While anyone can enjoy this nostalgic look at what it means to be a Jewish comic, the question Zweig keeps returning to is how to get a fix for his Jew Jones. As another babyboomer NYC Jew who grew up watching Jack Carter, Red Buttons, Myron Cohen, London Lee, Jack E. Leonard, Alan King, Joey Bishop, Norm Crosby, Professor Irwin Corey, Sid Caesar, Carl Reiner, Howie Morris, Alan Sherman, Jerry Lewis, The Three Stooges, George Burns, Corbett Monica, Sandy Baron, Stanley Myron Handleman, Buddy Hackett, Shecky Greene, Danny Kaye, Pinky Lee, Eddie Cantor, Groucho Marx...in other words, the funnymen of the late 40s and 50s, it seemed the whole comedy world was Jewish. There's nothing particularly ethnic about any of the above performers, many of whom were cited in the documentary, but that sense of Jewishness in comedy is an historic relic. While the documentary contains many funny lines and examples of Jewish jokes, there's a sadness as an undercurrent that only fellow 60+ Jews can truly understand...the loss of a culture. I'm glad I watched the film, but it left me melancholy.
