Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Israel News

A Laughing Matter

Okay, so a Muslim, a Mormon and a Jew walk into a bar….

No, really — they do. And you’ll have to be in Northern California this September to hear the punch line.

San Francisco standup comedian and producer Lisa Geduldig — a Long Island native already renowned for her Kung Pao Kosher Comedy, a Christmastime comedy show served up with a healthy helping of chow fun — says she’s hearing good early reactions to her upcoming show, “A Muslim, a Mormon, and a Jew Walk Into a Bar: The Comedy of Religion.”

The idea was born as she watched Bengt Washburn, who gave up Mormonism in Utah for standup in San Francisco, do his shtick at a comedy show in Marin County. “I loved the uniqueness of someone who has done proselytizing, who has done door-knocking, who now is doing comedy about it,” Geduldig told The Shmooze.

But just a Jew and a Mormon wouldn’t be enough, she realized. “I’m trying to show a variety of backgrounds and points of view,” she said.

So Geduldig dialed up Shazia Mirza, a London-based Muslim who made her first U.S. appearance in 2003 as part of Geduldig’s “Funny Girlz” annual smorgasbord of comedians.

With three faiths represented, Geduldig booked the show September 9 in Berkeley, September 10 in San Rafael and September 11 in San Francisco. The final show’s scheduling on so notorious a date — also, two days before the start of Rosh Hashanah and Ramadan — “wasn’t 100% intentional, but there was some intent there,” she said; after all, comedy about religion is bound to be edgy.

Each comic will do his or her act, and then all three will take to the stage together to chat about religion, myths, stereotypes and whatever else seems funny at the time.

“I’m sitting here pounding out some ideas to send to the others, stereotypes and aspects of our culture that are similar and different, and how to make it all funny,” Geduldig said. “It’s going to be good. I can’t wait to see it.”

For more information, go to Koshercomedy.com.

A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.