Nov. 6, 2009 Rabbi Berel Wein: Choosing to hear JWisdom.com Zero to 1/60th: How to Empower An Hour with Gavriel Aryeh Sande (7 minutes) Caroline B. Glick The mullahs' big week Suzanne Fields A Fallen Wall for Fallen Man Nov. 5, 2009 The Kosher Gourmet: Three scrumptious -- but simple -- butternut squash dishes JWisdom.com Hidden Hints: Unlocking Faith & Prayer with Rabbi Jay Yaacov Schwartz (10 minutes) Nov. 4, 2009 Tom Hamburger and Kim Geiger: Should prayers be covered? JWisdom.com When God played peacemaker With Rabbi Sroy Levitansky (5 minutes) Nov. 3, 2009 Martin Peretz: Beware, Barack. Beware, Rahm. Beware, Axelrod JWisdom.com Are you are closet idolater? With Sara Yoheved Rigler (10 minutes) Nov. 2, 2009 Paul Greenberg: The Holocaust is now on Facebook JWisdom.com Abraham's Strange Change With Rabbi Yitzchok Fingerer (5 minutes) Oct. 30, 2009 Rabbi David Aaron: Secret to Immortality Caroline B. Glick Silencing dissent in America Oct. 29, 2009 Lini S. Kadaba: Do tactics avert flu or reduce humanity? JWisdom.com We Must Revamp our Religious Vocabulary With Gavriel Aryeh Sanders ( 10 minutes) Oct. 28, 2009 Rabbi Yonason Goldson: Atheists in Bubbleland JWisdom.com Why what we wear impacts who we are With Rabbis Mordechai Becher, Menachem Golberger and Aliza Bulow ( 10 minutes) Oct. 27, 2009 Paul Greenberg: The United Nations Is Outraged Again, Or: Department of Mideast Static JWisdom.com The Science of Love With Rabbi Jonathan Rietti ( 7 minutes) Oct. 26, 2009 The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Damaging disclosures with a twist JWisdom.com Wisdom and Wonks With Rabbi Eytan Feiner ( 7 minutes) Oct. 23, 2009 Rabbi David Aaron: Are you ready for the ultimate pleasure? JWisdom.com Watermark and oneness with Rabbi Sroy Levitansky ( 4 minutes) Caroline B. Glick Stop using limited powers in a way that expands our enemies' advantages over us Oct. 22, 2009 Steven Emerson: Terror Cases Share Desire to Kill Americans JWisdom.com No More More Family Fights --- Really? By Sarah Chana Radcliffe ( 5 minutes) Oct. 21, 2009 Tonya Alanez: Holocaust denier sues survivor, calling Auschwitz memoir 'vicious lies' JWisdom.com Meditating Jewishly: A Panacea for Success by Sarah Yoheved Rigler ( 7 minutes) Oct. 20, 2009 Dennis Prager: Obama and Dalai Lama: Why Israel Worries about U.S. President JWisdom.com Abraham was not religious By Rabbi Yitzchok Fingerer ( 6 minutes) Oct. 19, 2009 The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir: Q. Is nepotism kosher? JWisdom.comWhy Good People Do Bad Things By Rabbi Eytan Feiner ( 7 minutes) Oct. 16, 2009 Rabbi Yonason Goldson: The Perfect Number JWisdom.com Hearing Voices By Rabbi Sroy Levitansky ( 5 minutes) Caroline B. Glick How Turkey was lost Oct. 15, 2009 Jeff Jacoby: Peace vs. the 'peace process' JWisdom.com: Former MTV producer and stand-up comedian Rabbi Lawrence Hajioff: Taming a Control Freak (A VERY fast 15 minutes) Oct. 29, 2003 Mortimer B. Zuckerman: Graffiti On History's Walls (MUST-READ!)

Jewish World Review March 6, 2009 / 10 Adar 5769 When Funny Was Really Funny By Greg Crosby http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | Funny. Remember funny? I do. My earliest memory of funny was sitting on the couch with my mother and father and seeing them doubled over with laughter as they watched Sid Caesar on television in "Your Show of Shows." I wasn't laughing, being only about one or two years old at the time I didn't know how yet, but as the years went by and I continued to watch Sid Caesar I learned what funny was. Oh boy, did I learn. It wasn't jokes that made Sid Caesar funny. It wasn't pratfalls or goofy props or slapstick knock-about routines. And it wasn't funny faces, although he certainly could do them when the occasion warranted. No, Caesar was funny because he was real. He was honest. I believed him in every one of the sketches he was in. I believed him because HE believed who he was in those sketches. For me he was never a comic pretending to be a husband with insomnia - he WAS that husband with insomnia. He WAS a bullfighter. He WAS that crazy German professor. Sid Caesar became each character he was portraying. Believability is not only a crucial element of a great comedian; it is the sign of a truly great actor. Not many comics have it. Buster Keaton had it. Laurel and Hardy had it. W.C. Fields had it. Jack Benny had it. On TV, Jackie Gleason had believability, Lucile Ball had it in "I Love Lucy," Dick Van Dyke had it, and Sid Caesar has it in spades. Of course honesty and believability alone aren't enough to make you funny. You need a few other qualities - like impeccable comic timing, spot-on delivery, an ear for dialect and the skill to burlesque it, an ability to ad-lib, and that indescribable feeling down deep in the kishkes (guts) that tells you that something is not just funny, but really works! Put those qualities all together, they spell Sid Caesar - the man who showed me what funny was over fifty years ago. I should add that it certainly doesn't hurt to have co-stars such as Imogene Coca, Carl Reiner, and Howard Morris performing with you. And the fact that some of the best young comedy writers in the business were writing on the show was also a major plus. But frankly, all the Neil Simons, Mel Brookses, and Larry Gelbarts in the world won't make you funny if you don't have the goods. I doubt that even the esteemed writer's room of "Your Show of Shows" could have turned Marlon Brando into a first rate sketch comedian. As much as the writers helped make Caesar a star, it was working with Caesar that helped make the writers stars. Along with Jack Benny and Buster Keaton, Sid Caesar was one of my idols. I eventually got into comedy writing myself. I have spent most of my working life at the Walt Disney Studio, a good deal of it in writing gags, comic stories, and drawing animation story boards. I never expected that I would ever have an opportunity to meet one of my idols in person. Then out of the blue about a week ago, I got a message to call a guy. The guy happened to be character actor, Lee Delano. He was very nice on the phone and said how he had been reading my columns for awhile and enjoyed my work. Then he mentioned that he had been Sid Caesar's co-star for the past 30 years, basically replacing Carl Reiner's straight man role from the early 50's shows. Lee had toured with Sid all over the world, performing the great sketch comedy that had made Sid so famous. And then he asked, "How would you like to meet Sid Caesar in person?" I couldn't believe my ears. That would be like someone asking, "How would you like to have ten or twelve million dollars?" Lee said he would get with Sid, set it up and call me back. In the meantime Lee sent over a DVD of a couple of sketches he did with Sid awhile back - very funny stuff. As of this writing I haven't yet met with Sid Caesar, but it could very well take place in the next couple of days. I'm not sure what I could possibly say to Mr. Caesar that ten thousand other fans haven't already said to him. The man has won, I don't know, maybe seventy-two Emmys and has gotten at least a billion other awards and honors over the years. What does one say to a legend? What does one ask a comedy genius? Maybe I'll just thank him. Thank him for showing me all those many years ago what funny is all about. Every young comedy writer should take a month off and sit in a room in front of a DVD player and watch those classic Sid Caesar comedy sketches. That's how it's done, guys. No bodily function jokes, no four-letter words, no hard-edged ugly street slang, no put downs. Just pure funny. Believable. Honest. No one has ever been funnier than Sid Caesar. No one. Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here. JWR contributor Greg Crosby, former creative head for Walt Disney publications, has written thousands of comics, hundreds of children's books, dozens of essays, and a letter to his congressman. A freelance writer in Southern California, you may contact him by clicking here. Greg Crosby Archives © 2008, Greg Crosby

Arnold Ahlert  Mitch Albom  Michael Barone   Dave Barry  Tony Blankley  Andy Borowitz  David Broder  Stratfor Briefing  Mona Charen  Linda Chavez  Ann Coulter  Greg Crosby  Larry Elder  Suzanne Fields  John Fund  Frank J. Gaffney  Lloyd Garver  Jonah Goldberg  Julia Gorin  Jonathan Gurwitz  Paul Greenberg  Lewis Grossberger  Victor Davis Hanson  Betsy Hart  Nat Hentoff  David Horowitz  Laura Ingraham  Cheri Jacobus Jeff Jacoby  Paul Johnson  Jack Kelly  Ed Koch  Ch. Krauthammer  Michael Ledeen  John Leo  David Limbaugh  Kathryn Lopez  Rich Lowry  Michelle Malkin  Jackie Mason  Dick Morris  Bill O'Reilly  Jim Mullen  Clarence Page  Kathleen Parker  Dennis Prager  Wesley Pruden  Tom Purcell  Jonathan Rauch  Celia Rivenbark  Robert Robb  Cokie & Steve Roberts  Pat Sajak  Debra J. Saunders  Culture Shlock  Roger Simon  Michael Smerconish  Thomas Sowell  Mark Steyn  John Stossel  Cal Thomas  Bob Tyrrell  Diana West  Dave Weinbaum  George Will  Walter Williams  Byron York  Mort Zuckerman  Robert Arial  Chuck Asay  Baloo  Chip Bok  Dry Bones   Lisa Benson  John Branch  Gary Brookins  John Cole  J. D. Crowe  John Deering  Brian Duffy  Everything's Relative  Mallard Fillmore  Jake Fuller  Bob Gorrel  Joe Heller  David Hitch  Jerry Holber  Steve Kelley  Jeff Koterba  Dick Locher  Chan Lowe  Ranan R. Lurie  Jimmy Margulies  Rick McKee  Michael Ramirez  Kevin Siers  Jeff Stahler  Ed Stein  Danna Summers  John Trever  Gary Varvel  Kirk Walters  How 2  Lori Borgman  The Savvy Consumer  Elder matters  Fixit  Dr. Peter Gott  GET A JOB! by Marty Nemko  Richard Lederer  Tech Maven  Every Monday Matters  Nutrition Myths  Bookmark These  Bruce Williams  How Stuff Works