Performers

Shelley Berman | Scott Blakeman | Esther Paik Goodhart | Lisa Geduldig
Past Performers

Hi res photos available for download in Press Room

SHELLEY BERMAN started as an actor, having received his training at the Goodman Theater in Chicago, and honing his acting skills in stock companies in and around Chicago and New York. In the mid-1950’s, he became a member of Chicago’s Compass Players, which is today known as Second City. There he developed his improv skills. In 1957, Shelley landed his first job as a comedian at Mr. Kelly’s in Chicago after watching Mort Sahl perform there. Shelley realized he didn’t necessarily have to tell traditional jokes as other comedians did in order to work in nightclubs, and went on to audition at the club performing his one-man monologues and telephone routines with great success. Those first dates at Mr. Kelly’s led to other nightclub engagements around the country, appearances on national TV, and a recording contract with Verve Records. Inside Shelley Berman, released in early 1959, became the first comedy album awarded a gold record (his first of three: Outside Shelley Berman and The Edge of Shelley Berman were the other two), and the first to win a Grammy for a non-musical recording (for Best Comedy Performance). He was the first stand up comic to appear at Carnegie Hall. Shelley continues doing his one-man show throughout the US and internationally and still headlines in Las Vegas twice a year.

Shelley appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show 21 times, on The Jack Paar Show, and all other major variety shows: Steve Allen, Dinah Shore, Perry Como, Andy Williams, and Dean Martin. His TV guest star credits include the recurring character Ben Flicker on LA Law, and appearances on Friends, Arliss, Providence, Walker, Texas Ranger, King of Queens, and Dead Like Me. His films include The Best Man with Henry Fonda, Every Home Should Have One with Marty Feldman, Divorce American Style, Rented Lips, Teen With, Elliot Fauman PhD, Burt Reynolds’ The Last Producer, and Meet The Fockers, in which he played Judge Ira Goldfarb. He will play Adam Sandler’s father in Zohan (due out in Summer ‘08).

Shelley’s stage work includes starring in the Broadway musical A Family Affair, Inside Outside and All Around – Shelley Berman, in the national tour of the musical Two By Two, and Neil Simon’s The Prisoner of Second Avenue. His work in the Chicago production of I’m Not Rappaport won him the Best Actor nomination for the Jefferson Award. He has received two LA Dramalogue Best Actor Awards, the Dell Close Award, and a Lifetime Achievement in the Field of Improvisation (Hollywood Improv Olympic).

Shelley is probably most known to current day audiences for his role as Larry David’s father, Nat, in HBO’s Curb Your Enthusiasm and as Judge Sanders on Boston Legal.

He has authored three books: Cleans and Dirtys; A Hotel is A Funny Place; and Up in The Air, and two plays: First is Supper, first produced in Chicago in 1990, and Silver Sonata, performed in San Diego in 1996. He has written TV pilots for CBS, Screen Gems, Desilu, and NBC. For over 20 years, Shelley taught humor writing at USC in the Master of Professional Writing program.. This year, Shelley Berman celebrates 50 years in showbiz. www.shelleyberman.com

SCOTT BLAKEMAN has performed his progressive political humor from a liberal Jewish point of view internationally, including the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland, the Bar Mitzvah Show at the Just for Laughs Festival in Montreal, and The Jewish Historical Museum in Amsterdam. Scott has made more than 30 national TV appearances and can be heard regularly on NPR. He performs regularly at the Laughing Liberally political comedy shows in New York, was featured at Arianna Huffington’s Shadow Convention in Philadelphia, and headlined Politics on The Edge, an evening of political humor as part of New York’s Toyota Comedy Festival.

Scott is a sought after Jewish comedian for shows at synagogues, JCC’s, and Jewish organization fundraisers. He was a featured panelist on Jewish humor program at the Jewish Museum in New York and Philadelphia and recently interviewed Freddie Roman in Catskills on the Hudson at The Museum of Jewish Heritage in NY. Scott has also hosted interviews with comedy legends Robert Klein and Lewis Black at New York’s 92nd St Y. He was featured in Radical Mensches and Maniacs: New Jewish Humor and Music at La Mama Theater and the Lansky Lounge in New York. Scott performs regularly at comedy events sponsored by the New York Friars Club, of which he is a member. Scott co-created Stand Up for Peace: The Two Comedian Solution to Middle East Peace with Palestinian-American comedian Dean Obeidallah; they perform their evening of Jewish and Arab-American comedy at theaters, colleges, JCC’s, and temples across the country. This is Scott’s second time performing at Kung Pao; the first time was in 2001. www.scottblakeman.com

ESTHER PAIK GOODHART is Korean and Jewish. She’s a comic, a wife, and a mother. Born in the heart of Texas to Korean immigrant parents, who knew she would end up being a Jewish Catskills’ comedian? Her father is a famous Billy Graham-like Korean Presbyterian Minister and her mother is “the Asian Tammy Faye Baker.” Raised in New York, Esther grew up around many Borscht Belt comics. In the 1960’s, her mother was the portrait artist in the lobby of several Borscht Belt hotels including The Nevele and The Concord. Her mother did many of the comic’s portraits. Esther married a Jewish man and converted to Judaism after the birth of her son. She teaches Hebrew to kids at various temples in New Jersey where she lives and English to Korean kids and adults. Esther has opened for KC & the Sunshine Band, The Commodores, Hilary Clinton, Henry Kissinger, and Freddie Roman and has won a number of comedy competitions in NY and NJ.

Esther has been featured in the PBS documentaries Koreans in America and Twisted (the story of Familial Dystonia, a neurological movement disorder she has), several TV commercials (MCI, AIDS Public Service Announcements, Merck Pharmaceuticals), made for TV movies, and a cartoon on the Food Network. She enjoyed success with her one-woman show Out of The Wheelchair and into The Fire! about her story of being dependent on a wheelchair to getting out and doing stand up in high heels. Esther has won several comedy competitions in NY and NJ. Her greatest thrill is her membership in the famed Friars’ Club and working for people who don’t call her “mommy.” www.esthergoodhart.com

LISA GEDULDIG is a San Francisco-based stand-up comic and comedy producer. Originally from Lawn Gisland, New Yawk, where her entire suburban block was Jewish except the Mazzolas next door who had on their lawn what seemed to be the largest Nativity scene in the history of the world. Lisa is the creator, producer, and MC of a variety of annual comedy shows in addition to Kung Pao Kosher Comedy — The George Bush Going Away Party: An Evening of Political Comedy; Funny Girlz: A Smorgasbord of Women Comedians; and A Muslim, A Mormon, and A Jew Walk into A Bar: The Comedy of Religion. Two years ago, Lisa branched out into the world of music and produced the sold out Charo and Her Las Vegas Show at San Francisco’s Herbst Theatre. Lisa is also a bilingual (Spanish/English, not Yiddish/English) freelance arts publicist.

Past Performers

LISA GEDULDIG is the Mistress of Ceremonies each year.

Past performers have included…

2006

• Cathy Ladman
• Dan Ahdoot
• Stephanie Blum

2005

• Wendy Liebman
• Gregg Rogell
• Betsy Salkind

2004

• Judy Gold
• Page Hurwitz
• Brad Zimmerman

2003

• Judy Gold
• Ed Crasnick
• Bruce Smirnoff

2002

• Jeffrey Ross
• Cory Kahaney
• Eddie Sarfaty

2001

• Cathy Ladman
• Scott Blakeman
• Lisa Kron

2000

• Marc Maron
• Page Hurwitz
• Brian Malow

1999

• Carol Leifer
• Betsy Salkind
• Dan Rothenberg

1998

• Freddie Roman
• Sara Cytron
• Dan Lewis

1997

• Henny Youngman "The King of The One Liners"
• Charlie Varon
• Judith Sloan

1996

• Sherry Glaser
• Josh Kornbluth
• The Kinsey Sicks—America's Favorite Dragapella Beautyshop Quartet

1995

• Cathy Ladman
• Jaffe Cohen

1994

• Carol Leifer
• Ed Crasnick
• Sara Felder
• Scott Silverman
• Andrea Leigh Levin
• Surprise Guest: Margaret Cho

1993

• Suzy Berger
• Scott Silverman
• Stu Silverstein