Comedians
**Attention press: Hi res photos of the comedians are available for download on the Press Room Page
Carol Leifer is an Emmy, Golden Globe, Writers Guild Award, and Producers Guild Award winner for her work on Hacks. She has also written for such legendary shows as Seinfeld, Curb Your Enthusiasm, SNL, Modern Family, The Larry Sanders Show and 12 Academy Awards shows - the most of any female writer. As a stand up, Carol has appeared on The Tonight Show, HBO, Showtime, Comedy Central and made 25 appearances on Late Night with David Letterman. Her new book How to Write a Funny Speech for a Wedding, Bar Mitzvah, Graduation & Every Other Event You Didn’t Want to Go to in the First Place is a bestseller. Her two previous books are When You Lie About Your Age, The Terrorists Win and How to Succeed in Business Without Really Crying. Carol is a popular speaker on the corporate/nonprofit circuit, delivering speeches for over fifty organizations. www.CarolLeifer.com
Scott Blakeman has performed his contemporary Jewish humor around the world. He made his second appearance at the Borscht Belt Fest in the Catskills this summer, and he has performed twice on the Bar Mitzvah Show at the Just for Laughs Comedy Festival in Montreal. Scott performed and taught a comedy workshop at the Jewish Historical Museum in Amsterdam. For 25 years, Scott taught a stand up comedy workshop at the New School in New York, and among his students was Jon Stewart. Scott is an original member of the New York based political comedy show Laughing Liberally. He was the resident comedian for five years on MSNBC’s live coverage of the White House Correspondents Dinner. For 15 years, Scott toured colleges, theaters, synagogues, mosques and churches with Palestinian-Muslim-American comedian Dean Obeidallah in their Standup for Peace show. As an actor, Scott portrayed part of a gay couple in the groundbreaking Ikea commercial that was named one of the top 100 commercials of all time by Entertainment Weekly and will be the subject of an upcoming documentary film.
www.Scott Blakeman.com
Ariel Elias is a comedian living in New York City. Growing up, this Kentucky Jew made everyone laugh at her bat mitzvah, and the rest is history. Today, her comedy is a fun mesh of unique, personal stories mixed with witty and wry observations. Most recently, Ariel released her debut stand up special A Jewish Star through 800 Pound Gorilla, which can be seen on their YouTube channel. Described as “a sly young comic from Kentucky” by the New York Times, Ariel has also been featured in Rolling Stone, the Washington Post, and on Good Morning America. As a traveling stand up comedian, she has performed on the set of the Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, was named a “New Face” at the 2021 Just for Laughs Comedy Festival, and most recently performed stand up on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. After catching Jimmy Kimmel’s attention with a viral stand up clip that displayed her cool, calm, and hilarious composure, he invited Ariel to make her late-night television debut on Jimmy Kimmel Live! In the same week she also appeared for an interview on the daytime talk show, Sherri. www.ArielEliasComedy.com
Lisa Geduldig is a San Francisco-based comedian and the creator, producer, and MC of Kung Pao Kosher Comedy™ — Jewish Comedy on Christmas in a Chinese Restaurant and other shows. Before the pandemic, Lisa had been running Comedy Returns to El Rio, a monthly decade-long comedy show at El Rio in San Francisco where her comedy career began 35+ years ago. From July 2020 until September 2024, Lisa produced the monthly Lockdown Comedy on Zoom from the underwear drawer in the guest room at her mother’s retirement community home in Florida, where she accidentally got marooned (in Florida, not in the underwear drawer) for 17 months during the pandemic (and became a fan of the Early Bird special). She commuted between Florida and San Francisco for the next three years until her mother sadly passed away in August 2024. Lisa appeared in a Canadian documentary, Dreaming of a Jewish Christmas, which aired on Canadian and European TV in December 2017. She is also a freelance arts publicist in both English and Spanish. SFPublicist.com
