Jackie Mason's Time Machine

It's funny - but you have to get in the spirit.

In the 1950's, the country was a different place. Civil Rights hadn't happened yet. Neither had feminism. The holocaust had. Jews, Irish, Puerto Ricans, and Blacks were the predominant - at least according to TV and the movies - minorities. Vaudeville was everybody's parent's entertainment.

I saw Jackie Mason's "Comedy Musical" show today. Now, generally I don't go to shows, which will shock most of my older friends, because Theatre used to be my LIFE. However, once Disney took over Broadway, and then the revivals, and then people stringing stories around 20-year old pop music... The Broadway of Lerner and Lowe, Sondheim, and everything that I loved and dreamed of doing when I was 15, is brain-dead. Every now and then an anomalous quality show pops up, and then I try to make it. But, for the most part, I'd rather watch TV.

This time, a friend has free tickets, and a bunch of my fave peeps were going, so what the hell.

I appreciate the personage that is Jackie Mason. I think he's funny in the way that old vaudevillians from the 50's are funny. I can appreciate this humour - I think this is the only reason I can appreciate it - because I'm trained in theatre styles from a very young age. My parents raised me on old musicals - Camelot, Guys and Dolls, My Fair Lady, Fiddler on the Roof. In the 80's, I because a Sondheim disciple. I also discovered Stephen Schwartz. There was so much to love, so much to do. I decided to major in Acting, and later attended a performing arts academy in New York where I learned the detailed history of musical theatre, vaudeville, and Broadway. I understand why Ethel Merman was so important and popular, how she uplifted people's spirits during a time of economic catastrophe. I know where the stereotypes of the effite (Read: gay) butler, the black housekeeper, the Irish cop, the Italian con-Artist, the Jewish Business Man, and the Puerto Rican hoodlum came from.

Back then, the only way to begin breaking down the racial barriers was to start laughing at each other - and do that, we had to laugh at ourselves. People went to see WC Fields, Sammy Davis Jr., Milton Berle, Desi Arnaz... they saw themselves up there, and things that would have sent them into a fighting rage suddenly had them looking at each other and laughing. It was an important step toward understanding.

Many people in my generation just can't get this. We weren't there; we don't know what it was like. Nowadays , as Jackie Mason style of "making fun" (his words!) of ethnic minorities is just not PC. His jokes really go far. He crosses lines. His "I'm so sick of those people" humour is shocking today. But the reason everyone laughs is because it's ridiculous. He's a proud Jew. He skewers his own tribe as much if not more than, the Indians, Puerto Ricans (Talk about dated, Jackie! These days it's Latinos), blacks (yes, he says black), Italians, wives (Oh, yes! Women aren't safe either!)... It's incredible. Frankly, people, it's South Park. Trey Parker and Matt Stone became Oscar-nominated millionaires for skewering Jews, Canadians, and in one especially offensive episode, the Japanese. Where do you think they learned how to do this? Jackie's been doing it since before they were born.

He's still doing it, and South Park was a fad.

I don't know Jackie Mason as a person. I have never read any interviews that he gave, and know nothing of his life. For all I know, maybe he really is a racist, who think Indian Cab drivers stink and believes that a good woman keeps her mouth closed. However, I wouldn't judge that to be the case from watching this show. I know Vaudeville. I know the history of Broadway in this country. I know a little bit about the history of race relations, and I know a lot about ethnic minorities in the performing arts and the struggle it’s been for them to escape the stereotypes that have been imposed on them. Jackie may not realize it, but he is presenting himself as a representative of another time – a time when people were less sensitive, when the race relations struggles were far less advanced than they are now. I think it’s important to know what things were like. Too many people take the advances of the times for granted. I am proud to be the grandchild of his generation. Jackie showed very clearly just how far we’ve come. This is not the message of a real racist.

The man is, frankly, hilarious. If my Irish Grandpa were alive today, he would have loved the show. He would have added some jokes about the Irish.

Here’s the best part: The most brilliant piece in the whole show, hands down, is a scathing review of Starbucks Coffee Bars. Jackie does a whole stand-up routine about it, then there’s a song-and dance number with an elderly Jewish couple and a hip, young Hispanic couple trying to find each other on cell phones to meet at the Starbucks, and eventually emerging jittery from caffeine overdose, while a green-aproned, black-capped Starbucks barista dances around them like a drug dealer – evoking the “American Dream” sequence from Miss Saigon. Let’s skewer corporate America while we’re at it. It was completely appropriate, hysterically funny, and something the whole audience could relate to.

He gets political as well. Even that didn’t bother me; he was bi-partisan.

So, I gotta give it a thumbs-up. And - hey - this was yet another occasion where I was one lone schiksa in a sea of Jews... I don’t think any of my Jewish friends have seen this yet!