FRINGE BENEFITS EDINBURGH MUST-SEES

The Edinburgh festival kicks off next week, with plenty of Jewish talent everywhere you look. Here, two comedians This LA-based Scottish comedian’s show takes on weighty matter s

MY EDINBURGH show Tipping the Scales is about my lifelong battle with my weight. But on a deeper level, it’s about how that battle led me to finding and loving myself. It’s funny, heartfelt and relatable to anyone who is trying to get over ever-present obstacles in their life. Hopefully, it will inspire those who see the show to take action and face their demons.

I have been workshopping it for the past year and just performed it for the first time in front of a live crowd for several shows in Hollywood, where I live. Happily, it was a success.

I talk about my Judaism in the show, though it’s not specifically a show about being Jewish. I tell a story about the year that I played Santa Claus for my nonJewish cleaning lady’s Peruvian Christmas party. My mom, a Jew from Glasgow, is a protective Jewish mother and she was afraid she might have lost me to the magic of Christmas. To keep me from falling away from Judaism, she devised a very specific plan for how I would take on the role of Santa. To hear more about it, you’ll just have to come and see the show.

Judaism plays a large role in my life today. I belong to a local synagogue with my wife, Kylie Ora Lobell, who converted to Judaism. I just finished an arts fellowship for Jewish artists at American Jewish University. I got to meet many kinds of cool, creative Jewish people from all walks of Judaism and life. Some of my favourite times take place around the Friday night table, where Kylie and I are lucky enough to always have an eclectic and fun mix of Jewish friends (and also sometimes non-Jewish friends) joining us for Shabbat.

Aside from the fact that I am a Scottish Jew who grew up hearing about the Edinburgh Fringe my whole life, I think Edinburgh is a wonderful city and I enjoy getting away from the horrible August heat in Los Angeles. The festival has made me a better comedian because I’m competing against the best of the best in the world for audience members. It forces me to really bring my A-game to the stage every night.

I can’t wait to see Andrew Maxwell, Tommy Tiernan, Jimeoin, my old buddy from New York Dan Soder, and Colt Cabana, a Jewish wrestler who is also the most recent guest on my podcast, Modern Day Philosophers.

Tipping the Scales is at the Underbelly , Bristo Square on selected dates from July 31