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Comedienne Norma Zager enjoys a good joke.
~ Don't Call
Me Totie
Although many compare her to the
late Totie Fields, Norma Zager has
her own comedy style
JUDY MARX
Special to The Jewish News
hen I thank God for all
my blessings, I count my
sense of humor high
among them:' says local
11111 comedienne Norma
Zager. The only female regular at
Mark Ridley's Comedy Castle in
Berkley, Zager goes on stage each
week with one thought uppermost in
her mind — to have a good time. With
her Totie Fields image — "she was my
idol" — audiences can tell before the
end of her opening joke that Zager is
at home under the night club lights.
Few realize that - two years ago, this
funny lady had never even considered
performing in public.
It wasn't that young Norma
Weitz, a '64 graduate of Mumford
High School, wasn't a funny little girl.
"I wasn't one of those quiet, shy types
who came out of the closet. They us-
ed to call me 'giggles.' I remember my
father saying, 'What, are you some
kind of comedian?' Well, now I guess
I have to say I was, Dad." But Zager
admits that it still surprises her folks
when they realize that she has
become a full-fledged stand-up come-
dienne. "No, 'shocked' is probably
closer to the truth."
Understandably, the entertain-
ment would hardly entered into
Zager's career plans when she began
her college education at Michigan
State University. Four years later,
with a bachelor's degree in jour-
nalism from Wayne State University,
she was "determined to become
another Brenda Starr.
"But when I started working I
saw that this wasn't exactly
Watergate. The realization that I was
in the wrong business for me came
when I was sitting at 10 p.m. one
night at a council meeting in Hun-
tington Woods listening to a debate on
which side of the street to put a sewer
drain. After an hour and a half, I said
to myself, "I don't think this is what
I had in mind when I went into this
profession! "
Married 16 years to Michael
Zager, Zager says that he has the real
sense of humor in the family. "He'll
do 20 minutes at the check-out
counter at K-Mart.' Likewise,
daughter Laurie, 14, and son, Brad,
are both witty, according to their
mom. "Laurie's very artistic, and
Brad is already a comedy groupie. He
knows all the comics at the club, and
he knows their routines. He's a real
comedy connoisseur at age nine!"
Zager took an early retirement
after one year on the Oak Park News.
"When Laurie was born, my career
went out the window. I wanted to stay
home with her!'
By the late 70's, she found,
however, that she missed writing and
began free lancing. At heart, she was
a '60's kid, and she decided that life
for her was more than cookie baking.
"I owe that realization directly to the
movie, The Big Chill." Zager came
home from the theater and decided
that she didn't want to let the plans
she'd made for herself in college slip
quietly away.
"I began doing a humor column,
and I finally got it off the ground in
The Jewish News. It was also in the
Palm Beach Jewish World, but I
couldn't get it syndicated. The world
wasn't ready for a Jewish Erma
Bombeck."
"A lot of people feel real funny
about being Jewish," Zager observes.
"They think Jews should move into
the mainstream. The Jewish Mother
should be dead and buried. All these
stereotypes are bad. Well, I disagree
wholeheartedly. When gentile kids
I GOING PLACES I
WEEK OF NOV. 13-19
SPECIAL EVENTS
NORTH CENTRAL
COMMUNITY MENTAL
HEALTH CENTER
Mercury Theatre, Six Mile Rd.,
Detroit, Rebecca, 8 p.m. Tuesday, 7
p.m. champaign reception,
admission to benefit mental
health center, 369-1720.
GIRLSTOWN FOUNDATION
Pontiac Silverdome, Pontiac,
charity auction, 8 p.m. today,
admission, 399-1112.
MUSIC
MICHIGAN OPERA THEATRE
Fisher Theatre, Detroit, Man of
La Mancha, 8 p.m. today and
Saturday, admission, 874-SING.
FOLKTOWN
Southfield Civic Center, Parks and
Recreation Building, 26000
Evergreen, Loreena McKennitt, 8
p.m. Saturday, admission,
855-9848.
DETROIT SYMPHONY
ORCHESTRA
Pontiac Central High School
Auditorium, Pontiac, concert, 8
p.m. today; Trenton High School
Auditorium, 8 p.m. Saturday,
admission, 567-9000 ext. 63.
CONCERTS-IN-THE-GARDEN
First Center Office Plaza, 26913
Northwestern, Southfield, Prism
Saxophone Quartet, noon Sunday,
admission, 357-1111.
POWER SERIES
University of Michigan, Power
Center, Ann Arbor, La Rondine, 8
p.m. Thursday, admission,
764-0450.
BRUNCH WITH BACH
Detroit Institute of Arts, Verdehr
Trio, 10 and 11:30 a.m. Sunday,
admission, 832-2730.
UNIVERSITY MUSICAL
SOCIETY
University of Michigan, Ann
Arbor, Rackham Auditorium,
Balalaika Orchestra, 8 p.m.
Saturday, admission, 764-2538.
METROPOLITAN YOUTH
SYMPHONY
Southfield High School, Lahser
Rd., Southfield, concert, 8 p.m.
Saturday, admission, 477-2894.
DETROIT SYMPHONY
LEAGUE
Radisson Hotel Plaza, Southfield,
Alexander Zonjic, "Fall Fling '87,"
6 p.m. Wednesday, admission,
652-6805.
CARE CENTERS OF
MICHIGAN
Continued on Page 71
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
69