{"id":571,"date":"2013-10-01T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2013-10-01T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev.nysmusic.com\/2013\/2013\/10\/01\/the-history-of-comedy-in-the-catskills-highlighted-in-when-comedy-went-to-school\/"},"modified":"2013-10-01T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2013-10-01T00:00:00","slug":"the-history-of-comedy-in-the-catskills-highlighted-in-when-comedy-went-to-school","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dev.nysmusic.com\/2013\/2013\/10\/01\/the-history-of-comedy-in-the-catskills-highlighted-in-when-comedy-went-to-school\/","title":{"rendered":"The History of Comedy in the Catskills Highlighted in “When Comedy Went to School”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sullivan and Ulster Counties are home to the famed \u2018Borscht Belt\u2019 of Jewish comedy that rose to cultural prominence in the early and middle part of the 20th Century. Drive down Interstate 86 and Route 17 and you will see hotels that once stood in summer grandeur as thousands of tourists flocked to the mountains for respite from the heat of the inner cities and found themselves a part of the birth of American comedy. This brand of Catskills comedy originated as a result of the cultural influences of Jewish immigrants and who made up the early entertainers in New York City, the Catskills<\/a> and eventually, on television and in film. Today, New York is home to more music festivals than any other and looking back at our history through the new documentary When Comedy Went to School<\/a><\/em>, we can see that Upstate is also the birthplace of the Golden Age of Comedy in America.<\/p>\n

\"whenComedic legends such as Sid Caesar, Mickey Freeman, Dick Gregory, Sandy Hackett, Larry King, Robert Klein, Jerry Lewis, Jackie Mason, Mort Sahl and Jerry Stiller are interviewed in this 83 minute documentary, including archival footage of Henny Youngman, Buddy Hackett, Joan Rivers, Lenny Bruce, Alan King, Woody Allen, Rodney Dangerfield and many more. Robert Klein hosts and narrates the film, for he is a product of the Catskills comedians who came a generation before him. The birth, rise and fall of the Catskills is exhibited and argued to be the home of comedy in America as we know it today. What grew from the Eastern European immigrants of the late 1800s became the post-vaudevillian comedy of the 1920s, seen in the Depression-era theaters like The Palace in New York City and eventually, the vacation getaways for the post World War Two tri-state area. This gave rise to comedians such as Sarah Silverman, Jerry Seinfeld and even Chris Rock, who shaped comedy and pop culture through today and will continue to do so posthumously well into this century.