are in dispute, but I have to say the idea of standing in the shower doing a smegma check every week is not my idea of a good time. Of course, if it’s a 22-year-old blonde doing the checking, I could be persuaded.
But if we take health off the table, we’re left with a brief but painful process that is done in the name of tradition. Like having relatives over on the holidays.
Can we replace the circumcision, a covenant stretching back millennia, with a new, harmless ceremony? After all, so much of what we do in Judaism is metaphorical. When we spill wine on Passover, this represents the ten plagues and the blood that was spilled when we vamoosed from Egypt. It’s not like we have to go out every Pesach and kill an Arab. Although with the missiles coming from Gaza right now, sometimes I’m tempted…
On Chanukah we light the menorah to symbolize the drop of oil that burned for eight days in the great temple. So why can’t we take a baby, have him wear a little condom, and then the mohel yanks off the Trojan and says, “Ut! This is to commemorate what we used to do to baloney ponies for 5,000 years.”
As you can see, I sympathize with Lloyd Schofield’s argument. When we hear about African tribes slicing their women’s privates like mango chunks, we react with horror. And I’ll be honest, if a grown man came to me and said, “Rabbi, I wanna convert. I’ll do the Bar Mitzvah, and I’m willing to skin the flute,” my first response would be, “Are you suuuuuure? I mean really sure? `Cause if you think peeling an onion makes you cry…”
And yet, for all the reasonable challenges to circumcision, I can’t throw the baby out with the pee-water. Maybe there was something our forefathers knew that we don’t; maybe there is a real covenant between us and God that has to be symbolized by a painful whack to the wang; maybe we have no business messing with a tradition that someone found valuable because hospitals do it automatically no matter what religion you are?
I say, until you can categorically prove that circumcisions are unhealthy, leave `em alone. Give parents the right to choose as they wish for their children, and for their children’s yogurt hoses. Or, as Dooley Wilson would sing:
You must remember this: A bris is still a bris A baby’s gonna cry So what if there’s some blood upon his thigh? We don’t ask why.
And though some skin he’ll miss He still can take a piss And let the semen fly So take a tip…from this Rabbi And just comply.
This has been a Rabbinical Reflection from Rabbi Sol Solomon, Temple Sons of Bitches, in Great Neck, NY.
So if you have a boy And if he’s not a goy Then kiss his flap goodbye At least he keeps his pink whale eye And stays a guy.
