in online Arts is Entertainment ) J11 Digest Selected news and feature stories from the Detroit Jewish News. wvvw.detroitjewishnews.corrilnevvs ) Back In Time Look for Alexis P. Rubin's "This Month in Jewish History" for June. vvwvv.detroitjewisluiews.com ) What's Eating Harry Kirsbaum? Recalling The Rebels Of Comedy Author profiles the comics, many of them Jewish, who created a new breed of humor. vvvvwdetroitjewishnews.com/opinion jewishscom ) Find Out What's Hot in Jewish Literature This Summer Our JBook Reviews channel features reviews of top Jewish books by well-known authors, journalists and critics as well as profiles and interviews of new and established writers. From JBooks.com , the new Internet resource for Jewish literature. Read more online at www.jewish.com. ) Looking For Jewish Singles Online? Whatever you're looking for, Jewish Connection has a match for you. Some of our members are looking for long-term companions; some are just _ looking for casual dating and friendship. Jewish Connection Offers: • Easy, FREE registration process • Over a million members worldwide • More member photos than any other site in the world Sign up and meet your match at www.jewish.com. i'n advertisers online www.detroitjewishnews.com/advertisers PANTIES Patti's Parties kZM 7/ 4 2003 58 vvww.pattispartiesinvitations.com For online advertising, call 248-354-6060 BILL CARROLL Special to the Jewish News here are enough jokes, one-liners and amusing anecdotes in a new book about a group of revolutionary and groundbreaking American comedians to keep readers chuckling throughout the summer. Seriously Funny.- The Rebel Comedians of the 1950s and 1960s (Pantheon Books; $29.95) by Jewish author Gerald Nachman is an interest- ing cultural history and commemoration of an extraordinary era in American comedy. It features in-depth coverage of 27 comedi- ans whose humor was socially aware, satiric, topical and very funny. Almost half of them are Jewish, and Jewish humor permeates the author's work. Nachman includes -21 chapters on individual or pairs of comics, which read like mini-biog- raphies. Along the way, he relates tidbits on about 100 additional comedians of all eras. "The comedians of the '50s and '60s were a totally different breed of performer from any T who came before or after — a big departure from their vaudevillian predecessors," explained Nachman from his San Francisco home. "Many had chaotic and troubled lives that reflected in their comedy commentary and observational humor, and some were geniuses, but together, they made up a vibrant group of voices with a desperate drive to succeed." The rebels in Seriously Funny include Mort Sahl, Sid Caesar, Tom Lehrer, Ernie Kovacs, Steve Allen, Stan Freberg, Phyllis Diller, Jonathan Winters, Jean Shepherd, Bob Elliott and Ray Goulding, Shelley Berman, Mike Nichols and Elaine May, Bob Newham Lenny Bruce, Godfrey Cambridge, the Smothers Brothers, Mel Brooks, Dick Gregory, David Frye, Vaughn Meader, Will Jordan, Woody Allen, Bill Cosby and Joan Rivers. The Jews among them are Sahl, "the titular head of the comic new wave" whose comedy bordered on anarchy; Caesar, the sketch mas- ter of early television; Lehrer, the satirical songster who wrote "Chanukah in Santa Monica"; Berman (born Sheldon REBELS OF COMEDY on page 64 Opposite page top to bottom: Author Gerald Nachman: "Many [of the comedians profiled] had chaotic and troubled lives that reflected in their comedy commentary and observational humor." Shelly Berman: 711 comedian whose neuroses helped define the revolutionary comedy of the '50s and '60s," writes Nachman. Lenny Bruce: "The Elvis of Stand-up." Comedy Central documentary pays tribute in a six part series. GERRI MILT ,FR Special to the Jewish News egend.s like Mel Brooks, Milton Berle and the Marx Brothers are MIA, and there's no mention of Jackie Mason, Woody Alien, Robert Klein, Garry Shandling or the Davids Steinberg and Brenner. No strains of "Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh" from balladeer Allan Sherman nor Adam San.dler's "Chanukah Song," either. But there's still a lot to like about Comedy Central's weeklong tribute Heroes of Jewish Comedy, airing July 7- 1 1 . Narrated by Judd Hirsch, the series features interviews and clips to tackle L subjects like "Love & Dating," On the Road," and "Angst," in which were told, "Jewish comedy has its roots in hundreds of years of persecution." The entertaining "Insult" segment includes everyone from Don Rickles to Triumph the Insult Comic Dog (and his alter ego Robert Smigel) to Comedy Centrals Daily Show contributor Lewis Black, a self described "big barking dog" who credits his loud family for his ranting style: "We'd watch Walter Cronkite on the news and my mother would just start yelling." The episode traces the roast tradition to the "bodkins," who rhymed insults at 1 ith-century Jewish weddings. Joan Rivers, Fran Drescher, Judy Gold, Susie Essman and Sandra - Bernhard sound off on Jewish female mothers and princesses stereotypes included --- in the "Women" segment, and successors to Seinfeld are show- cased in "New Faces," among them Hon Gold, Mark Ma.ron and identical twins Jason and Randy Accustomed to