When Comedy Went to School is a look back at the birth of modern stand-up comedy in the Borscht Belt, otherwise known as the Catskill Mountains.

“The virtue of the Jewish people in comedy is that they could always find the joke. The people are up in front of the German firing squad, and one of the guys says, you know, ‘Long live the Jewish homeland.’ And the other guy says, ‘Shh, don’t make trouble.'” – Mort Sahl

I first watched When Comedy Went to School back in January 2015. Last month, I did a rewatch in anticipation of Jewish American Heritage Month. For a film about Jewish comedians, it’s rather short at 77 minutes. Regardless, it serves as a basic primer to the history of Jewish comedy in the Catskills. In its heyday, there were some 500 resorts attracting Jews vacationing from New York City. But as the 50s gave way to the 60s, the popularity of the Catskills declined. Many had already closed by the 60s and more closed during the 70s. Not many resorts survived into the 90s. Kutsher’s closed its doors in 2013.

Jews account for some 2% of the American population but dominate the field of comedy. What can I say? Generational trauma led us to specialize in humor. It’s one of the main ways to work through the pain of our people. The story of Jewish comedians in America is really no different than the story of Jews in America. Vaudeville started to become a dying breed towards the end of the 1920s as motion pictures transitioned to sound. The Catskills resorts started building up around this time. In as much as it soon became a popular place to vacation, When Comedy Went to School points out how comedians started working on their material.

Robert Klein notes that “from the 1930s to the late 60s, the Catskill Hotels were the settings for the most important and fascinating era in American humor.”

The beauty of the Catskills was that were no shortages of stages or audiences! If you’re material didn’t work with one audience, it could work with another. It’s all about trial and error. While the resorts were home to plenty of Jewish vacationers, the comedians were not exclusively Jewish. Dick Gregory is the sole veteran Black comedian who makes an appearance in When Comedy Went to School.

Many Jewish comedians got their start by playing the Borscht Belt. It is not an understatement to say just how many careers were started in the resort nightclubs. The very nightclubs are where modern stand-up comedy got its start as many rising comedians used the grounds as a type of comedy boot camp. When Comedy Went to School mentions how resorts were popular because of antisemitism. Even after the Holocaust, there were still hotels that wouldn’t accept Jews. It’s a shame but that’s why so many Jews spent their summers in upstate New York. A single acre in New York’s Lower East Side contained as many as 500 Jewish immigrants. They naturally escaped the city for the Catskills.

Jerry Lewis, Sid Caesar, Jackie Mason, Mort Sahl, and Jerry Stiller headline When Comedy Went to School. They discuss their experiences in the Catskills. Some of them discuss seeing other comedians perform. Larry King, the longtime CNN host, grew up in Brooklyn and vacationed in the Catskills. Robert Klein, who more or less hosts the documentary, also worked as a bus boy in the Catskills. On the other end of the coin are the families that operated the hotels like Kutsher’s or Grossinger’s. Historians such as Dr. Lawrence J. Epstein and Prof. Joseph Dorinson also bring their insights. Epstein authored The Haunted Smile about the history of Jewish comedy in America.

“Much of Jewish humor is contained in the thought, we’re all going to die,” Prof. Dorinson says. “We might as well laugh until we get to that terminal point.”

“The Jews had to be alert to what was going on,” offers Dr. Epstein. “Without that alertness they would have been dead, that skill is crucial to being a comedian.”

When Comedy Went to School features clips of Danny Kaye, Mel Brooks, Red Buttons, Buddy Hackett, Lenny Bruce, Henny Youngman, Don Rickles, Totie Fields, and Rodney Dangerfield. There are also clips of Billy Crystal, Joan Rivers, Woody Allen, and Jerry Seinfeld.

When Comedy Went to School doesn’t just touch on the history of Jewish comedians but the role that the Catskills played in building up the American dream. By the end of the 1950s, Jews were in a better place, having risen on the socioeconomic ladder. The downside of this is that there no longer existed a purpose to travel upstate to the Catskills. Not when families or couples could travel elsewhere on vacation or the tumultuous period that existed during the 1960s and 1970s. What people considered funny had changed.

DIRECTORS: Mevlut Akkaya & Ron Frank
SCREENWRITER: Lawrence Richards
FEATURING: Robert Klein, Jerry Lewis, Sid Caesar, Jackie Mason, Larry King, Mort Sahl, Jerry Stiller, Mickey Freeman, Dick Gregory, Hugh Hefner, Dick Capri, Amy Stiller, Wendy Liebman, Cory Kahaney, Marc Maron, Darryl Lenox, Sandy Hackett, Joe Franklin, Joe Rapp, Arnold Graham, Helen Kutsher, Mark Kutsher, Tania Grossinger, Esta Salzman Lubin, Paul Krohn, Prof. Joseph Dorinson, Dr. Lawrence J. Epstein, Dr. Robert Schain, Henry Foner, Pat Cooper, Mal Z. Lawrence, Stewie Stone, Tony Camin

First Run Features released When Comedy Went to School in theaters on June 6, 2013. Grade: 4/5

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