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Promotional art for Burning Bush
Cover image credit: Promotional image via Comedy Dynamics

Burning Bush

Ester Steinberg

Comedy Dynamics · 2021 · 53 min

A postpartum drive-in stand-up set recorded outside the Rose Bowl.

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Ester Steinberg's first release since Hebrew School Dropout (2019). Released , on Comedy Dynamics.

Telling jokes to a parking lot full of windshields while freshly postpartum is an unforgiving setup, but Steinberg leans directly into the indignity. She walked down the aisle pregnant, gave birth during the first wave of lockdown, and arrived at the microphone ready to explain the mechanics of an Orthodox yichud room to an audience that responded by tapping their horns.

Filmed outside the Rose Bowl in Pasadena as part of the Tribeca Drive-In series in July 2020, Burning Bush captures stand-up during one of live comedy’s stranger experiments. Steinberg had spent years working clubs, running a weekly showcase in the back room of Canter’s Deli, and appearing on Oxygen’s Funny Girls. Taping just six weeks after giving birth, she treats the drive-in setup like an overgrown living room.

Her material focuses on early marriage to fellow comic Noah Gardenswartz, a disastrous bachelorette party, and a boudoir photoshoot that went sideways. She riffs on being half-hummus, half-bagel, running through Florida upbringings and the messy realities of postpartum recovery without letting the car horns throw off her timing.

Notable bits & set list

5 bits

  1. Giving birth to her son Moses during the pandemic

    Recounts a hellish, 38-hour induced labor that culminated in a C-section, weaving in a Britney Spears joke.

  2. The yichud room at Jewish weddings

    Details the secluded room where newlyweds traditionally consummate their marriage or break their fast, explaining she would choose sex over food.

  3. Her Israeli mother and a trip to a Holocaust museum

    Jokes about her mother being at war with neighbors on both sides, and avoiding a $35 Holocaust museum admission fee by claiming 'I think we've paid enough.'

  4. Marrying into an Ashkenazi last name and Jewish identity

    Identifies as 'half-hummus Jew, half-bagel Jew' and notes people think she is a law firm after taking her husband's last name.

  5. Jewish conversion classes

    Wondering if people taking Jewish conversion classes are taught how to 'send back food with only a look.'

How it plays

Tone
Raunchy, incisive, heartfelt, unapologetic, and unabashedly Jewish.
On stage
Described as a charismatic spark plug with strong stage command, unapologetic, guiltless, raunchy, and blending clever observation with truthful vulnerability.
Pace
Nimble, confident, and featuring high-octane physical impersonations.
About
Jewish identity and culture, pregnancy and childbirth during a pandemic, marriage, motherhood and pumping, circumcision, gender disparity

What the critics said

Highly praised by critics for its sharpness, raunchiness, and warmth; Jason Zinoman of The New York Times noted that Steinberg 'has been a charismatic spark plug of a comic for years, but there's a nimbleness here that is the work of someone who has come into her own.'

In the room: An outdoor drive-in audience seated inside cars who enthusiastically honked horns and flashed headlights in lieu of standard indoor applause and laughter.

Summed up from reviews, articles and listings. Sources: comedydynamics.com, thecomedybureau.com, primevideo.com, kveller.com, jpost.com, thecomicscomic.libsyn.com, jewishjournal.com, thecomicscomic.com.

Backstory

Filmed during the COVID-19 pandemic at a socially distanced drive-in setup at the Rose Bowl, just six weeks after Steinberg gave birth to her first child (Moses) via a 38-hour induced labor ending in a C-section.

Details

Released
Taped
Rose Bowl, Pasadena
Runtime
53 min
Where
Comedy Dynamics
Director
Brian Volk-Weiss
Topics
Before
Hebrew School Dropout (2019)
After
Schmear Campaign (2025)

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