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Brick Wall Comedy
Brick Wall Comedy

Brand New

Jackie Mason

Sony Broadway · 1991 · 71 min

A Broadway show built on rigid cultural and societal generalizations.

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Following a Tony-winning Broadway run that successfully resurrected his career after decades in exile, Jackie Mason returned to the Neil Simon Theatre for Brand New. The show serves as a direct continuation of his cultural cataloging, built entirely on generalizations about how different demographics operate in public. Mason functions less as a traditional comic and more as a stubborn lecturer who has calculated the exact behavioral differences between Jews and Gentiles.

Recorded during a 216-performance run between 1990 and 1991, the set captures a performer operating with total certainty in his specific lane. He knows exactly what his crowd wants. He maps out the rigid social dynamics of health food, analyzes the manufactured cadence of television newscasters, and spends a significant portion of the act addressing the Middle East. In a structural pivot, Mason dedicates an extended segment to mimicking the precise complaints his own audience is currently voicing in the lobby during intermission.

The set list

4 bits

  1. Newscasters and Personalities

    Rambling monologue dissecting media figures and television broadcasters.

  2. Israelis, Terrorists and Arabs

    Satirical exploration of Middle Eastern politics and international relations.

  3. Health and Sickness -- Food Fads and Status

    Ruminations on society's obsession with health fads, diet trends, and status symbols.

  4. Gentiles and Jews -- The Difference

    Contrasting behaviors, cultural differences, and social habits between Jews and gentiles.

How it plays

Tone
Irreverent, biting, observational, and culturally satirical.
On stage
Bombastic, dynamic, and unapologetically Jewish, characterized by an extra-thick Jewish accent and classic Borscht Belt-derived cadence.
Pace
Machine-gun delivery with rapid-fire comedic rhythm and rambling monologue structure.
About
Newscasters and Personalities, Israelis, Terrorists and Arabs, Health and Sickness -- Food Fads and Status, Gentiles and Jews -- The Difference, Jewish identity and assimilation, Politics

What the critics said

Reviewed by AllMusic as a set of rambling monologues delivered with a thick accent and machine-gun speed requiring careful listening; while critics scrutinized his ethnic humor, Mason noted that theater audiences were consistently thrilled and receptive.

In the room: Strongly enthusiastic and packed house response, averaging 84.90% capacity over a 216-performance Broadway run.

Summed up from reviews, articles and listings. Sources: allmusic.com, ibdb.com, jmi.org.uk, playbill.com, en.wikipedia.org, deseret.com, upi.com, nytimes.com.

Backstory

Mounted as a Broadway follow-up to his smash hit The World According to Me!, during which Mason also married his longtime manager Jyll Rosenfeld in 1991 and continued to address ethnic humor, Jewish cultural identity, and political controversies.

Details

Released
Taped
Neil Simon Theatre, New York
Runtime
71 min
Where
Sony Broadway
Topics
After
At the London Palladium (1996)

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