Old jokes, old joke-tellers: Jewish humor hits the Web

by Sharon Udasin

Posing in a black-banded khaki-colored fedora as kitschy klezmer Muzak introduces his routine, Neil Lawner gestures loudly with outstretched arms and tells a joke about newlywed Luigi, who rode a train to Florida with his new bride Virginia, and tragically, mistook the station stop “Norfolk” for a prohibition in his marriage consummation.
Lawner’s routine, along with nearly 30 others, are part of a new collection posted on OldJewsTellingJokes.com, a Web site that features the stand-up routines of everyone’s favorite Jewish uncles, fathers and grandpas. The staged clips were the brainchild of 42-year-old Sam Hoffman of GreeneStreet Films, who got the idea after listening to over four decades of his father Barney’s joke routines.
At the time, Hoffman hadn’t planned to post the series online, but since the site’s Feb. 1 launch date, it has accrued 1.5 million hits, with nearly 1,700 fans on its corresponding Facebook page, he said. And just last week, video distributor First Run Features won the rights to produce the series in home video format.
click here to read the full story