Marji, my one year-old rescue cat, was less enthusiastic about the idea. She tolerates most of my obsessive cat parenting—the baby sling, the harness and leash, the automatic feeder—but made clear during this project that she has certain limits.

Menswear Dog she is not. I discovered that Marji hates sleeves even more than loud noises (which is a lot) and prefers sleeping on clothes to wearing them. Dressing her up required plenty of wrestling and a bag and a half of treats.

Still, with a few modifications to the outfits, both Marji and I survived the photo shoot. We also succeeded in paying tribute to some of my favorite Jewish women on TV, which made every minute of cat wrangling worth it.

Abbi Jacobson, Broad City, Season 1: Episode 10

This sexy dress is actually a beanie from the dollar store. Somehow I know the crafty Abbi Abrams would approve!

Rachel Bloom, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, “JAP Rap”

Much to my relief, few stores sell plunging necklines in toddler sizes. This floral number originally had a keyhole at the top.

Amy Schumer, Inside Amy Schumer, “Sexting”

I would never, ever sexualize my cat, unless it involves an adorable onesie. Thank God she can’t read.

Rachel Maddow, The Rachel Maddow Show

Okay, I realize that she identifies as Catholic. But she has a Jewish grandfather… and how cute is my cat in a blazer?!

Images by Emma Davis.

The post How to Dress Your Cat Jewishly for Halloween appeared first on Jewcy.

Amy Schumer has announced that her next standup special will premiere on Netflix on March 7 (this reporter’s birthday, if you must know). This news is easy to miss, since it comes on the heels of a zillion other things she’s done lately.

Yes, Amy Schumer is many things, but idle is not one of them. Schumer had a roller coaster of 2016 (didn’t we all, Amy). She had a world tour. She faced controversy. She continued her TV show. It can be hard to keep track of what she’s even up to these days. So, we took some highlights of her 2016 (Seriously, we can’t possibly cover everything), and upcoming few months, so that we can easily see what’s been good for the actor, and what were her missteps.

Here we go:

Bad: In January, allegations of plagiarism surface against Schumer.

Good: In March, Schumer leaves a $1000 tip for her bartender when she sees Hamilton on Broadway.

Good: Schumer got to see Hamilton on Broadway.

Bad: In August, Schumer remains silent for an uncomfortably long time when one of her show’s writers makes some really offensive jokes on Twitter.

Good: The same month, Schumer’s memoir, The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo comes out.

Bad: In October Schumer makes a Lemonade parody video, which many find offensive in its approach to the album’s social justice themes.  Her Medium post in response is a non-apology, which does not help matters.

Good: In November, Schumer celebrates one year with her boyfriend, Ben Hanisch. Is it gross to call him “dreamy?”

Good: In December, Schumer buys back the farm her family once owned and then lost when her family took a hit financially when she was a child.

(Probably) Good: Schumer is going to attend the Women’s March protesting the presidential inauguration next week.

(Maybe) Good: Schumer’s Netflix special, filmed in November 2016, debuts in March.

YOU DECIDE: Schumer’s film Snatched, co-starring Goldie Hawn, comes out in May.

We leave you with the trailer for Snatched, so that you may draw your own conclusions about the film you have not yet seen:

The post A Year in the Life of Amy Schumer appeared first on Jewcy.

Amy Schumer’s famous and Jewish, but you might be forgiven for not thinking of her as famously Jewish. Outside of a few references, such as her standup story about being called “Amy Jewmer” as a kid, the biggest moments in her career haven’t contained obvious references to being a Member of the Tribe. But if you wondered if Schumer’s Jewishness is important to her identity, fear not: The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo, Schumer’s candid new book of essays, is going to give you the answer. Many, many times.

For example, the Jewish roots of her comedy seem to go all the way back — where else? — to her Bat Mitzvah. In an early chapter, Schumer describes how, when she inadvertently made the crowd laugh while flubbing a moment in her Torah portion, she officially became a woman and a comedian in one measure. It’s a sweet take on how the rite of passage affected her in a more personal way, capped off with a page-long rant about her rabbi’s bad breath. But as light as this chapter is, the rest of the book defines her comedy’s relationship to Judaism in much darker terms.

Of course, there are some passing references to her neighborhood’s anti-Semitism (“my town hated Jews” she writes at one point.) Schumer focuses less on that, though, and more about how her own family drama complicated her relationship with religion. In one of the book’s standout chapters, she describes how her mother’s affair with her best friend’s dad ripped apart two families who, in happier times, would go to Shabbat services together. When the affair came out, her experience going to temple and Hebrew School came to an end. It’s a loss she seems to mourn deeply: “My friends and my religion were gone.”

Schumer poignantly marks that point in her life as “ending an important chapter” in her relationship with Judaism. But as the book plays out, it’s clear that’s not the only chapter. When she describes the first time she wrote a joke she was extremely proud to work on, it turns out to be a joke about a subway preacher learning she’s Jewish. While listing surprising tidbits about herself, she confesses to enjoying the “grossest” Jewish food (whitefish salad and gefilte fish, if you were wondering and wanted to argue) and liking the fact that she’s Jewish. And when she delves into her relationship with her dad, she reveals a distinctly Jewish sense of humor that has informed the breakthrough moments in her career.

Fans of Schumer’s are likely familiar with her father’s battle with multiple sclerosis. It’s a fact she discusses openly in interviews and on social media, and she made the disease a central plot point in last year’s Trainwreck, to devastating effect. The book gets even more candid about her complicated relationship with her father, and his disease. While she never seems to deny her dad’s faults, Schumer frames much of her affection for her him around his reaction to his condition. Possibly the book’s best chapter brutally recalls two separate times her father lost control of his bowels in front of her during her teens. It’s a show-stopping moment in the memoir to be sure, but the best part comes at the end of the chapter, when she sums up just what it is she admires about her dad’s reaction to the disease.

“I look at the saddest things in life and laugh at how awful they are, because they are hilarious and it’s all we can do with moments that are painful. My dad’s the same way.”

The ability to look at life’s darkest moments right in the eye and laugh? That’s beautiful and very Jewish  — and it turns out, very Amy.

The post Amy Schumer’s New Book Is Super Jewish appeared first on Jewcy.

My Zeyde, may he rest in peace, always used to say, “There’s no such thing as a big tip, only a fair tip.”

In that case, Amy Schumer is an extremely fair tipper. The actor and comedian took a group of friends, including boyfriend Ben Hanisch, to see Hamilton on Broadway Saturday night, and like a Jenny from the Block, she remembered back to her bartending days as she struggled to make it in show business.

The bar tab ran $77 (which was literally four drinks because theater prices are ridiculous), but Schumer tipped a clean $1000, which bartender Sara Laursen (an aspiring actor herself) told reporters was “incredibly generous.”

One grand: That’s one hundred Hamiltons, and almost enough for one ticket to the hit show (alright, it’s not that expensive).

Could the Inside Amy Schumer star be fomenting a Socialist revolution? Laursen split her windfall with the other bartenders, so the distribution of wealth continues.

In response to the positive press, Schumer was perfect, and tweeted:

This is really embarrassing but I’ve fallen on hard times and I need that money back

— Amy Schumer (@amyschumer) March 21, 2016

Image credit: Mario Santor for Wikimedia Commons

The post Amy Schumer Lives Out the Rich-Person-Tipping-Fantasy of Which We Only Dream appeared first on Jewcy.

Sukkot is probably my favorite Jewish holiday because we get to build a temporary structure, a sukkah, to live in—and decorate!—for a week. (More about why we do that here.) Traditionally, Jews adorn their Sukkot with posters of the ushpizin, the seven biblical “guests” who we invite to join us on each night of the festival. Not surprisingly, the ushpizin are all men: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Aaron, Joseph and David; the most revered dudes in the Torah. No ladies—until now.

Rather than invite seven biblical men to my sukkah, I decided I’d invite the Jewish female comedians and characters I’ve been most into this year, and throw together some posters to honor them.

I think the temporary/pop-up nature of Sukkot lends itself to a pop-culture influence, where the guests you welcome one year might not be the same ones you welcome the next. Last year I honored the cast of Girls. This year I’ve been pretty obsessed with Broad City, and continued to cultivate my enduring love for Lena Dunham, Sarah Silverman and others.

So without further ado, here are my ‘Ushpizienne: Class of 5775’: Lena Dunham, Amy Schumer, Abbi Jacobson, Jenny Slate, Ilana Glazer, Sarah Silverman, and Yael Stone.

Don’t forget to ‘hack into booth city’:

And—why not—the cast of Girls, from last Sukkot:

Download large versions of all images for your sukkah (or permanent four-walled residence) here.

Ari Perlow is an antipodean Jewess who is obsessed with vegan analogues and digital media. She co-hosts the podcast Yeah Nah But and tweets at @ari_perlow.

The post Decorate Your Sukkah With Your Favorite Jewish Comediennes appeared first on Jewcy.

Mark Normand is the most Jewish non-Jewish comedian you’ll ever meet. The 30-year-old New Orleans-native has been making waves on the comedy circuit for six years, and now he’s opening for Amy Schumer, performing stand-up on Conan, and running two weekly podcasts. A comedy CD is due out in late June, and he’s set to appear on Comedy Central’s Half Hour on July 18.

The talented performer plays up to five shows a night, and gets shaky like an addict if he can’t get on stage at least twice an evening. We spoke about his love for Jewish girls, the trials and tribulations of writing comedy material, and why he feels like he’s more Jewish than gentile.

Tell me a bit of your bio. Where did you grow up? How did you decide to pursue comedy?

I grew up in New Orleans, also known as “boozy town.” I was in a weird group of guys, lost my virginity when I was 16 to a 45-year-old in the French Quarter. It’s too much there for a kid; you grow up fast. It’s like growing up in Vegas, but less douchey. I went to college there and lived in a house with five guys. We had a hot tub, a beer pong table; it was just that kind of lifestyle; sad, gross, and fun. I did a lot of theater as a kid and made movies, but when I hit adolescence I stopped caring. I knew I wanted to do something creative and in showbiz, but I didn’t know what it was yet. I grew up loving the Marx Brothers; Groucho is my number one. I think he’s the funniest guy on the planet.

I started to watch a lot of the movies again, and decided I loved comedy and wanted to be a comedian. But then I was like, I love Woody Allen, I should be a filmmaker! So I dropped out of college and enrolled in the New York Film Academy on a whim, and I went and I hated it. I hated dealing with the light guy, the grips, and the actors were horrible. So, I started doing open mics at night while in school, and I then I knew I found what I wanted to do. School ended, I moved back to New Orleans, I was depressed, and I knew I should be back in New York City. So I started doing standup in New Orleans and running shows and driving three hours to do this show and that show, then I saved up $800 and moved up here. I moved to Crown Heights, got mugged three times in a year, my landlord died of AIDS, and there was a pigeon in my apartment the first night. Now I’m a full-time comedian, living the dream.

As a comedian do you find that it’s annoying to keep reusing your best material, in the same way a musician has to sing their hit song a million times? Or are you sated by the positive response you know you’re going to get from the audience?

You can get to hate doing the material over and over, but that’s the beauty of stand up. The only way a joke works is if someone hasn’t heard it. So you can do five shows and it’s all different audiences, and always fun to see how they react. So, it’s kind of annoying, but if it’s a different crowd, then you think, ‘oh they really liked that one, they really hated that one.’ So that makes it a bit more tolerable. But, I’m a big fan of doing new stuff. I have to keep writing. I hate these guys who’ve been doing it 10 years and say the same shit over and over. Once you get to a certain level as a comedian, you can’t really bomb. When you bomb, everyone thinks “wow, this guy’s slipping.” So I think some people just like to play it safe and do the same things over and over.  You gotta polish that act! But it is so hard to write a good new joke.

What’s your writing process like?

Some days I’m just gushing out material, like “This is great!” And then of course, there are days when it’s not flowing. I write everyday for an hour and a half. I just think of something wacky, jot it down, play with it in my room, and talk it out. Look at this; I have thousands of notes.

You should get a notebook!

I have one, it’s just all full! This whole list is probably a thousand jokes, and only about 60 work. It’s so much trial and error, and it’s such a long process. You write it, you think you have something good, then you take it to the stage and it bombs. Then you go back home and tweak it, then you get a chuckle. Then you go back and work on it more and gauge the jokes on the audiences’ response. And then it’s just that, for years.

You love Jewish girls. What’s the attraction?

The look is perfect for me. I like the darker complexion; I like a schnoz, the dark wavy hair. Jewish girls seem to be a little more straightforward and clever. If I go on a date with a non-Jewish girl, my jokes tend to go right over their head. Jewish girls get the jokes! And I’m not saying I need a hilarious girl, but I need somebody who gets stuff. So it’s the whole package. I like a woman who has been oppressed a little bit. Keeps you on your toes, keeps you realistic.

What do you identify with about Judaism?

I think it’s the minutiae. I think about all the little things, and I know Jews are big into that. Seinfeld, Woody Allen, Larry David, all these guys focus on the little stuff. I don’t care about politics or religion; I care about the fact that this table we’re sitting at is wobbling. And also Jews worry about everything, and I worry all day long. So, I think there’s a bond there. And all my heroes are Jews. It was just a coincidence. It’s not like, oh he’s a Jew, bring ‘em in! It just happens that all the comedians I like are Jewish.

Who are your comedy heroes?

Larry David is my all time favorite. He’s the only guy I watch and laugh out loud consistently. Also, Groucho, Woody Allen, and Seinfeld.

Do you think being paid to be politically incorrect and completely honest is one the best jobs ever?

Yes I do. I love that. I think that’s why people go to comedy shows, and why people love comedy. It’s the only place where you can be completely honest. I’ve been fired and yelled at during jobs for saying “real things,” not PC things. And its like, you all agree with me, you know what I’m talking about, I’m not just a crazy person ranting. So that’s what always bugged me. I hate that big lie we all live everyday. You hear about a celebrity saying something, and people think, “oh boy, he’s a terrible person.” And it’s like, no, you’ve definitely said that at a barbeque. I think comedy is important; it’s the only thing that’s real. You need to hear the truth, just so you know you’re not crazy. I think that’s why I got into comedy in the first place.

Have you had an “I made it” moment?

I’ve had a couple. I used to work as a janitor during the day, and the day I quit felt better than getting my TV credit from John Oliver show. Then I opened for Amy Schumer at Hofstra, and it went really well. We hit it off, and she emailed me a bunch of dates around the country, and I was like ‘oh my God, this is crazy, I’m making money to do comedy on the road.’ And then being on Conan was really big.

Tell me about your podcasts.

I have two. I’ve been doing We’re All Friends Here, for six years with my friend Matt Ruby, a big Jew! We interview comedians about the dirtiest things in their life, like rape, drug abuse, alcoholism, sex, etc. Since it’s in front of a live audience, it gets quite real and gritty. Comics are dying to do it. We’ve had some really fun guys like Pete Holmes and Donald Glover. And the other one is called Tuesdays with Stories with my friend Joe List, not a Jew. Every Tuesday we talk about our week on the road and tell stories. Stuff like, who’d you have sex with, how were the audiences, did you get in a fight?

Would you ever leave NY, or is it the best place for comedy?

No, it’s the best, hands down! I go to LA to visit; I’m doing Conan again next month. There’s like a handful of good comedians in LA, New York’s got hundreds. In LA most of the comedians want to be actors, it’s terrible.

Related: Spotlight On: Jessie Kahnweiler, ‘Dude Where’s My Chutzpah’ Filmmaker
Spotlight on: Brad Wollack, Comedian and Chelsea Handler Sidekick

The post Spotlight On: Mark Normand, The Most Jewish non-Jewish Comedian Ever appeared first on Jewcy.

There was Kristin Wiig, Lena Dunham, and now it’s Amy Schumer, Judd Apatow’s newest comedic talent. Schumer, the star of Comedy Central’s Inside Amy Schumer, has written an untitled screenplay and Apatow has signed on, along with Universal Pictures, to “develop the story and shape the script,” Deadline reports.

Schumer first came on the radar with standout turns on Comedy Central roasts of Roseanne Barr and Charlie Sheen. That led the network to launch her as writer/star and exec producer of the series Inside Amy Schumer, which premiered to Comedy Central’s highest ratings this year. Before that, she starred in the hourlong special, Mostly Sex Stuff for Comedy Central. Schumer and Apatow are represented by UTA and manager Jimmy Miller of Mosaic.

Well, she’s doing pretty well for herself. If the new film is anything like Bridesmaids or Girls, we’ll probably love it.

(Photo by Brad Barket/Getty)

The post Amy Schumer’s New Film To Be ‘Shaped’ by Judd Apatow appeared first on Jewcy.

It’s time you got familiar with Amy Schumer—very familiar. The Long Island-bred comedian, whose specialty is wry, extra-dirty humor (see: Mostly Sex Stuff, her one-hour stand-up special), draws the inevitable comparison to Jewcy goddess Sarah Silverman, though Schumer’s brand of hyper-sexual humor laced with gross-out antics feels a bit more of the moment (but far more fleeting! We love you, Sarah).

Nowhere was that more evident than on the second episode of her new already successful Comedy Central show, Inside Amy Schumer, where Schumer tries to sext. (If you had to look that up, please stop reading. Now.) Though Willa Paskin correctly called the series out for its bro-centric comedy masked as edginess, this sketch seems more like a scene out of Girls than anything else.

It’s hard to take a cute selfie, let alone a flattering crotch shot. Especially for someone who looks like she has “a Hasidic rabbi living in her underpants (no offense).” Needless to say, this clip is NSFW: