ENTERTAINMENT

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I GOING PLACES 1-

WEEK OF SEPT. 18-24

SPECIAL EVENTS

MICHIGAN RENAISSANCE
FESTIVAL
Dixie Highway between Pontiac
and Flint, one mile north of Mt.
Holly, Inc., Holly, drama, mimes,
magicians, crafts, games, food,
Saturdays and Sundays through
Sept. 27, admission, 645-9640.

Bob Mc Keown

MUSIC

Karen Haber says she is a "baby" among the nationally-known comics.

Just Plain Karen

Despite talk show and sitcom experience,
comedienne Karen Haber is still
waiting for her big break

HEIDI PRESS

News Editor

11111 hen she appears on
stage to do her rou-
tines, Karen Haber
sounds like the four-
year-old you just
dropped off at nursery school. But
looking at her, well, she's "very
California!' The New York-born co-
medienne is dressed in an outfit
that smacks a little of resale shop and
a lot of kitsch — plastic and costume
jewelry, cowboy boots, black tights, a
black too-short crinoline used as a
skirt, pink t-shirt with a sweatshirt
jacket tied around her waist and but-
terfly barretts in her long dark hair.
Not only does she greet her guests in
this "attire!' but appears on stage in
it as well.
Haber, who appeared recently at
Mark Ridley's Comedy Castle and
Northwood Inn in Berkley, left an ac-
ting career for stand-up comedy
because she felt she was at a dead end
on the stage. "It was not going the
way I wanted it to go . . . You know,
I starred in a play at the Lee

Strasberg Theater. I had done all that
stuff that actresses do and it wasn't
happening for me. Then I thought I
would do stand-up, not leave acting
but to add to. And I didn't do any ac-
ting for three years:'
But now the 31-year-old come-
dienne thinks she has found her
niche. "I like stand-up better. Because
I'm the director, I'm the star, I'm the
writer. Plus, I can be me. I don't have
to fit into anybody else's mold. I can
be Jewish which is really a treat in
show business!'
Being Jewish, she found, has been
a benefit in her career. "It's helped me
tremendously. It's my heart and my
soul. It's made me what I am. I
wouldn't trade it for anything." And,
Haber adds, she prefers to work before
Jewish audiences. "Whenever I know
have a Jewish audience, I know my
show is going to be good."
It was in front of Jewish audiences
that she got her start performing. She
had entertained at sweet 16 parties
— not for the girls, but for their

parents. Then she graduated to doing
fund raisers for Jewish organizations.
Since that inauspicious beginn-
ing, Haber has played in clubs
throughout the U.S. and Canada and
has appeared twice on The Late Show
as well as on the Mery Griffin Show,
an ABC network special called Fun-
ny, on local Los Angeles specials, The
New Adventures of Beans Baxter, and
on a New York show called Comedy
Tonight, of which she was the co-host
and resident comic.
Once in a while, the Jewish
holidays conflict with her career. For
a comic, especially one who goes on
the road, it is imperative to play two
shows in a club on Friday nights.
That, the Conservative-Jewish raised
Haber said she can deal with.
However, when a club date or TV tap-
ing falls on a Jewish holiday she has
a conflict. Just such an occurrence
faces her this Rosh Hashanah.
A TV producer told her a program
on which she is to appear will be
taped on Sept. 25, the second day of

DETROIT SYMPHONY
Ford Auditorium, Detroit,
Juilliard String Quartet, 8 p.m.
Thursday, admission, 567-1400.
DETROIT INSTITUTE OF
ARTS
5200 Woodward Ave., Detroit,
Brunch With Bach, 10 and 11:30
a.m. Sunday, admission, 832-2730.
CLASSICAL MUSIC SERIES
Varner Recital Hall, Oakland
University, Rochester, Steven
Rosenfeld, pianist, 8 p.m.
Saturday, admission, 370-3013.
FOLKTOWN
Parks and Recreation building,
Southfield Civic Center, Balduck
Mountain Ramblers, 8 p.m.
Saturday, admission, 855-9848.
DETROIT INSTITUTE OF
ARTS
Recital hall, 5200 Woodward,
Detroit, The Percussion Group
Cincinnati, 8 p.m. today,
admission, 832-2730.
UNIVERSITY MUSICAL
SOCIETY
University of Michigan, Ann
Arbor, Rackham Auditorium,
Guarneri Quartet, 8 p.m. today,
Hill Auditorium, Vienna
Philharmonic and Leonard
Bernstein, 8 p.m. Monday and
Tuesday, admission, 764-2538.

COMEDY

DUFFY'S ON THE LAKE
3133 Union Lake Rd., Union
Lake, Bob Posch and John Cionca,
9:30 and 11:30 p.m. Friday and
Saturday, admission, 363-9469.
NORTHWOOD INN AND
COMEDY CASTLE
2593 Woodward, Berkley, Sheila
Kay, 8:30 and 11:30 p.m. today
and Saturday; Barry Diamond,
8:30 p.m. Tuesday through Sept.
26, admission, 542-9900.

THEATER

SHAW FESTIVAL
Niagara-On-The-Lake, Ontario,
Peter Pan, now until Oct. 11,
Fanny's First Play, now until Sept.
27, and Night of Jan. 16th, now

Continued on Page 71

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

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