If you spend any time online, chances are you’ve stumbled across Antonia Lassar’s very funny — and very Jewish — comedy clips on TikTok, YouTube, or Instagram, or caught her co-hosting the “Yenta!” podcast. And even if you haven’t, now is your chance to catch this young, fresh Internet sensation live in her first Arizona appearance on Feb. 21, 7 p.m., at Congregation Anshei Israel.
Lassar describes her Jewish comedy as much more than stereotypical Borscht Belt jokes. It’s about sharing voices, connecting to the real lived Jewish experience, bridging cultures, even tapping into Talmudic humor and, of course, having a good laugh.
“There’s a real demand for people in Jewish spaces who want comedy that is made by Jews who are serious about Judaism,” she says.
“I think the majority of comedy being made by Jews is for a broader audience. [Being] deeply involved in Jewish community and Jewish learning, I reach a very specific niche, and it’s been really fun to explore this niche. I’m going to be deep in the Jewish world anyway, and I might as well make comedy for my people.”
With a foot in every stream of Judaism, Lassar’s humor is all about Jewish inclusion, and no one is spared.
Growing up in a Reform home, Lassar says, meant celebrating the High Holidays and “every so often we’d muscle through a Shabbat candle lighting blessing in a really embarrassing way.” After college, as she searched for transcendental religious or spiritual experiences, she discovered them in Judaism, especially around Jewish singing. “It was such a relief to realize that those experiences existed in my own religion and I didn’t have to go anywhere else.”
She sees comedy as a way to bridge differences between cultures, even among Jews. “Because I have gone through so many different Jewish denominations, from extremely secular to the ultra-Orthodox world, even though I do not live in any of those at the moment, I can really talk about our cultural differences. I love to be a translator between denominations, especially because I think that we all have so much that we need to learn from each other. We all have our stupid habits and prejudices that we need to let go of. And, that said, you know, the only thing a Jew loves more than making fun of their own denomination is making fun of every other denomination. It’s our cultural heritage.”
Lassar also uses her podcast “Yenta!” to bring together friends from diverse backgrounds, especially the LGBTQ and Orthodox communities. “At earlier points in my life, I didn’t know how to navigate this, but now I have a strong enough sense of self that I don’t need to compromise to fit in any of these spaces, and so, truly, it only enriches my life. You should see my Shabbat tables, which are the weirdest mix of observant Jews and queer non-Jews. Everyone just likes to hang out. It’s not hard to sell a free dinner party.”
Lassar grew up in Newton, Massachusetts, earned her BFA in theatre arts from Boston University, and now lives in Los Angeles, where, in addition to performing stand-up, she leads the monthly TRIBE Singing Circle at IKAR LA. “In progressive Judaism,” she says, “we don’t have as much familiarity and access to transcendent singing experiences as they have in the more Orthodox world and they really do help us feel so much more connected. That’s why I’m so serious about it.” And why she sometimes incorporates singing into her comedy shows.
Lassar sees comedy as a more effective way of educating and reaching people than preaching or lecturing. From 2014-2019, she toured universities with her one-woman show about the sexual assault crisis on college campuses, “Post Traumatic Super Delightful.” It was featured in Autostraddle, Marie Claire Magazine and Glamour Magazine’s Top Ten College Women Program. It also landed her a gig as the keynote speaker at the Minnesota Association for the Treatment of Sexual Abusers conference.
She recently wrapped up a two-year fellowship in the Mandel Institute for Nonprofit Leadership’s Cultural Leadership Program, where she was one of 15 artists from diverse Jewish communities and cultural spheres. “Now I have thought partners who I can call up when the New York Times is asking me to talk about anti-Semitism in the arts,” she says.
What does cultural leadership through comedy look like? “One thing that I think about a lot, as a comedian working in the Jewish world, is just how much Jewish comedy shapes Jewish culture. We are coming off of decades of Jewish comedians emphasizing bagels, IBS and overbearing mothers. And for people like me, who didn’t have such an extensive Jewish education, Jewish comedians were my education, and so I really did believe that Judaism was nothing but bagels, IBS and overbearing mothers and the Holocaust, for good measure.
“I have a big responsibility, because, in some ways, I am dictating Jewish culture every time I make jokes about it. I have real life experience that Judaism is about so much more than IBS and I deeply want to create Jewish comedy that reflects that… like Chabad menorah distribution cartels, the endless performance of Ashkenazi Jews to prove that they actually do know how to cook one Persian recipe, and, of course, the endless trivia competition that Judaism actually is.”
To reserve your seat for Lassar’s Arizona debut (and hang out with her at the after-party) on Feb. 21, go to caiaz.org/a-night-of-laughs-with-antonia-lassar.
