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Weird humor works best for comedian Joel Dovev
By John Benson
Dismay, disdain and disaffection seem to follow Joel Dovev’s comedy career.
Nothing exemplifies this bewildered feeling more than the main photo found on the Brooklyn, N.Y., comedian’s website (joeldovev.com). In what appears to be a Salvation Army store, Dovev tries on a few used items and poses for the camera while a lady in the back corner looks on in confused contempt.
In fact, this look may be familiar to some local audiences considering Brookfield’s own Mark Riccadonna has been bringing Dovev to Northeast Ohio for some time.
“Youngstown is my favorite place to play in America, and I’m not kidding,” said Dovev, calling from New York City. “I’ve been there like four times. People are super-nice. I’m kind of a weird comic. I don’t know if they like it, but they laugh. I don’t know if they’re just really polite or actually like it. I just appreciate people being really friendly and really willing to laugh.”
The experience also has been eye-opening for Dovev, who calls himself an East Coast Jewish comedian. Take for instance his attending Yankee Lake’s Truck Night. No, he didn’t perform.
“No way — that is one hostile crowd,” Dovev said, laughing. “I think anyone short of Larry the Cable Guy is destined to fail.”
Something that’s proving to be a major success for Dovev is his popular blog “Crap at My Parent’s House,” which recently was released as a book. The title is somewhat self-explanatory, but the results are oftentimes hilarious.
“I found some weird [expletive] at my mom’s house, and then I took a picture and started writing captions,” Dovev said. “I was at my parents’ house and went downstairs to look in their fridge. There was one bottle of Manischewitz, which is like super Jew-y wine. It’s like cough syrup. And the freezer was packed full of meat. Then I went upstairs, and on our mantel was all of this Jewish stuff like a dreidel and menorah, and then a model replica of a pirate ship. I was like, ‘What are we, Jewish pirates?’”
Overall, Dovev, who returns to Youngstown for two shows Saturday at the Funny Farm with Mike Polk Jr., said his material is a bit odd and can turn blue. For whatever reason, he said it works in the Midwest.
“I was in St. Louis, well it was the St. Louis Jewish Book Festival, but I think the Midwest likes me,” Dovev said. “There are kind of universal things. I’m a weird guy, and at first, people are like, ‘What’s this guy all about?’ Actually, I was at a fundraiser show in Brookfield where I did my set, and afterwards, there was an old woman who left. Someone asked her why she left, because they thought she was offended. She said, ‘No, I wasn’t offended. It was just too weird for me,’ which is kind of the best compliment.”