BIG AL’S THE NAME,

HANGING OUT WITH STRIPPERS IS THE GAME

Long time viewers of Manhattan Neighborhood Network must surely remember Big Al’s long running public access show, “Spic ’n Spanish,” (1995 – 2007) which featured Big Al journeying forth to parties, bars, clubs, and strip clubs, showcasing the charms of the lasses within, with Al often sampling the goods. As they say, “Nice work if you can get it.” I sat down with Big Al to get the story of how he came to be.

“I was in an audio-visual class in High School, and I would ask the teacher if I could borrow the camera, ’cause I liked to go around the school interviewing the hot chicks. And it was a good way to cut class, because if anyone saw me with the camera, they’d think, ‘Oh, he must be doing a school project.’ That’s how I spent my high school years. After I graduated high school, a friend of mine, who is now in jail, suggested that I put my stuff up on public access. ‘You have this great footage, you should let people see it,’ he told me, ‘Get a show, get a slot, and do it.’ And that’s what I did, except that after a while, I stopped showing my high school stuff, and started showing new stuff.”

Al did this for almost 13 years, but started getting tired of it.

“It’s a lot or work, there’s no financial renumeration, and it was too much of a grind, you got to videotape footage, go home and edit it, and it’s the same thing, week after week, month after month, and suddenly, a decade has gone by, and what the fuck, nobody’s paying me. Plus, I had a new job, with a 9 to 5 schedule, and before I had usually worked nights, which is what someone like me should be doing. Plus, MNN changed the rules around the time I decided to quit, I would’ve had to buy new video equipment, and I figured, ‘What’s the point? Am I going to buy new machines, so another decade can go by? That’s it, I quit.’

But fear not, Al is in the planning stages of bringing on a new show, to be done at the studios provided by MNN.

“It’s a live call-in show, I won’t have to buy any new equipment, I just have to show up, take calls from morons for a half hour, maybe I’ll have on some hot chicks, they’ll show their tits, it’ll be over, and that I can do easily. It should be on a Thursday or Friday night. I’ll try to have topics, but most people who call public access shows want to do their own thing, and I’ll indulge them. If they bore me, I’ll just hang up on them, it’s my show, right?”

Of course, if any theme runs throught Al’s work, it’s his enduring fascination with strippers.

“I love women, and I’m a really horny guy. I hate people who are boring, and that includes women, and strippers are interesting and crazy and fun, maybe they’re not so bright, but fuck it, I’m the intelligent one, they’re the hot ones, and I like that chemistry, that relationship. I can’t function with normal girls, the ones you take home to Mom, that doesn’t work for me. Girls I like are strippers, porn stars, prostitutes, that’s just the way I am, that’s me. Something happened when I was growing up, I guess normal chicks weren’t attracted to me, and the weird ones were. At the end of the day, it’s because strippers like me too. You should ask strippers why they like me, it’s easy to see why I like them, but why do they like me? I’ve been told it’s because I make them feel comfortable, I’m not threatening. But strippers are a lot of fun, why wouldn’t you like them?”

Al isn’t planning to settle down anytime soon.

“Marriage, family, that’s not for me, I’m like a fucking alien. And let’s face it, no normal girl is going to be with me, so I’ll stick with strippers. Man, this is getting weird, can you imagine some psychologist listening to this? Wow!”

Check out Al's new show, Spic 'N Spanish Reloaded, on Ch. 57, Friday at 11:30, or view it live streaming at www.mnn.org

TRACI MANN, GOTTA DANCE

I recently spoke with Traci Mann (http://www.mannarts.com/), who has been heavily involved with the tap dance scene in NY for two decades now, helping to organize shows, training young dancers in the art of tap, and being a producer of the annual Tap Extravaganza® (http://www.nytap.org/)

Traci started tap dancing when her mom, Kathryn, also a tap dancer, showed her some steps when she was age five. “Then, when I was 10 or 11, my sister got into a dance company, and I got into the children’s modern classes. So my first stage experience was with modern dance. I kept dancing through high school and college, and I went pro by the age of 19.”

As for tap, Traci traces her love for it back to a distant ancestor, her great great, great, great grandfather, Welcome William Chandler. He was a Pilgrim who landed in Yorktown and was an astute Fiddler and Irish jig dancer.

“So it must be in my blood. But my own interest started when I was studying with the American Folk Ballet. They had a form of tap called ‘Ragtime Tap’ which was tapping to Scott Joplin music. I thought that was neat. Then I took some classes in Miami with the Fred Astaire Workshop. Teachers there were Louis De Pron, Henry Le Tang and Jack Stanley.

“A few years later in 1987 I came to New York. I was a ballerina, and one day, shopping in Capezio for some Pointe shoes, I saw a flyer for a ‘tap jam.’ So I called the number on the flyer, and asked the person, ‘who is teaching the tap jam?’ and was told, ‘a tap jam is not taught, it’s a jam session.’ I knew I was in for a treat. It was basically a cutting contest, and I had just enough nerve to put my tap shoes on and try it, and by the end of the night, I couldn’t stop tapping. A bug had bit me, and I hung up my ballerina shoes for my tap shoes.”

Traci also produces tap shows.

“I had a dance studio in New Mexico, and I would hire a live band for my student’s recitals. I never did the ‘Dolly Dinkle’ thing. I’ve always liked live music for my kids to perform to. But I felt I was wasting away in this small town, so I came to New York and started producing the Tap Extravaganza®, and another nightclub show called ‘Tap –N- Blues®,’ which featured old time tap masters with blues musicians.

In the Tap –N- Blues® series, I had Bob Dylan’s drummer, Howie Wyeth; Ramsey McLean (Grammy winner for the score from, ‘When Harry Met Sally and Sleepless In Seattle), and Timothea, the Blues Siren from New Orleans. I had some famous musicians playing behind these old great hoofers! The original Hoofers® were ‘Sandman’ Sims, Chuck Green (the Godfather of Tap), and Lon Chaney, ‘King of the Paddle and Roll’. Also, Jimmy Slyde, Tamango, and Van ‘the Man’ Porter from ‘Black and Blue,’ and Tarik Winston, who choreographed ‘Riverdance.’ Buster Brown too.

"And Peg Leg Bates would dance in my children’s shows. I’m currently working on a documentary about Peg Leg. A few years ago I released a CD with all of his recordings from the 1930’s, and recorded him in the studio with Walter ‘Wolfman’ Washington and the RoadMasters and Frank Owens on Piano. They played a tune called, ‘Peg O’My Heart’ with Peg Leg talking a narrative about his life. I want to follow this up with a DVD about him. So I’ll have the CD and the DVD…You know, if a guy is going to tap dance with one leg and a wooden peg, that’s really overcoming a handicap, he didn’t let anything stop him.

Traci also acts, and has appeared in musicals onstage and in several low budget horror films produced by Troma, Inc., including the ‘Toxic Avenger part II and III,’ ‘Sgt. Kabukiman, NYPD,’ ‘Poultrygeist’ and many promotional TV ‘Wrap-Arounds’ and films for the studio.

“I saw an ad in Backstage Magazine for a casting call at Troma Inc. I sent them a photocopy of a photo, and they called me to come in for an audition. However, they said, “We didn’t get an 8x10 photo, just this cheap Xerox copy on plain white paper.” I said, ‘Well, sure, I can bring you a real picture.’ So I did and I auditioned and got a role as a background actress. They asked me to come to the movie set at New York City Hall. “Could you dress up as a witch and come to City Hall?” and I asked, “Do you want a good witch or a bad witch?” and they said, “A good witch.”

So I put on this sexy cat suit, wore huge fake eyelashes, thigh high boots, and piled my hair on my head, and they immediately put me in the ‘Toxic Avenger, part II.’ I was also screen tested that day as a double/stand in for the female lead, Claire, played by Phoebe Legere. I Toxic Avenger, Part III, I actually got to do some of her scenes on film!

I was also body painted as the ‘Snake Lady’ for a scene where the Chairman, who is the Devil, is tempting the Toxic Avenger. The Chairman tells Toxie, ‘I will give you all these kingdoms if you will bow down and worship me,’ as I was gyrating and hissing and just adding ambience to the proceedings.” The scene also featured ‘Donkey Woman’ and ‘Dog Man.’

There we were, Snake Lady, Dog Man, Donkey Woman, The Chairman and Toxie. We ended up on posters in a magazine in France. It felt good at the time."

Deity. Photo courtesy Deity.

Deity. Photo courtesy Deity.

Deity in one of her designs. Photo courtesy Deity.

Clothing by Deity. Photo courtesy of Deity.

DEITY TAKES THE STAGE

Those familiar with the burlesque scene have surely made Deity’s acquaintance. She is a frequent performer at Bad Ass Burlesque shows (http://www.myspace.com/badassnyc), and recently made an appearance in Gabrielle Penebaz’s “Sex Crimes Cabaret,” (http://www.sexcrimescabaret.com/) doing a sensuous strip wearing a gorilla costume, culminating in ejaculating with a dildo.

Deity tells me she was a stripper before becoming a burlesque dancer. “I loved to dance when I was a child. I remember telling my mom, ‘I want to be a go go dancer when I grow up,’ and she said, ‘NOOOO!!!’ But I didn’t mean stripper, I used to watch “Laugh In” and I liked Goldie Hawn and the other ladies dancing on a stage, and I thought, ‘That looks like fun!’ But my mom thought the wrong thing, but I turned out that way anyway, so… I love being in the spotlight. I danced at Flashdancers, NY Dolls, places like that, and I decided to stop being treated like cattle. About 1994, I heard about this place called the Blue Angel (now Le Scandal Cabaret), and I went there to check it out, and I was surprised to see what was going on, there was nothing else like it.”

For those who are not familiar with the Blue Angel (http://www.nyrock.com/spc/2002/blueangel.asp), it was a strip club down on Walker Street that featured wilder, crazier acts then what you would see in the normal strip club. Women would wear weird costumes (one act was a lactating Minnie Mouse), or do way out performance pieces that featured urination, ultraviolet paint, blood, plastic wrap, and knives. Anything went. When Guiliani closed the strip clubs, The Blue Angel moved to the Gene Frankel Theater and became a way out burlesque show. It ended up at the Cutting Room, and became Le Scandal Cabaret, now at the Westbeth Theater. Those interested should track down HBO’s “Real Sex” segment on the Blue Angel that is frequently rerun.

“I was mesmerized by what was going on, and came back later to audition, and they loved me. And I was thrilled to become part of it. I lasted two years, 1994-1996. I left after Walker Street closed, and went to the island of Ibiza, Spain, where I started doing parties called Manumission.

"This was one of the largest events on the island. Me and a friend got paid, got a free room, we only had to pay for our food. This lasted about five years, I came back in 2000, and went back to the Blue Angel at the Gene Frankel Theater, where I ran into all my old friends. I did the Angel for another year or two. Then I stopped and started working for a make up company, but I got bored and wanted to start performing again. I heard that Velocity Chyaldd [a Blue Angel regular, famous for her singing as well as for her crotch cutting] was doing a show called Bad Ass, and I wanted to do it. I did a few of these, and then I was pursuing my make up career, working at counters. But I didn’t get really creative until I started working with photographer Adrian Buckmaster, who is also my boyfriend. We’ve been together for about four years, which is about the same time I’ve been doing make-up work for shoots, and I keep getting better and better. So if anyone wants a make-up artist for a burlesque show, or a wedding, or what have you, you can contact me through my My Space page [www.myspace.com/foundationsbydeity].

"And I’m still performing at Bad Ass, which recently moved from the Bowery Poetry Club to Arlene’s Grocery.” Along with her other talents, Deity makes clothing, something she started doing when she was a child. “My mom taught me how to sew when I was about 7, I was too young to use a sewing machine. If I made a mistake, she made me take it apart and do it again. Later, I went to F.I.T., but I already knew how to do everything. I have another My Space page for my clothes.” [http://www.myspace.com/heathendesigns]

Deity remains one of the more vibrant creative denizens that keeps NY interesting.

Lisa and one of her many "acquired" awards. Photo by Bob Schaffer

Lisa in her study. Photo by Bob Schaffer

Lisa at home, amongst some of her early art. Photo by Schaffer

LISA LEVY, IDEA GIRL

It’s hard to put a name to what exactly Lisa Levy does (http://www.lisalevyindustries.com/). Conceptual artist, performance artist, filmmaker, comedian: none of these quite captures the spirit of her work. I became aware of Lisa through her “Psychotherapy Live” piece, where she pretended to be a therapist, and invited audience membersto come up onstage, lay on a couch, and talk, with Lisa analyzing the results. This has morphed into “Stand Up, Lie Down,” where comedians are put on the couch. I recently sat down with Lisa to try to analyze her.

“I guess you can call what I do ‘performance art,’” she tells me, “but I hate that term, it’s like ‘interpretive dance.’ I started out making visual art, I did a lot of installations. I did a piece where I was displaying things I had stolen, and I did a project interviewing art critics. I did a lot of different interactive things, and I thought it would be funny to do psychoanalysis onstage. I started at Surf Reality, I rented the theater and invited friends, then I got into a festival at HERE, and that’s how all this started. This was around 2001. My background is really visual art, I studied illustration in college, and I work as an Art Director for ad agencies. I made a lot of objects for installation, I never thought about performing.

“I was doing ‘Psychotherapy Live’ for this HERE festival, and got a good write up in Time Out and the Village Voice, and I was offered a monthly spot, then it got moved to Fez, and it did quite well. This show became ‘Stand Up, Lie Down.’ Originally, I used audience members, which I enjoyed, but it had problems. If I had a small audience, I could wind up with volunteers who were not that enthusiastic about being onstage. So I thought, comedians would be great, because they’re funny and interesting, and stereotypically, they have a lot of issues. Although I’m disappointed with how well adjusted a lot of them are. And I find that the more successful ones are often the more well adjusted ones.

“In this day and age, you have to have your act together if you want to be successful. I enjoy the variety of comedians I use, and many of them enjoy opening up to explore their issues.

"I’m also working with ‘Galley Beat,’ a video magazine by Paul H-O, which is a reincarnation of a ‘90’s public access show of the same name. There was also a documentary made with footage from it called ‘Guest of Cindy Sherman.’ I am the advice columnist for GalleryBeat and I do some correspondence. I have a home office for my therapy, and I video these sessions sometimes. I had a lot of comedians over last week, and one was crying over his problems, and another would make jokes, I like this variety. I think I like comedy because so much of it is conceptual, jokes are basically. I think comics go through a lot more stuff to do their material then a visual artist.”


I asked Lisa if she misses doing art.

“Because of my regular job, I could only commit to doing visual art or performance art, and I just wound up doing performance. Now that I have more free time, I’m going back to doing more visual art. It’s hard to categorize what I do, but it’s all very idea driven, so ‘conceptual art’ is the closest term. My art is very autobiographical, but the executions are all very different from one another. One new piece I’m working on is called ‘Women I’m afraid of Turning Into,’ which will be photographs of women I’m afraid of turning into, or other people are afraid of turning into.”

I asked Lisa if she was always an artist.

“Yes, the pieces you see on that wall are paintings I did at the Musem of Modern Art’s Children School, and I started going when I was 3 ½. I wasn’t a great student, but art was the thing I was always good at.”

Lisa’s father was an architect, and she was raised in Stuyvesant Town until she was 8, when her parents moved to the suburbs of Philadelphia, and she lived there until she went to the College of Syracuse.

“I studied illustration in college, which I liked because it’s very idea based. My problem was I used different styles to execute my drawings, and as an illustrator you’re supposed to have a recognizable style, so that’s why I became an Art Director, because you use different styles to express your ideas in that field. I love drawing and painting, but I always wanted to earn a living, so I was afraid of fine art, which might’ve appealed more to me if I wasn’t so afraid of not earning a living.”

Lisa also did a piece called "Red Carpet Live."

“That was a fun show. The idea behind this show was that. I wanted to explore my character, I didn’t just want to be a shrink. This had some of the same fun of audience participation, I was a red carpet hostess in a gown, and I’d interview people as if they were celebrities, but celebrities for who they were. I did that for a summer at the Brick Theater. I also did a red carpet for a Jagermeister event one Halloween. I also hosted the Oscars at Joe’s Pub. We showed videos before the show. I bought my gown at the Salvation Army, and I made a video of myself trying on gowns at the Salvation Army. We videoed the audience walking in, and showed clips of that during the show. The thing about this show is that it was an awful lot of work to do without a budget.”

Another show Lisa did was "You Bet Your Life Live," a revival, onstage, of the old Grouch Marx gameshow.

“That was a fun show. It was mostly my boyfriend’s idea, he thought the format allowed for a lot of ad libbing. But this too had the same problem of being a fairly large production, without a budget. But I did do a lot of research into the actual show, and Groucho’s ad libs were all scripted, and it took some pressure off me, that things could be structured, and not just have to be spontaneous. The major difference was that Groucho’s guests were all ringers, and I wanted ordinary people to be guests, people not involved with theater.

“I guess ‘Stand Up, Lie Down,’ is sort of a culmination of all my other shows, with hopefully a guaranteed entertainment factor, since I let the comics do their act before they take to the couch. When I started, I was a little intimidated, sharing the stage with comics who perform every night. I’d say it’s only been since September that I became a 100 % comfortable sharing the stage, so it’s been good for me.”

"Stand Up, Lie Down” can be viewed at Ochi’s Lounge, a downstairs space at Comix on W. 14^th Street, the Third Thursday of every month. It’s a free show.

All images of the Goddess by Robert Schaffer

A GODDESS WALKS AMONG US:

A TALK WITH THE GODDESS MISS KITTY

Those familiar with Manhattan Cable Public Access channels might remember Goddess Miss Kitty (http://www.myspace.com/goddesshow, or http://goddessshow.blogspot.com) from her show "Dram with Miss Kitty," which became “The Goddess Show,” in which her lush voluptuous form titillated viewers for years. Those familiar with burlesque or the alternative cabaret scene might now Kitty from her flamboyant and sexy acts, including her Naked Carmen or her Cleopatra, or her infamous pasta routine. She was a regular at the old Blue Angel, and puts in frequent appearances at exclusive parties and events.

She also did a radio show for a brief moment, which you can look up here: http://eroticradiolive.com

Kitty started her public access show in 1997, but her first professional appearance was as a dancer in the Bronx, when she was 17. “I had just graduated high school, didn’t feel the need to go go college, I didn’t need a degree in dance or modeling or acting, I just wanted to do it. I hated school.”

Kitty was raised in the Bronx, and moved to Connecticut, when her mother remarried. She went back to the Bronx to finish High School. “There was a lot of moving around, I was almost like a foster child, lots of different people taking care of me, from mother to grandparents to stepfather, it was crazy. I went to school in Connecticut, Westchester County, and the Bronx.”

Kitty was inspired to do burlesque when, by chance, she saw a Blue Angel show at the old Tunnel, in 1996. “There was this secret little spot, hidden by the co-ed bathroom, where they’d perform burlesque. Then I met Bonnie Dunn, who was part of the Blue Angel, at a party, and we became friendly. She asked me to help her with a piece. I told her I choreograph and dance, and would love to do my own stuff. She told me to come with her sometime to meet Uta Hanna, who created the Blue Angel. They were still at the Tunnel, and I created a little piece for Bonnie to ‘These Boots are Made for Walking,’ which was hilarious. I created it with another dancer, and at the time, I was living in this little box of an apartment on Chrystie and Stanton, and the three of us rehearsed there. After we performed it, Uta said, ‘I want you to peform for me.’ I wasn’t very confident, I hadn’t had my boob job yet, but she said ‘Don’t worry about that, it’s not about that, it’s about performance.’ I understood, but I still didn’t feel confident, I wanted to be at my best, I wanted to be perfect. I got my boobs done in 1999, and there I was, I went into audition, and I got it.”

Kitty wanted her boobs done because she felt it would help her in the entertainment industry. “If I had to reveal my body in a scene, I would be so self-conscious I would forget my lines, and I didn’t want that. Getting my boobs done gave me confidence, so I could forget about how I looked. When I was onstage, I didn’t focus on how I looked naked, I just did what I had to do. It opened a lot of doors for me, I became a nude model, I started doing burlesque, fetish, all stemming from my boob job.

“My cable show ‘Drama with Miss Kitty’ became ‘The Goddess Show’ and I did notice that the people at MNN (Manhattan Neighborhood Network) treated me differently after my boob job. They wouldn’t take me seriously, like I was dirt or something. When I first started, they would put me on radio shows to help publicize the network, but after I got my boobs, and started being topless on my show, they stopped taking me seriously. But you know what? I didn’t care, I felt like I could be sexy and funny, which is rare. I can do whatever I want. I have no limitations.”

Kitty was on cable about 10 years, until she got tired of the drama with MNN, and doing a show week after week without financial reward. Kitty also feels that there was some resentment towards her as a woman who got naked and called herself a “goddess.” “There was never any religious reasons for that, I am a pagan at heart. It was more an expresson of my personal spirtual beliefs, I think we’re all gods and goddesses, and we should express that. But I think there were a lot of puritans at MNN, and I even got some complaints about my show from the Church. My boobs have done great things for me, but they messed me up on cable. I don’t have any regrets, though. Now I’m trying to pitch show ideas to real networks, I’m tired of not making money. I’ve gotten plenty of exposure, I can drown in my exposure, now it’s time to make money. I’ll just say I’m developing a cooking show. I won’t say more.”

Kitty doesn’t do as many live shows as she used to, and mostly does “private parties, things like that. If someone asks for me, I’ll do it, but it’s not like when I was a regular at Blue Angel or Le Scandal.” (The show the Blue Angel turned into).

“I don’t do much live burlesque anymore because the pay is low, the women are very catty, and I want to branch out from the underground stuff. I could stand the crap if I got more money. You have to love performing, but it’s nice to make a living at it too. I feel I need to develop more of my business side.”

Kitty feels her life continues to move forward. “People say to me, ‘You’re like the underground Madonna’ and I say, ‘But I don’t have Madonna money.’ That’s the question, how do I get Madonna money? That’s my big goal for the future.”

April at one of her shows. Photo by Bob Schaffer

April and May, by Robert Schaffer

• APRIL BRUCKER
• That Chick is Crazy!

April Brucker (http://www.aprilbrucker.com/index2.html) came to NY to pursuit her dream of being a comic and ventriloquist. April tells me she started doing ventriloquism when she was 13, and stand up she was 19.

“Comedy is an art form that you don’t find, it finds you,” she tells me. “I was always making people laugh, and it just made sense to start doing it on stage.” April came to NY when she was 18, to attend New York University for acting. “I thought I’d be a comedic actor, but I fell into the comedy scene because of my ventriloquism, and from there started doing straight stand up, since not every venue wants a ventriloquist act. I’m still interested in acting, but stand up is really my home.”

April is originally from Pittsburgh PA. She decided to come to NY to “realize my dream.” “Other places have schools with great acting programs, writing programs, etc., but they aren’t the epicenter. New York is the epicenter.”

April draws her material from her life, her experiences and the things that have moved her or hurt her. “I’ve made some bad decisions in my life, including getting engaged when I was 21 and thinking it would last, and getting hooked on prescription diet pills, dysosin which is in the oxycontin family. Plus I had eating disorders, and word to the wise: bulimia is not a good dieting tactic. I’m okay now. I also use family stories. I have a cousin who was struck by lightning not once or twice, but three times. I have a family that would give the Coney Island freak show a run for its money.”

April says seeing an Edgar Bergen TV special got her into ventriloquism. “I was watching with my family, and afterwards, we all tried to throw our voices, and I was the most successful, so it stuck.” April says her mom is her enabler, getting her a dummy to play with.

April also had a childen’s show, “Storytime with April and Friends,” which she was broadcast in 35 states and 6 countries. Her cohost was a puppet named Sweetie Pie. “This show is the first American show to be entered into the puppet library in South Korea.”

The show lasted a few years, but April says she got “tired of doing it, no one picked it up. I used to read stories to Sweetie Pie, and I did all the voices in the show.” You can see April perform her show, “Allergic to Ambition,” at the Broadway Comedy Club (318 W. 53), Jan. 17, at 7:00PM.

Hassan & Epstein, The Black & the Jew

Hassan & Epstein as kids.

Performing at Sweet Rhythm. photo by Bob Schaffer

HASSAN & EPSTEIN,
BEHIND THE COMEDY OF THE BLACK & THE JEW

Race, sex, politics, cunnilingus, cocksucking, and how to have a happy marriage: these are probably not the first things you think of when you think of comedy, but such is the offbeat approach to being funny taken by Naima Hassan and Steve Epstein, known for years as “The Black and the Jew.” (theblackandthejew.com)

They’ve been perfecting their take on these topics and many others for over 10 years, performing in clubs, small venues, and shows. They also emceed the Blue Angel Cabaret, from its early days on Walker Street, to its transformation into Le Scandal at the Cutting Room. They also had their own show, Shock and Awe a Go-Go, which featured acts representing various fantasies: the Black Man, a handicapped gay comic, and a tranny, to name a few. They’ve also manage to have a happy monogamous marriage for 24 years.

They didn’t start out as a performing duo. As with any couple, two different origin stories emerged: Steve tells me he had no experience performing at all, except announcing Jazz acts at the clubs where he worked as a doorman and manager, while Hassan was doing a one woman show called, “Everything the White Culture Wants to Know About the Black Culture, But They’re too Scared to ask, so They Watch the Cosby Show,” which she did at La Mama, PS 122, venues of that sort.

“We thought, they’re hasn’t been a husband and wife comedy team since Stiller and Meara, as far as we knew, and we figured the world would be so excited by this concept, but we found out quikly, this one idea the world is not that excited by.”
Hassan told me when she met Steve, he was doing stand up (though Steve insists this was rare), and when they started dating, she was at La Mama, and he’d bring friends, and worry “What if she’s no good?” but “Of course, I was very very good.”

So they decided, let’s do something together, but “we weren’t ready for the politics of it. People could handle it if were both both white or black, or Jewish or gay, but having an interracial team of two performers who both had strong points of view, freaked people out. We didn’t fit the standard format of comedy. What do you call what we do? We use stand up, sketch bits, one liners, performance art, improv, and music, and people, if they can’t label it, they don’t want to look at it.

“That was the challenge in the beginning, what do you call what we’re doing, this magical mixture, this jamabalaya. But we stuck with it, and today, the result of our labors is The Black and the Jew Comedy Hour.”

The duo started perfoming together in the mid 1990’s, and Steve clarifies, “She says I was a stand up, but I had really only been at a few open mikes, while her level of perfomance was on a much higher level. When I first saw her at La Mama, the woman before her was unbelievably awful [those familiar with the downtown perfomance scene can easily imagine how awful- ed.] and I thought, ‘I hope Hassan is better than this.’ She did this one woman show for years into our marriage, even as we were deciding to become a team. We did some open mikes, and quickly developed our personas.

Around this time, Velocity Chyald saw us and introduced us to Uta Hana, the producer of the Blue Angel. Originally, we were performers, and Laura Dinabell was the emcee, when she left, we started emceeing, where we developed many of our routines.”

Hassan says that the experience of emceeing the Blue Angel, opened up possibilities of hosting other shows, but “we never stopped doing our two person show.”

When the Blue Angel became Le Scandal, the duo no longer hosted the show, but would be the opening act. Around this time, they developed Shock and Awe a Go-Go, their own take on the burlesque scene, with possibly a harder edge then the retro cutesy vibe that enshrouds the new burlesque scene.

How they became the Black and the Jew is one of those classic tales: “We were originally called Epstein and Hassan,” Steve says, “and we were walking down Carmine Street and some guy who knew us yelled out, ‘You’re the Black and the Jew!’ and from that moment on, the name stuck. We thought it was funny.”

They also have an internet radio show (nytalkradio.net or go to the Blackandthejew.com) which you can hear on your computer five days a week at 6, repeated at 11. though shows are only live on Mon, Wed, and Friday. Older shows are archived on iTunes, and they’ve amassed over 170 hours so far. They got the show when the station’s founder and family came to see their show at Sweet Rhythm (sadly, now defunct, though it still opens for them to perform, at least until its sold), and invited them to appear on another show.

“I did have some radio experience,” Steve tells me. “In college, I was Sports Director of WLIU, I was the voice of the LIU Blackbirds, and they played division 1 college basketball, and instead of going to class, I spent three years on the road with them.” Hassan also did radio in college. “I had as how called Lady Love, I read poetry, played music, I really enoyed it.”

Steve says that though it took about a year to polish their live act, the radio show immediately had a flow and snap. Working as emcees really helped focus them. “When you host a burlesque show, the audience doesn’t want to see you, they want to see the girls, so you better learn to be funny fast, and eventually people started coming to see us, and that’s when we knew we were on the right track,”

Steve thinks radio works best with a multiplicity of voices, “and we found a bunch of people to be our co-hosts who bring something to the table.” People like Big Al (those familiar with Manhattan Public Access might remember Al from his long running show, “Spic ‘n Spanish”), Smoke Katz (childhood friend of Epstein’s), Gorilla Bob (caveat emptor: that’s me), and of course the regular scouging of Sean, the long suffering sound engineer.

“The great thing about internet radio is that we have listeners all over the world. We perform mostly in Manhattan and Brooklyn, and years ago, in Toronto, during the SARS outbreak, but now, anyone with a computer can hear us.”

They’d love to take their show on the road, but they say it’s hard to tell what audiences will like them. “We’re not really downtown, we have middle aged couples visiting from the Midwest who enjoy us,” Steve says, and Hassan add s, “We’re really a mind set. You’re either open to us or you’re not.”

They also did a film, “You Two Should have an HBO Special” because “when we always have people telling us, you should be on HBO, but apparently HBO doesn’t realize this,” Steve says. “But of all the things we do, the live show is our favorite.”