40 | MAY 27 • 2021

S

urrounded by people who complain
about their family annoyances, Cory
Kahaney jokes about hers in come-
dy clubs, on TV and for special events.
Funny family fiascos have built Kahaney’s
career through the pandemic, and she will
livestream her approach to raise funds for
community service projects sponsored by
the National Council of Jewish
Women, Michigan.
“Raising Laughter,
” zooming
into homes at 7 p.m. Sunday,
June 6, also will provide fun
material by local humorist
Alan (Big Al) Muskovitz, who
alternates between topical sub-
jects and what can be self-dep-
recating. Muskovitz quipped that he avoids
the equal opportunity political humor he
once shared with audiences because “I just
want people to like me.
”
“I don’t do family relationship stuff,
” said
the former longtime radio personality, who
often emcees events, takes on voice-over
assignments and writes for the Detroit
Jewish News. “I wish I could, but then I’
d
have to move out of my house.
”
Kahaney, based in New York, stays
close to family at home and nearby as she
adapts those relationships into her material.
Muskovitz draws more on his own idiosyn-
crasies and the news of the day, convinced
it is much funnier than anything he could
make up.
“I’ll make everybody feel a little bit of
normalcy,
” said Kahaney, whose TV perfor-
mances have reached from Comedy Central
Presents to Stephen Colbert’s talk show. “My

standup is very familiar to everyone. It’s
about being a wife, a mother, an ex-wife, a
daughter-in-law — all that is part of being a
Jewish woman.
“I love sharing anything that makes
people feel less alone, and I make a special
effort to bring in Jewish content when I’m
performing for a Jewish group. It’s a luxury
when it’s all mishpuchah,
” she continued.
“I came to comedy because it was intro-
duced to me through Jewish channels, and
I’ve done an ‘Erev Christmas’ show for a
large audience. I tell my family if they don’t
want it in the act, don’t do it.
”
Kahaney’s interest in being a comedy per-
former started when traveling with parents
to Jewish resorts in the Catskills, where she
could glimpse star humorists. Lucille Ball
and Joan Rivers, so often on TV through
reruns, became additional inspiration.
“I was always being thrown out of class
for making jokes,
” she recalled. “The teach-
ers who liked jokes loved me. The teachers
who wanted a serious classroom couldn’t
stand me.
”
Kahaney studied acting at New York
University and wanted comedic roles before
thinking of standup, which she tried when
she was 21 and in her first marriage. To
her dismay, stage fright took hold, and she
established a career as a catering manager in
a New York hotel.
Eight years later, she gave standup a sec-
ond chance.

STANDUP COMIC AS SINGLE MOM
“I was a divorced single mom so I pretty
much chose doing standup comedy at the

worst time anyone could possibly do it,
” she
said. “I would not recommend it to any-
body, but it probably kept me sane. It was
probably the right move because the doors
started opening.
“When I was a catering manager, the
head bartender worked at Catch a Rising
Star, and I was dating a comedian casu-
ally,
” she recalled about incentives for the
career turnaround. “
Also, one of the wait-
ers worked at Dangerfield’s, and another
worked at Carolines on Broadway.
“I was surrounded by it, and I really got
tired of people introducing me as ‘their boss
but she’s really a comedian.
’ I tried it as a
hobby but found myself where I was sup-
posed to be.
”

Kahaney, the wife of attorney Ken Misrok
and mother of two, has had to make style
changes for digital appearances although
in-person club engagements are opening.
“Digital is not harder, but there’s a big
adjustment,
” said Kahaney, who has enter-
tained pre-pandemic live audiences in
Ann Arbor. “I think it’s like the difference
between playing an acoustic guitar and an
electric guitar.
“Obviously, you’re far from people, but
because you’re so close through the camera,
you can’t be as dramatic and larger than life
the way you would be onstage.
“Because you’re in somebody’s living
room, you have to do more conversational
comedy. There’s nothing that gives me more
pleasure than hearing an audience laugh,
and I go to great lengths to do that.
”

ARTS&LIFE
COMEDY

Cory Kahaney to
headline NCJW
fundraiser.

Cory Kahaney to

Funny
People

SUZANNE CHESSLER
CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Cory
Kahaney

“MY STANDUP IS ABOUT
BEING A WIFE,
A MOTHER, AN
EX-WIFE, A
DAUGHTER-IN-LAW.”

— CORY KAHANEY

Alan
Muskovitz

Details

“Raising Laughter” will livestream
at 7 p.m. Sunday, June 6. $36
household; $75 patron. Tickets:
ncjwmi.org/product/raisinglaughter
or call (248) 355-3300.