H EADLINES
Philly Faces: Sharon Geller
and I love being onstage and
singing funny songs. And
it’s an homage to my history,
which is the Borscht Belt.

P H I LLY FACES
JESSE BERNSTEIN | JE STAFF
TWO JEWS ARE standing
on a street corner in Berlin in
1940. One says, “I know for a fact
that, every morning at 10:30,
Hitler walks down this cobble-
stone street, goes right over
to that corner cafe and has a
cup of coff ee. I’ve got a gun.

Tomorrow morning, I’m going
to assassinate him.”
Th e other Jew thinks it’s a
great idea, and the two make
a plan to kill Hitler the next
morning. Th e day comes, and 10:30
passes. 10:45, 11 — no Hitler.

Finally, at 11:15, one Jew turns to
the other and says, “Gee, I hope
nothing happened to him!”
If you liked that joke,
you’ll love comedian Sharon
Geller, who shared that joke
as an example of the Borscht
Belt humor she loves and
has embraced in her career,
most notably in the show
“Old Jews Telling Jokes.” In
addition to comedy, she has
been acting, writing and
directing in Philadelphia for
more than 20 years. Th e West
Oak Lane native has appeared
on “Saturday Night Live,” sold
products on QVC and trod
the boards of just about every
stage in Philadelphia. You can
fi nd Geller on your computer
now, too; she’s teaching improv
through Zoom.

What’s it been like doing
comedy in quarantine?
Everything’s happening
on Zoom these days, so I’m
continuing to teach my comedy
improv classes on Zoom. I’ve
taught for over 25 years at the
Walnut Street Th eatre. I teach
my own advanced comedy
improv class on Zoom. And for
years, I’ve taught that through
the Drexel Law School, a class
I created called “Improv for
Lawyers.” I teach that on
Zoom. And I do a CLE called
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM What have you been laughing
at in the last couple months?
I love watching really
well-done sitcoms. And even
though there are a lot of great
ones, my old fallback is always
Sharon Geller
Photo by Christopher Kadish Photography
“A Funny Th ing Happened on
the Way to Arbitration.” And
University of Pennsylvania has
hired me to do an improv class
for neuroscientists.

I don’t even know if I heard
of Zoom before March. And if
you had said to me, “Can you
teach comedy improvisation
on Zoom?” I would have said
to you, “Well, that’s a little like
asking someone to learn how
to play basketball by reading a
book. It’s just impossible.” But
somehow I’ve done it doing
what you do in improv: You
think outside of the box, and
you try to fi nd another way to
do things.

You’ve said that humor is a
way to pierce the pretensions
of the powerful. Do you have
an overarching project as a
comedian besides, you know,
being funny?
I love making people laugh.

I’m not a stand-up comedian.

But my goal was always to
be on “Saturday Night Live”
because I do a lot of diff erent
comedic characters. And I’m
happy to say I’ve been on four
times. It would have been nice
to be a member of the cast, but
I’ll take the four appearances
that I got.

But I have to say, one of the
most satisfying things that I
do is being a cast member of
“Old Jews Telling Jokes.” I’ve
been touring the country with
that for the last eight years,
“Everybody Loves Raymond.”
Th at sitcom was as well cast
and as well written as “Th e
Dick Van Dyke Show.”
I will never be the kind of
person who comes home and
turns on an hour-long crime
drama, no matter how well
it’s done, because I feel like
there’s so many depressing
things lately in the news. Th e
last thing I want to do is spend
an hour watching a crime
drama! I always prefer to watch
something that makes me
laugh or lightens my load. I love
watching comedians on TV —
everyone from Bill Maher to
Sebastian Maniscalco. ●
jbernstein@jewishexponent.com; 215-832-0740
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