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Promotional art for A Room With A Jew
Cover image credit: Promotional image via Comedy Dynamics

A Room With A Jew

Joe Bor

Comedy Dynamics · 2020 · 45 min

A club comic weighs his religious credentials and domestic embarrassments.

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Released , on Comedy Dynamics.

Ten years after winning Jewish Comedian of the Year, Joe Bor spends his hour questioning whether he actually has the credentials to back up the title. He eats bacon, married a non-Jewish woman, and watches his toddler cause embarrassment at synagogue by clutching a Peppa Pig doll.

The set leans on self-effacement and middle-class domestic embarrassment. Bor uses his family as comic material, reading out dry text exchanges from his mother and bringing out an ill-fitting jumper she knitted for him to wear on stage. Elsewhere, he recounts an awkward injury at a Las Vegas stag do, shrugs off his slight physical resemblance to Nicolas Cage, and trades easy banter with people in the front row.

Filmed at the Radlett Centre in Hertfordshire and released by NextUp in 2020, the recording caught Bor after years working the circuit and doing television warm-up work for The Graham Norton Show and Mock the Week. He filmed the set with three cameras operated by a single person.

Notable bits & set list

6 bits

  1. Cringeworthy text message exchanges with his overbearing mother

    Recounts her constant lecturing and tech confusion, including mistaking the word 'gif' for 'gift'.

  2. Stag do in Las Vegas

    Contrasts his inability to embrace lad culture with an unfortunate personal mishap.

  3. His infant son's love of Peppa Pig

    Humorously highlights the awkward clash of bringing a pig-obsessed toddler into a synagogue.

  4. Attending a boxing match with his father

    Explores his discomfort and perceived lack of conventional masculinity.

  5. Showing caricatures drawn of himself from travels around the world

    Examines cartoon depictions of his features as a recurring motif.

  6. Reading Philip Larkin's poem 'This Be The Verse'

    Uses the poem as part of concluding his thoughts on parenthood.

How it plays

Tone
Wry, lighthearted, relatable, and self-effacing.
On stage
Self-described Nicolas Cage lookalike; wry, confident, self-effacing, charismatic, and down-to-earth with a tendency to slip into a posh accent.
Pace
Easy-going, relaxed, and chatty rapport.
About
Jewish heritage and identity, mother-son relationship, fatherhood and parenting, privilege and middle-class life, masculinity

What the critics said

Praised for Bor's charismatic stage presence, natural rapport, and confident delivery of witty, relatable anecdotes, though some critics considered the material lightweight and overly reliant on familiar observational tropes.

In the room: Warm and comfortable room atmosphere with engaged audience banter.

Summed up from reviews, articles and listings. Sources: comedydynamics.com, watchwhatwhere.com, chortle.co.uk, theweereview.com, fest-mag.com, thenationalnews.com, beyondthejoke.co.uk.

Backstory

Becoming a new dad, raising a half-Jewish child with a non-Jewish wife, and examining his cultural identity and upbringing versus modern middle-class life.

Details

Released
Runtime
45 min
Where
Comedy Dynamics
Director
Paul Bertellotti
Honors
Show title voted one of the top 10 titles at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe (2014)
Topics
After
The Story Of Walter And Herbert (2021)

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