Nice Jewish Girls bring comedy act to Lemon Grove

YOUNGSTOWN — What’s a nice Jewish girl doing in a place like this? Well, bawdy burlesque comedy and some stereotype-shattering shtick.

It’s Nice Jewish Girls Gone Bad, a comedy act that will visit Youngstown for the first time next week.

The Girls deconstruct all things Jewish in their zany and energetic show, which has been touring for at least six years.

The act comes to the Lemon Grove, downtown, Monday night.

Susannah Perlman, a Pittsburgh native who now lives in New York, is the originator and the on-stage ringleader.

She draws on a group of 30 to 40 women who rotate in and out of the act, depending on their availability and the location of the show.

The cast for the Youngstown concert will include Perlman, who was on “Last Comic Standing,” and three others. The troupe often performs with a four-piece klezmer-rock band but will use recorded music for the Lemon Grove show.

The brassy Perlman, who goes by the Goddess Perlman, calls it “a mix of stand-up comedy, burlesque and dance numbers. It’s a lot of fun.”

Skits include “The Gefilte Fish Song,” which ponders the makeup of the Jewish delicacy; and Hava Nagila Go-Go, a take-off on the traditional song.

Perlman started Nice Jewish Girls in 2003 to perform at an event thrown by Heeb, a Jewish pop-culture magazine.

The group’s members have appeared on Comedy Central and HBO.

Monday’s show at the Lemon Grove will be a fundraiser for Peace House, and is sponsored by Peace Action Youngstown.