Michael Shafar – Kosher Bacon @ The Palace Society at Globe Palace (for Fringe World)
Tuesday, January 30, 2018
For any Tuesday night in Perth, the fear that a venue will be empty is only made worse during Fringe when there is so much to choose from, so it was a pleasant surprise to see the Globe Palace almost full for comedian Michael Shafar – especially seeing as he is relatively new on the scene.
As the contradictory name of the show suggests, Shafar is Jewish and, just in case you weren’t sure, one of his first comments for the night was “you can always tell who the Jewish people are as they are always trying to get the best seats.”
While his routine isn’t entirely original (there is only so much that can be said about love, marriage, sex, social media and just life in general), he was extremely funny, and relating it all to his Jewish background added a different spin to the routine. Shafar had people laughing, groaning or nodding in sympathy in all the right spots. “Love is sitting on the couch, eating a whole pizza each and she turns to you and says ‘Don’t touch me!’”
He spoke about the issues and insecurities of “schmeckle shots” and how they were constantly told that future was in their “schmeckles”. He raised the very valid point on the irony of how girls didn’t like to hand out their phone numbers but were happy to be Facebook friends. He spoke freely about his parents and especially how he and his mother have officially run out of things to say together, to the point that they started talking about foreskins – or rather, his foreskin, to be precise.
Shafar also had some excellent points about company slogans and unfortunate acronyms that lead to confusion, and he spoke about his job writing for The Project. He also mentioned how he had seen a completely new angle to get the millennials to stop using coke, and yes – he explained why the show is called Kosher Bacon.
He left us with a thought-provoking story about bagels and water bottles at a music festival, a beautifully funny story about his father attempting to book a romantic dinner for his wife (and the family) at a take away joint, and he thanked his sponsors – Zamels and ISIS. He also left us all with big smiles.
While some comedians can be overbearing, Shafar was delightfully unassuming and genuine. Everyone enjoyed the night thoroughly, and I, for one, am looking forward to seeing what he does next.
KAREN LOWE
Kosher Bacon runs until Feb 4 at Globe Palace with one show on Feb 3 at the Laneway Palace, as part of FRINGE WORLD.
