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August 02, 2007 - Image 34

Resource type:
Text
Publication:
The Detroit Jewish News, 2007-08-02

Disclaimer: Computer generated plain text may have errors. Read more about this.

Arts & Entertainment

&About

Robert Rules

Born in the Bronx, Jewish comedian
Robert Schimmel got a big break in 1986,
when Rodney Dangerfield invited him
to perform on HBO's Young Comedians.
Show-time specials Hard Core in the Big
Apple and Robert Schimmel: Guilty as
Charged soon followed.
Schimmel regularly
appears with Howard
Stern and on other talk
shows, including seven
appearances with Conan
O'Brien. Schimmel is a
former staff writer on
the hit series In Living
Color; his CD releases
Robert
include Robert Schimmel
Schimmel
Comes Clean; If You
Buy This CD, I Can Get This Car, which
helped to land the performer the Best
Male Stand-Up Comic Award at the 13th
annual American Comedy Awards; Robert
Schimmel: Unprotected, recorded from his
HBO special Unprotected; and his most
recent, Robert Schimmel: Reserection.
In 2000, Schimmel was diagnosed with
stage 3 non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. His
doctors at the Mayo Clinic used an experi-
mental chemotherapy drug that Schimmel
responded to, saving his life.
While in treatment, he empathized with
how depressing and difficult chemother-
apy was for many patients in the infusion
center. So he started bringing in comedy

This summer, the
CDs and DVDs for
community theater
the other patients.
will present the world
From that he vowed
premiere of Feinstein's
to raise money for
Better Than Money,
CDs, DVDs and audio
a Neil Simon-esque
books to stock librar-
Gail Zimmerman
comedy that unfolds
ies in infusion centers
Arts Editor
in 1946, when the
across the country.
After six years in remission, Schimmel says members of a Jewish family in the Bronx
his personal quest is to bring hope to others struggle with their personal identities and
the future of their children.
who face this illness, proving that laughter
Feinstein, 77, is a retired teacher and psy-
is indeed the best medicine.
chologist. He is a member of Playwrights at
The comedian has made more than
Work, a group of playwrights whose work
100 presentations to hospitals and centers
is supported by the Village Players.
nationwide. His book about his cancer
Three members of the local Jewish
experience will be published by Da Capo
community will take the stage in this
Press later this year.
production, which runs 8 p.m. Friday and
Schimmel comes to Mark Ridley's
Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 3-5, at
Comedy Castle, 269 E. Fourth St., in Royal
the Village Players Playhouse, located at
Oak, Aug. 2-4. Performances (18+, no
34660 Woodward, in Birmingham.
smoking, sexually explicit material) are 8
Playing the father is Steve Rosen of
p.m. Thursday, $20; 8 and 10:30 p.m. Friday,
Commerce Township, a retiree who cur-
$25; and 8 and 10:30 p.m. Saturday, $30.
(248) 542-9900 or www.comedycastle.com. rently is studying elementary education
at Oakland University while serving as
a volunteer mentor for Jewish Family
World Premiere
Service and a volunteer through Hadassah
at Roosevelt Elementary in Keego Harbor.
Last summer, Village Players of
Liz Walters of West Bloomfield plays the
Birmingham staged West Bloomfield
mother; she has a long list of theater
playwright Joe Feinstein's The Last of the
credits, including her favorite role, Mama
Aztecs, about the sole remaining member
Rose in Gypsy. The son is played by Josh
of a New York social and athletic club
Berkowitz of West Bloomfield. A mainstay
who meets up with the soul of a departed
in productions at West Bloomfield High
member. The play addressed issues of
School, from which he recently graduated,
grief and mortality and the long-term
Berkowitz will begin theater studies at the
effects of critical choices.

- •

Steve Rosen, Liz Walters and Josh
Berkowitz in Better Than Money

University of Michigan this fall.
Other cast members include Betsy
Bobo Todd of Bloomfield Township,
Jillian Buckshaw of Northville and Suzann
LaBatt of Oxford.
Tickets are $15. Call (248) 644-0275 or
go to www.birminghamvillageplayers.com .

Shelley's Songs

Shelley Posen is a songwriter and a per-
former of his own and traditional songs.
He writes about everything from canoes
to codfish, seders to Sacred Harp with
great craftsmanship and wit and has been
recorded by artists across Canada, the U.S.
and Great Britain. He also is a member of
the vocal trio Finest Kind and performs
with them at folk festivals and concerts on
both sides of the Atlantic. He has recorded
three CDs of his own and five with Finest
Kind.
Posen grew up during the 1950s in
Toronto, where his mother made singing
a natural part of everyday life and Jewish

WS

or
s

Nate Bloom
Special to the Jewish News

Dancing Dolls

Bratz, a live-action film based on
i a line of best-selling dolls, opens
Friday, Aug. 3. Paula Abdul was hired
to co-produce the movie and choreo-
711
) graph. However, she was fired by the
(111111) production company a few months
ago, and her name has been removed
from the credits.
The whole drama of
her firing was shown
on Abdul's reality
show, Hey Paula,
now airing on the
Bravo cable network.
The Bratz dolls,
Isaac Larian
which often out-
sell Barbies, have
attracted controversy because they
have exaggerated features and
sometimes wear trashy clothes. They
have, however, made Isaac Larian,
the guy who marketed them after

d

34

August 2 • 2007

seeing a concept design, a very rich
man. Larian is a Persian Jew who
settled in Los Angeles as a young
man. One of the four original dolls,
Yasmin, is named after Larian's real-
life daughter, Jasmin.
Jewish actress Anneliese Van Der
Pol, 24, can be seen in the film as
Avery.

Motown Jewz

The new FX series Damages, starring
Glenn Close as a morally ambigu-
ous attorney, premiered July 24 to
absolutely stellar reviews. It airs
10 p.m. Tuesdays. The program is
produced, created and written by a
trio of Jews: Daniel Zelman and the
brothers Glenn and Todd Kessler (a
former writer for The Sopranos). The
Kesslers are Detroit-area natives.
Zelman married actress Debra
Messing (Will and Grace) in 2000,
and they've been a couple since 1991.
He's been working as an actor and
screenwriter for many years, but

Damages is his first big hit.
Ron Miller, a Jewish composer
who was the only white Motown
staff songwriter, died in Los Angeles
on July 23, at
age 76. Born
Ronald Gould
in Chicago, he
was struggling
to support his
family when he
Ron Miller and
happened to
Berry Gordy in an
meet Motown
undated photo
founder Berry
Gordy, who invited him to work for
Motown. Miller then moved to Detroit
and helped to create music history.
He wrote or co-wrote big hits for
Stevie Wonder ("For Once in My Life,"
"Yester-Me, Yester-You, Yesterday,"
"Heaven Help Us All" and "A Place in
the Sun") and Diana Ross ("Touch Me
in the Morning"). Miller's songs were
recorded by scores of artists, includ-
ing Barbra Streisand, Tony Bennett,
Ray Charles and Celine Dion.

Samberg On Screen

Like many Saturday Night Live cast
members before him, Andy Samberg
tries to make the transition to
screen star in a silly comedy, Hot
Rod, produced by SNL creator Lorne
Michaels and open-
ing Friday, Aug. 3.
Samberg plays
an inept stunt dare-
devil who attempts
to jump 15 buses to
pay for a life-sav-
ing operation for his
Andy Samberg abusive stepfather.
Playing his love
interest is the delicious Isla Fisher
(no source seems to know whether
Fisher has finally finished her con-
version to Judaism in advance of
marrying Sacha Baron Cohen).
In 2003, Samberg joined with
Jorma Taccone and Akiva Schaeffer,
friends he has known since junior
high, to create the Web site Lonely
Island. The comedic films the trio

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