June 22, 2001 – Anybody who thinks faith is no laughing matter just might change their mind after spending an evening with Rabbi Bob Alper, who'll be performing — yes, performing — Thursday night at Pistarckle Theater.
Alper, who was ordained at Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati and was the first Jewish person to earn a doctorate from Princeton Theological Seminary, embarked on a second career in 1986, that of a stand-up comic.
That, he's quick to emphasize, is not the same as being a humorist or a storyteller. "If a joke doesn't work within 12 seconds, if people don't laugh, it's out of the act," he says.
He likes to promote himself as "the world's only practicing clergyman doing stand-up comedy … intentionally."
Alper is a full-time entertainer and an occasional rabbi these days. His tour schedule this year has already had him criss-crossing the country for shows in Florida, New Jersey, Arizona, Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, Pennsylvania, New York, Colorado, Alabama and Texas before heading to St. Thomas, where he's actually on a brief vacation.
According to Katina Coulianos, vice president of the Hebrew Congregation of St. Thomas, "Rabbi Alper had a gap in his schedule, wanted to get away someplace nice to spend some time with his family, and looked up Rabbinic colleagues in places he might want to visit." Sure enough, one of them was his old friend Rabbi Jay Heyman on St. Thomas.
Alper liked what he heard from Heyman and, just for fun, offered to do a show while on island. As luck would have it, Heyman was scheduled to be off island on vacation, himself, this week, so Coulianos took on the project of organizing the event.
Alper's self-described "clean, unhurtful, warm" humor, by all Internet accounts, has appeal for a wide variety of audiences. The Fort Lauderdale (Fla.) Sun-Sentinel applauded "a performance that left all races, colors and creeds weeping from laughter." The New York Times has called the rabbi "a Jewish Bill Cosby." Alper himself says his role model is Bob Newhart.
He has said that what he seeks to convey in his act is "affability … When I do comedy, I very much feel it's consistent with being a rabbi … When I look out in the audience and after 10, 15 minutes, I see the handkerchiefs come out and they're wiping their eyes, I realize there's something very important occurring on a spiritual level. Comedy isn't just diversion; it's very life-affirming, health-giving. It's spirit-lifting."
On his web site (www.bobalper.com), there's a black-and-white picture of Alper mugging with a photograph of fellow comic Steve Martin that shows a striking physical resemblance between the two. The more recent color photo of the rabbi shown here has him looking rather more like St. Thomas businessman Cornelius Prior — whose wife, Trudie, has been president of the hosting Hebrew Congregation for the last two years.
Alper has been featured on Comedy Central and Showtime and played to a sold-out house in London last year. In addition to doing stand-up comedy shows, he conducts weekend scholar-in-residence programs that can include a sermon on the spirituality of humor or a workshop for teachers on the use of humor.
He also is the author of two well-received books. One, "Life Doesn't Get Any Better Than This" (subtitled "The Holiness of Little Daily Dramas"), consists of 44 inspirational vignettes. The other, "A Rabbi Confesses," is a collection of cartoons.
The hour and a half show is at 7:30 p.m. Thursday at Pistarckle Theater in Tillett Gardens. The Hebrew Congregation promises it will be "funny enough for teen-agers, clean enough for their grandparents and a hit with all faiths." Tickets are $20. "It's not a fundraiser," Coulianos said. "We're just doing it as a fun-raiser."
Tickets will be sold only at the door. However, reservations may be made by calling the synagogue office, 774-4312, or e-mailing to Hebrew Congregation.
