The Casino File
Mordechi “Modi” Rosenfeld may be a Jewish comedian from New York City, but forget any preconceived notions you may have about him.
The 56-year-old funnyman who performs Aug. 22 at Ocean Casino Resort doesn’t “fit into a lot of the stereotypes,” he insisted during a recent phone chat. “I’m not depressed. I’m very happy. My comedy comes from a place of happiness, not from a place of sadness and depression [as it does for many comics]. I told my parents it’s almost a shame I didn’t have a harder life. Maybe I’d be funnier.”
Even his ascension to the ranks of headliner doesn’t mesh with the usual career trajectory of those who ply the comedian’s trade. A standard-issue origin story is of a young person who, influenced by established performers, decides the comedy world is the only place in which they can fit. But when he was in his twenties, the man who bills himself simply as “Modi” was already in a comfortable place.
Although he’s an observant Orthodox Jew who studied cantorial music at New York’s Yeshiva University, by the early 1990s he was firmly ensconced in the financial world working for Merrill Lynch. It was there that he discovered his gift for comedy, regularly cracking up his friends with what he calls “table humor.”
“There’s a difference between a ‘table comic’ and a standup, a stage comic,” he explained. “At the table with friends, I was able to make them laugh. The question was, will that work onstage? And it did. I began doing the open mics and it translated and I moved ahead very, very fast.”
In 1994, the Israeli native whose family moved to Long Island when he was 7 became a regular attraction at the Comedy Cellar, a Greenwich Village chuckle hut that has been a launching pad for the careers of such A-listers as Dave Chappelle, Amy Schumer, Ray Romano and Jon Stewart. For the next five years, he led a double life, banker by day and standup comic by night. By the time Y2K arrived, the financial world was in Modi’s rearview mirror.
Part of his success has been due to his embracing his culture and keeping alive the “Borscht Belt” tradition of playing to primarily Jewish audiences (it’s no surprise he numbers such Catskill Mountain-forged gagsters as Alan King, Jackie Mason and 1980s-and-’90s AyCee favorite Mal Z. Lawrence as influences). That, he noted, was organic, as opposed to a calculated career blueprint.
“Being a Jewish comic kind of chose me more than I chose it,” he said. “When I began doing comedy, I was more like an over-the-top character. And then, when you build your voice, it begins to define your comedy.
“My comedy is not so much that the material is so Jewish, although there are times and places where it is, but the voice is Jewish. So, my voice in comedy came out as a Jew.
“When you see Chris Rock on stage, you know you just saw a Black comedian because of what he looks like, and how he sounds, and what he says and what he talks about. With me, it’s the same; you know that you’re looking at a Jew from New York on stage, the same way Jackie Mason was a Jewish voice. But the Jewish voice now has become a lot stronger. It’s become, accepting of [LGBTQ lifestyles] It’s become handsome. It’s become Israeli. That’s that voice for me.”
While plenty of Modi’s material is universal — and as such, you don’t have to be Jewish to understand or enjoy it — he has nonetheless established himself as the acknowledged “go-to” comedian for Orthodox Jews. When asked about performing for a demographic that is, by definition, socially conservative, he suggested that there isn’t a separate set of rules, and that the secret to his success among that particular cohort is simply one of show business’ foundational imperatives: Know your audience.
“There’s no topic that’s off the limits,” he declared. “How you present it is what’s important. You can talk about the Holocaust, you can talk about sex, you can talk about dating. You can talk about anything.
But, he added, “There’s a line you get to. The closer you get to the line, the funnier. But once you cross that line, you’ve lost them. Every topic is OK as long as you do it with respect.”
For tickets, go to ticketmaster.com.
MMD remains a unique tribute act
And speaking of Ocean entertainment, you still have four more chances to catch the wildly entertaining Magical Mystery Doors at Ovation Hall.
The quintet is in its fifth annual, once-a-week, summer residency at the Big O. It is scheduled to perform tonight, Aug. 20, Aug. 27 and Sept. 4.
MMD is ostensibly a tribute to three classic-rock immortals: The Beatles, The Doors and Led Zeppelin. While the bands are stylistically diverse, MMD convincingly handles all of the songs — including such revered numbers as the Fab Four’s “Help” and “Elanor Rigby,” Led Zep’s “Kashmir” and “Ramble On” and “Light My Fire” and “Roadhouse Blues” by The Doors — with solid musicianship and heaping helpings of flashy stage presence.
Nonetheless, the real draw is the unit’s clever, one-of-a-kind mashup format. For instance, while the band thrashes out the four-note riff of Zep’s “Misty Mountain Hop,” lead vocalist Vinny DeRenzis sings the lyrics to The Doors’ “Hello I Love You.” Another example is the combining of the lyrics to Led Zep’s “Stairway to Heaven” with the chord progressions to The Beatles’ “While My Guitar Gently Weeps.”
Bottom line: Don’t miss Magical Mystery Doors!
For tickets, go to ticketmaster.com.
Chuck Darrow has spent more than 40 years writing about Atlantic City casinos.
