Hometown Funnyman Jeremy Schaftel to Emcee BHC's Annual 'LOL Comedy Night'

Who says you can’t go home again? Or, for that matter, back to your old shul? That’s exactly what New York-based comedian Jeremy Schaftel will do Thursday night, May 9, when he emcees Baltimore Hebrew Congregation’s “LOL Comedy Night.”

The Pikesville native, who became a bar mitzvah at BHC, will be featured along with fellow stand-up comedians Gary Vider and Talia Reese. The annual comedy gala supports the temple’s educational programs, the E.B. Hirsh Early Childhood Center and JLAB (Jewish Learning @ BHC).

A 2011 graduate of the New York University Tisch School of the Arts, Schaftel works as an assistant editor at Broadway Video, a multi-media company founded by “Saturday Night Live” creator Lorne Michaels. He has also worked as an editor for Jerry Seinfeld’s “Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee” series.

Jmore: What’s it like to return to your hometown to perform at the temple where you became a bar mitzvah? Any flashbacks or PTSD?

JS: Other than my mother texting me about all her yenta friends coming to the show, I feel really good about doing stand-up at the place I was bar mitzvahed. Really excited to challenge the idea of manhood at the source.

That said, it’s kind of mixed messaging, isn’t it? When you’re bar mitzvahed, people give you money for proving to everyone you’re ready to be an adult, so it’s ironic to be in the same space and get paid for showing everyone that I’m clearly not. I keep thinking about how relaxed I was during my bar mitzvah, so hopefully I’m able to channel some of that energy.

What should audience members expect from the ‘LOL Comedy Night’?

Talia, Gary, and I are very different flavors of comedians so expect a nice variety of material. It’s a hack phrase to say ‘Comedy is subjective,’ but I’ve worked with both of them in New York clubs and they’re killers.

What I’m trying to say is, if you don’t laugh, you’re the problem.

Should the audience expect a clean show?

I’d say PG-13. I want to respect the space and the families that are coming to the show. While that’s my goal for the night, as I’ve learned the hard way, even if you’re squeaky clean, you can still be deeply offensive. So I just want to be clear that hurting anyone’s feelings is not the intention or goal of the show, but comedy is very personal and you never know what’s going on in the heads of some audience members.

So again, if you have any issues with the show, you’re the problem. Fix your brain.

What do you miss most about Baltimore?

It’s probably a tie between my grandparents and home-cooked meals. Luckily, there’s a high probability those two worlds will collide while I’m in town.

What do you love and hate about New York?

I love the New York comedy community. I can go to any club or show in the city on any night, and I’ll have friends there to hang out with.

Hate? Sorry if this makes me a stereotype, but I hate how expensive it is. The cost of living here is absurd. It’s totally unsustainable. I have a bit about how hard it is to live in New York in my act. I say, ‘Living in New York feels like you’re being hunted down by an underpaid hitman. It’s like the city has a contract out on my head but it’s just such a small amount of money that I’ll never be his priority. So he keeps cutting corners by putting mold in my apartment, or giving me food poisoning from dollar slice pizza or a hotdog I ate at a Port Authority bus terminal.’

How often do you come home to Baltimore?

I only come home for the holidays so even though that’s only a handful of times per year, I feel like I get a good dose. I feel like Baltimore, much like my company, is best in small doses.

Do you reference Pikesville in your act very often?

If there’s one thing that kills with New York audiences, it’s when you reference places they’ve never heard of. Actually, to answer your question honestly, I do have a bit about public school, I just don’t mention specifically that I’m talking about Pikesville High. Shout out to whatever mascot we were. Was it Panthers? I don’t remember but that sounds right.

Any favorite memories about growing up at BHC? Did you hate Hebrew school like a lot of kvetchy kids?

I goofed off a lot with my friends at BHC, so my fond memories revolve mostly around that. I didn’t hate it.

How do you describe growing up in Baltimore to people who aren’t from here?

I say it’s just like ‘The Wire.’ I tell them, Baltimore is like an everything bagel with a little extra seasoning and some stab wounds. This is true: when I moved to New York City for film school, I honestly thought the student population would be half-Black/half-Jewish like it was at Pikesville High and much to my chagrin. … IT WAS. No, I lied. It was full of WASPy rich kids.

Did you always want to get involved in comedy? Were you always funny?

My dad took me and my brother to see Dom Irrera at the Baltimore Improv when I was 11. And my G-d, did he lay into me. It was such a hilarious, brutal assault. At one point he insulted the size of my testicles and I was crying laughing. Truly, one of the funniest shows I’ve ever seen.

And then the morning after the show, I’m in the car with my dad and we hear Dom on morning radio. I think it was 98 Rock. He says, ‘Some TERRIBLE father brought his 11-year-old son to my show. What kind of irresponsible adult brings their kids to a comedy club?’ And we were just so excited he mentioned us, we kept high-fiving each other and totally disregarded all the insults.

I have a lot of experiences like that, and I think they accumulate into someone who wants to be a comedian.

What’s it like working with the likes of Jerry Seinfeld, Robert Smigel, Tyler Perry and Triumph the Insult Comic Dog?

It was smart that you separated Triumph from Robert because they are very different people (animals?). One poops significantly more. I love Smigel. We just did a Triumph special together in San Francisco with Weird Al Yankovic that’s on YouTube. I produced, wrote and edited it with him.

Seinfeld was my hero growing up, so it’s still very weird that he knows who I am. For the readers who don’t know what I do when I’m not onstage, I spend a lot of time making famous people look good. Apparently, that’s my skillset. I worked for Jerry for 10 years as a creative/assistant editor on ‘Comedians in Cars’ and the Netflix specials. I miss that guy.

Tyler Perry has an amazing life story, so I was really fortunate to help him tell that. Semi-interesting anecdote: his mother, despite being a religious Christian, worked at a Hebrew school in New Orleans throughout his childhood. And even though she’d receive antisemitic death threats from people around her community, she continued to work there. That wasn’t in the Amazon documentary [`Maxine’s Baby: The Tyler Perry Story’], but I thought that was pretty cool.

Who in the business would you love to work with?

Technically, I worked with him already because I helped edit the Seinfeld Superbowl commercial he directed, but I would love to do something with Larry David. I hate admitting this in front of all 12 of your subscribers, but I cried like a little boy during that ‘Curb’ finale. That show is everything. I’m going to miss it like crazy. Larry’s another hero that looms very large for me. Hopefully, he comes out of retirement real soon.

Future career ambitions and plans?

I want to start headlining more comedy clubs around the country. There’s not a lot of opportunities to do longer sets in New York City. I also wrote a comedy pilot that I’m planning to shoot as a proof of concept. That’s been in the works for a while.

But my biggest ambition of all is really just to get invited back to BHC’s ‘LOL Comedy Night’ and raise money for education programs.

For information about the “LOL Comedy Night 2024,” visit baltimorehebrew.org/lolbhc.