Seriously, it’s been nearly a month, and how has Jewish media missed this? Megan Amram has her own (web) series, and dang it, she’s going to win an Emmy for it… at all costs.

Amram is best known these days for writing on The Good Place, but she’s been killing it at the comedy game for years, (see: Twitter, Parks and Rec, her book). And now, she will be an Emmy-winning performer, in a work entitled, simply, An Emmy for Megan.

The premise of the series is simple: Amram decides that she wants an Emmy, specifically for Outstanding Actress in a Short Form Comedy or Drama Series (she’s also putting up the series for an Outstanding Series award). And so she sets out to fulfill the minimum requirements. 6 episodes? Post online before April 27th? She has this in the bag! Of course, by the end of the first episode she’s in a spiral of pain, in the second episode she loses 40 pounds to fit the Hollywood mold, in the third episode she decides to identify as Korean… You get the idea, but you never know quite what she’ll do next.

And, yes, of course Amram talks about being Jewish. For example, it takes less than three minutes into the series for her to accuse an unsupportive friend of being anti-Semitic.

Plus, despite the show’s short run, there are a ton of celebrity cameos (mostly crammed together), ranging from RuPaul to Seth Rogen. Also, keep an eye out for a more substantial appearance from Jewish Good Place actor D’Arcy Carden.

If you’re in the LA area, you can even watch the new series in a theater, followed by a Q&A with the cast and crew on June 10.

Or, you can just watch An Emmy For Megan in your pajamas, like God intended. The whole thing is just under half an hour:

Image via Vimeo

The post Why Haven’t You Watched ‘An Emmy for Megan’ Yet? appeared first on Jewcy.

Etai Shuchatowitz loves watching documentaries; but he also finds them hilariously self-serious. It’s only natural that he be a fan of mockumentaries, like Comedy Central’s Review. So one day after binge-watching Ken Burns, he decided to write his own documentary spoof series. It’s called Untold Genius and it’s a ten-episode web series on the tragicomic stories of ten celebrities whose careers are on the verge of collapse.

Shuchatowitz, originally from Boston, recently graduated from Yeshiva University and now, at 22, he’s working as a software engineer for BAMTech, a subsidiary of Disney, in New York. He’s never studied filmmaking. “I’ve always liked storytelling,” he told Jewcy, and he’s dabbled in comedy before.

Now, that dream may turn into reality, as he’s raising money to fund Untold Genius. Together with actor and producer Moshe Lobel, who appeared in HBO’s High Maintenance, he shot the pilot episode.

The first episode of Untold Genius follows the decline of Dwayne “Not The Rock” Johnson, a Vietnam War protest musician who makes a tragic decision that will forever change his career as a trumpet player. The characters of the future episodes include a Russian mathematician and a teenage popstar named Rapzilla. As the series will go forward, viewers will learn more about the narrator, Art Fisher, as well, in a parallel storyline. Shuchatowitz defined the show as “a story about a deluded idiot, who is so convinced that he’s making meaningful art that he’s going to ruin his life and the lives of people around him to make that a reality.”

“We had to learn everything as we went,” said the writer. Sometimes, they had to improvise. “We bought a toy trumpet so that we could take a picture of our character playing it, but it wasn’t shipped in time for the shooting,” he said. The producers looked at each other, not knowing what to do. So they decided to rewrite the script, creatively adding that the character did not allow anyone to take a picture of him with the trumpet.

The two creators recently created a Kickstarter campaign to get funding to produce the entire series. They’re close to reach the $6,000 goal, but they only have a few days left.

“Untold Genius is truly a labor of love,” said Shuchatowitz. “It’s a story I’ve been excited about before anybody knew about it, and it’s a story that continues to excite me as time goes on. I can’t wait to bring it to life.”

Photo courtesy Etai Shuchatowitz

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For the best web series you’ll see today, consider a tale of young Jews navigating love and lust succinctly entitled Roxy and Eli Date the Shit Out of New York City. Jewcy is pumped to host the virtual premiere right here! Right now!

Sarah Rosen (the mind behind Porn4Jews) and Dani Schoffman, as co-writers and co-stars, bring us the tale of two roommates who decide to help one another date in the jungle that is New York City.

There’s breakups, condom-stealing, texting from the toilet, wingwoman-ing, girls named Wind, and more.

You can binge the whole mini-season in under 15 minutes (take that, Transparent). Check them out below, episodes 1, 2, 3 (g0):

The post The Premiere of ‘Roxy and Eli Date the Shit Out of New York City!’ appeared first on Jewcy.

Now streaming on YouTube, the pilot episode of “Soon By You” follows a would-be couple that really clicks when they accidentally sit down across from each other in a kosher restaurant before their real –and far less fitting – dates arrive. Jewcy met up with director Leah Gottfried and producers Jessica Schechter and Danny Hoffman, all of whom pull double-duty as actors on the show, in a kosher-certified Coffee Bean in midtown to see how this exciting new show got made.

Jewcy: What got you interested in this project?

Leah: Almost two years ago, I started writing The Setup as a short film. It was really inspired by the Israeli TV show Srugim. After the short film started getting into film festivals and people watched it and wanted to see what happened next, I realized that it was a web series – a series. The topic of dating in the Modern Orthodox world is something I would love to watch. I kind of wrote it for myself, to showcase the drama I go through and that my friends go through.

Danny: My involvement in the first episode was solely as an actor. You don’t see this subculture represented in pop culture much these days. There’s no shortage of Jews in film and TV, but no one between ultra-Orthodox and mostly secular. The opportunity to be involved was very appealing, and when Leah began to think of it as more of a series I could not forego the chance to be more involved as a writer and producer.

Jessica: Leah and I have been friends for a long time. I’m a stand-up comedian and gave Leah some ideas from my life experiences. I’ve been in the dating world for a long time and I think it’s really important to give it a voice and some perspective, and to be able to laugh at and with it.

Jewcy: Are the “wrong dates” based on any experiences you have had?

Leah: We definitely talk to each other and tell each other stories. A lot of the little nuances are pulled from real life whether or not they actually happened like that.

Jessica: People not getting your jokes is definitely real. Danny’s character has the same opening jokes for both girls, and one gets them and the other doesn’t.

Danny: I don’t know, I think every single one of the jokes I’ve ever told has landed, so I can’t relate.

Jewcy: Have you received any interesting feedback?

Danny: One YouTube comment asked why Sara didn’t make a bracha over the wine. Someone else pointed out that Sara is an artist and Danny is a rabbi – did anyone think about how they’re going to make a living?

Jessica: It’s really fun and exciting in this YouTube world that people can tell you what they think right away.

Leah: I love the comments where people say that they’ve been through awkward dates just like that. What’s cool is that it’s not coming from the same kind of person – people who aren’t even Jewish, or are ultra-orthodox.

Jewcy: Do any American shows or movies show a positive depiction of Jewish observance?

Leah: No. Whenever I see a Jew in a show that I’m watching, it never feels authentic to me, which is a problem I want to address in this show. I don’t blame the writers – there are no Orthodox Jews in the writer’s room. But that’s the process we’re trying to address.

Danny: Coffee Bean – it’s our writer’s room.

Jessica: The closest thing is the movie Arranged, which was written by an Orthodox Jew. It captured an element of Jewish dating, but they were ultra-Orthodox.

Jewcy: What is the release and filming schedule for future episodes?

Danny: Loose.

Leah: We’re releasing a trailer this week, and the second episode is close to a final cut. That will hopefully also be released within the next couple of weeks. We’re writing episode three and fundraising to film it. Everything depends on the fundraising – the more money we have, the quicker we can move.

We partnered with JENLA – the Jewish Entertainment Network LA. They have a new fiscal sponsorship program, and we’re the pilot. People can donate to that – it’s a great incentive for anyone who wants to support our project. We’ve also teamed up with Shabbat.com.

Jewcy: Do you have any idea of how many episodes you’d like to make?

Leah: I’d love to see ten seasons.

Danny: And a movie! No, at this point, what we’ve been planning is a five- or six-episode first season.

Leah: We have five episodes outlined. There are two new characters in episode two – they’re both hilarious additions. From episode two and beyond, there will be an ensemble cast of six.

Jewcy: What has surprised you in the process of making this series, and what have you learned?

Jessica: What I’ve discovered in dating is that people are very nuanced, and we want to bring that out in this show. Every person has a family and circumstances that has made them who they are. We have these interesting and wacky characters, and uncovering their journeys is really great.

Danny: The stories have certain Jewish elements in them, like an episode that takes place on Shabbat, but the stories and the characters don’t revolve around their Judaism. In the first episode, we mention that one character’s aunt set her up with a lawyer guy, but there’s not too much that people wouldn’t be able to relate to if they don’t know anything about Judaism. We’re identifying ourselves as Jewish artists and putting forward Jewish art, but it’s about people, about life, and about relationships. People get that. People don’t have Jewish relationships – they’re Jews and they have relationships.

Leah: We’re not teaching the audience. It’s not a class on Judaism.

Jessica: The coolest thing for me is that, in the middle of a full-day shoot for episode two, we all sat down and had kosher pizza in Washington Heights on set. As an artist, you’re always worried about those kinds of things and having to compromise your values. We’re really changing the landscape of what’s possible.

Danny: I was surprised to learn that Sara Schur, who plays Sara Feldman, also has restrictions because she’s a Seventh Day Adventist.

Jessica: It’s a perfect shidduch!

Leah: A lot of our crew is also Orthodox. There are so many creative people in our world, and a lot of them struggle because they don’t feel they can pursue a creative career because of the restrictions. We’re flipping that on its head.

Danny: We’re trying to take a look at different levels of observance that all fall within Modern Orthodoxy. In a future episode, we’re looking at a character who has trouble with work coinciding with Shabbat and having to juggle that, which nobody doesn’t deal with. It’s a Jewish show about dating and also a show about Jews.

Jessica: It’s about their lives. Single Jews and what they go through, and the adventures that come with that.

Check out the first episode of “Soon By You” right now below!

Image credits: Creative team portrait via Abe Fried-Tanzer, Episode screenshot courtesy of Soon By You, behind-the-scenes photo by Leora Veit.

The post Jewcy Interview: ‘Soon By You’ appeared first on Jewcy.

“Saki, let’s go to Israel!”

Thus begins a new anime web series called Israel, Like!, launched by the Israeli embassy in Tokyo as part of a campaign to entice Japanese visitors to the Holy Land. In the debut episode—the first in a series of seven—sisters Saki and Noriki travel to Israel on the strength of its famed “chocolate bar” (i.e. Max Brenner), marvel at the clapping when their airplane lands (“many Israeli are cheerful people”), admire the “cool” airport (there’s never been a more enthusiastic response to Ben Gurion) and relaxed locals (“many guys are good looking!”), then get plastered on Israeli wine at a Tel Aviv bar in a evening of sisterly bonding.

Ruth Kahanoff, Israel’s ambassador to Japan, told Ynet that the series aims to “use anime to reach the Japanese audience, especially youth, and display the Israel beyond the conflict.” Embassy spokesman Ronen Medzini says the response has been “unprecedented,” and that the show is garnering “massive media attention all across Japan.”

The video is interspersed with cameos from “Shalom Chan,” the embassy’s Pikachu-esque mascot who delivers little factoids about Israeli life and culture. Subsequent episodes will take the sisters all over Israel, from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem to the Negev to a kibbutz. (I guess the West Bank and Hebron are off the list?)

Episode one is full of many strange and unexpected moments, but it’s also fun and super-watchable. A melodramatic cliffhanger relating to Noriki’s marriage—which comes out of nowhere but is totally compelling—has me hanging out for episode two. According to the embassy’s Facebook page (which has a solid following of about 7,000), it should be live soon, and promises a visit to the Dead Sea and a closer look at Noriko’s past. I’ll admit it: I can’t wait.

The post Watch the Israeli Government’s Anime Tourism Pitch appeared first on Jewcy.

YidLife Crisis is a new web series that grapples with some of the great quandaries of contemporary Jewish life: Should Jews continue to practice archaic traditions? How do we define Jewish culture, which bears the influence of nationalities from around the globe? Also, how much badonkadonk is too much badonkadonk?

The series consists of four raucous, five-minute episodes written and performed by Eli Batalion and Jamie Elman, two Montreal-born actors who play Chaimie and Laizer, respectively. Each episode follows the two thirty-somethings as they grapple with their secular Jewish identity, revel in iconic Montreal restaurants, and extol the virtues of schmaltz (an absolute must, when it comes to smoked meat). This would be sufficiently wonderful on its own, but Batalion and Elman deliver something even better: the series is performed almost entirely in Yiddish.

Batalion and Elman studied Yiddish at Bialik High School in Montreal. Years after graduating, they connected in Los Angeles and began brainstorming ideas for a project that they could work on together. They knew they wanted to create a Yiddish web series, but not because they had lofty goals of preserving a “dying language.” As comic actors, Batalion and Elman were drawn to the vitality and rhythm of Yiddish, which has played an integral role in shaping humor and comedy in North America.

“I think a large part of what we’re doing here is a form of preservation of culture, but it’s not based on some sort of pure altruism,” Batalion explains. “It’s based on the fact that we just thought Yiddish was funny. Jamie and I are big fans of Seinfeld and Curb Your Enthusiasm, and that kind of comedy is built on a Yiddish style that’s coming out in English, but it really owes royalties to the Yiddish language.”

Initially, they planned to recreate classic Seinfeld sketches in Yiddish, as a homage to the language that lends its flavor to their favorite sitcom. But they soon realized that they could do more than borrow material from an existing show. Batalion and Elman applied for and received a grant from the Jewish Community Foundation, an organization that promotes Jewish culture in Montreal. Then, with some translation help from Batalion’s father, the duo started to write their own Yiddish scripts, which explored their concerns as young, secular Jews.

“The grant led us to realizations that we had about how the show could be deeper than just redoing Seinfeld sketches, “Elman says. “We could actually use the content of what we’re going to talk about in the show as a way of reaching out to other communities, and as a way of explaining our narishkeit, our Jewish neuroses, to the non-Jewish world.”

And what is it, exactly, that occupies the minds of the YidLife guys? Food, for one thing. (“It’s a Jewish show,” Elman says. “What else are we going to be doing?”) Each episode is set in a beloved Montreal eatery, as Chaimie and Laizer chow down on their favorite dishes and engage in Talmudic debates on matters of great Jewish import, like the optimal method for making bagels. They chat about beautiful women, naked selfies, and the merits of a big, um, posterior (the series is rated “Chai plus,” thanks to its racier content). It’s amusing to watch the guys work words like “badonkadonk” into Yiddish dialogue, but their lighthearted banter belies an earnest contemplation of modern Jewish life, with all its inconsistencies and hypocrisies.

In the first episode, Laizer is gorging on poutine—a very treyf Canadian specialty made with fries, cheese curds, and gravy—as Kol Nidre soars in the background. In another episode, Chaimie takes Laizer to task for eating at a Greek restaurant. “After what they did?” he cries. “200 BC? Forced conversion, temple desecration? I can’t eat this crap.” He does, in the end, after Laizer reminds him that most of his favorite “Jewish” foods—latkes, bagels, challah, Danish—were borrowed from other nationalities who, to put it lightly, had fraught relationships with the Jews. In the same episode, Laizer questions the value of continuing to practice ancient Jewish rites, like circumcision. “Is your mother Jewish?” he asks Chaimie. “Then by Jewish law, so are you. So why the schmekle chop?!”

“We’re dealing with everything with humor,” Batalion says of YidLife. “But some of the topics that are broached are fairly serious. I mean, atonement, circumcision are pretty serious acts. It’s not just that the act is serious, but the implications and the discussion about identity is a pretty serious discussion. In some way, Jamie and I grapple with it every single day.”

“I want to clarify,” Elman cuts in. “I don’t grapple with Eli’s circumcision in any way, shape, or form.”

Yiddish might seem like an anachronistic choice of language for a series rooted in a very twenty-first century medium, but it works. During the filming of YidLife’s first episode, Batalion and Elman performed their dialogue twice: once in English and once in Yiddish. The French-Canadian staff of the restaurant where they were shooting watched the English take with little reaction. But they started cracking up when Batalion and Elman performed the sketch in Yiddish.

“They were laughing the whole time we were doing the Yiddish, even though they couldn’t understand a word of it,” Elman says. “And in fact one of our camera guys—he’s a French-Canadian guy—was laughing during the take. I said, ‘Why is this so funny to you?’ He said, ‘Oh, it just sounds funny. It sounds like Seinfeld.’ And we knew right away that we were doing it right.”

Related: New Web Series Celebrates Poutine, Lactaid, and Jewish Angst—in Yiddish
Jews, Proselytizing, and Comedy Collide in ‘Jewvangelist’

The post Spotlight On: Eli Batalion and Jamie Elman of “YidLife Crisis” appeared first on Jewcy.

Jews aren’t good proselytizers: circumcision, long prayer sessions, kosher dietary restrictions—not to mention a few thousand years of persecution—do not exactly endear Judaism to strangers. But what Jews are good at is writing comedy. In the quirky new web series Jewvangelist, creator and actor Becky Kramer explores what it would take for a young rabbi to recruit new members to the Jewish faith.

The show focuses on Rabbi Leah Levy’s campaign to refresh the family synagogue, which is rapidly losing members. After an almost too coincidental bicycling accident with a Mormon missionary, Levy (played by Kramer) realizes that promoting conversion is the key to replenishing her congregation. Levy is joined by her goofy cantor friend, and along the way they pick up a hodge-podge of friends from various religious backgrounds. Our heroine has a villain, of course—her ridiculously evil twin brother Asher, who is a rival Rabbi and wants to sell the building.

While the plotline may pique your interest, there are some flaws that should be addressed: the acting is weak at times, and the story relies on a number of absurd coincidences. There is an excessive amount of sexual innuendo and it tends to be a little out of place.

But all that is ok. After all, Jewvangelist is only a short web series. And what the show does right, it really does right. The writing is witty and the production quality is flawless. Each episode is about 12 minutes long, which means the entire six-part first season can be watched in a little over an hour. I rarely found myself heartily laughing at the jokes, but the characters are loveable and I found myself rooting for them to succeed. The show also promotes religious and cultural tolerance—a message we need to keep hearing.

As with many Jewish productions, you’ll laugh a little, cringe a little too, and wonder why you’re still there halfway through. But when it’s all over you’ll leave feeling warm and satisfied, even if you’re not entirely sure why.

Watch the first episode here:

Related: New Web Series Celebrates Poutine, Lactaid, and Jewish Angst—in Yiddish

(Image via Kickstarter)

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What’s an apikores to do on Yom Kippur? If you were an anarchist in London, New York, or Warsaw in the early 20th century, there’s a good chance you would have attended a Yom Kippur ball for the express purpose of eating, drinking, and thumbing your nose at tradition and the religious establishment.

The creators of the new comedy series YidLife Crisis have captured that heretical spirit, added a dash of irony and Yiddish profanity, and served it up for free online—with a side of poutine.

YidLife is the brainchild of Canadian comics Eli Batalion and Jamie Elman, who play Leizer and Chaimie, respectively. The web series follows the two thirty-somethings as they contemplate the modern Jewish condition against the backdrop of Montreal’s iconic restaurants. The best part? YidLife’s dialogue is spoken almost entirely in Yiddish.

In “Breaking the Fast,” the first episode of the series, Chaimie tries to persuade Leizer to ditch the whole Yom Kippur thing and indulge in some poutine, which, for the uninitiated, consists of French fries slathered in cheese curds and meat-based gravy—essentially a very delicious, very treyf heart attack in a bowl. Leizer doesn’t need much in the way of convincing, though he makes sure to keep his cheese curds and gravy separate. As Leizer himself puts it (in Yiddish), “If I have to break the fast, fine, but I will not mix milk and meat!”

Watch  “Breaking the Fast” below, and stay tuned for an interview with Batalion and Elman!

Related: Jews, Proselytizing, and Comedy Collide in ‘Jewvangelist’

The post New Web Series Celebrates Poutine, Lactaid, and Jewish Angst—in Yiddish appeared first on Jewcy.