AND HERE’S MODI
AND HERE’S MODI is an inside look at the man behind the microphone. Hosted by comedian, Modi (@modi_live), AHM features a raw and unfiltered side of the comedian rarely seen on stage. He always finds the funny as he navigates the worlds of comedy, trending topics, his personal life and spirituality. AHM is co-hosted by Periel Aschenbrand (@perielaschenbrand) and Leo Veiga (@leo_veiga_).
AND HERE’S MODI
Cantor Benny
Episode 89: Cantor Benny Rogosnitzky of Park East Synagogue joins Modi for a special episode dedicated to cantorial singing and using music to bring #MoshiachEnergy.
Follow Cantor Benny @Cantor.Benny and @CantorsWorld.
For information about upcoming shows visit www.modilive.com.
Follow Modi on Instagram at @modi_live.
Welcome to and here's Modi. Hi everybody, welcome back to and here's Modi. We have a I have a friend. I have a friend in the studio with me today, my friend, benny Roganicki, better known as Cantor Benny. Yes, yes, Cantor Benny, and you're here. You and I were always friends and we became much closer friends during COVID and we we worked together and working with you is so much fun and Mashiach energy. It really, it really really is. Benny, you're what's your main. If you someone asks you, what do you do, what do you say?
Speaker 2:So on Saturdays I'm a chasen. Monday to Friday I'm an executive director.
Speaker 1:Executive director. You run Parki synagogue and you run the Arthur Schneier Parki State School, which is amazing. You're the, you literally are the, the wind beneath the wings of the whole thing. It's insane. I've seen you, I've been a part of it. I'm I am an official honorary member of Parki synagogue, this is true, as officiated by Rabbi Arthur Schneier Schlieta.
Speaker 1:We, besides doing shows, one of my favorite stories I always tell is you hired me to perform at a shul dinner of yours at the Waldorf a thousand people. So when the Waldorf was still there, right, and you asked me to host, and then you ended up not using me as a host, cause the guy who was being honored wanted to host and you said, cause I'm the H, just come on, I don't know, we'll figure out what to do with you, cause you couldn't just cancel me. And then, at one point, rabbi Schneier, the guy who was being honored, the host, who was his son, were all up there hollering in the Holocaust stories. They were just up there talking about Holocaust and Holocaust and Holocaust and Holocaust, and the entire room was like you have to understand upfront or the dignitaries, then the billionaires, and then the parents of the kids in the school a thousand people. Now it literally like watching Schindler's list.
Speaker 1:And the dinner hadn't been served yet and Benny says to me he goes, go up there and make this end Right. And I'm like what? You just go up there and make it end. And I walked up and I get there was a podium, remember this. And I woke up and Rabbi Schneier sees me and he says he says hello, mody. And they all just start to walk off the stage. Now the audience is looking at me after hearing the story, after hearing maybe 20 minutes of Holocaust stories, and I looked to the audience and I said to them ladies and gentlemen, I am neither a son of a survivor or a grandchild of a survivor. In the mid 1930s, my grandparents, then living in Eastern Europe, turned to each other and said this does not look good, murray, grab your release. We're going to Palestine. I'm saying Palestine with the Israeli ambassador in the front row.
Speaker 2:They got a huge laugh, which it could have gotten either way, you know how that could have gone either way.
Speaker 1:And then, boom, dinner happened and it was just an amazing, an amazing, just to tell you. That's the back and forth Benny and I have. And then, wow, throughout COVID, throughout COVID, you and I, whenever there's an opportunity to bring some kind of laughter in to whatever events were happening at Park East synagogue you brought me live streaming not streaming this that, this guy's anniversary, this guy's the, the, the shuls anniversary. We did it all on zoom and like top end production. You know, you, being a performer, know what it means, what the performer is going through also, right, not just how important is the sound and the and the videos and and camera angles. You yourself, as a performer, know so it was. And that's like we have history from shows and from performing. And then you hired me a few times to perform for your, your, I guess your passion project what's it called? From divorced singles, and, and it's an amazing organization that helps people who are from and divorced, find their next, their next spouse, their soulmate, god willing.
Speaker 1:And we're going to take this moment right now to thank our sponsors. A and H provisions. Thank you very much for being a part of us. This is the best. You know A and H, don't you? Now, I know them for sure. Come on, you never heard of A and H. The best hot dogs in the world, even Guayim, know how good they are and buy them. And Glock kosher meets that are amazing A and H. And if you go to their website which I do not know is usually what Leo and Perrielle say and you put in promo code MODI, you get 30% of your first order. And our other sponsors is Whites and Luxembourg that you've heard of, of course, of course that you've heard of.
Speaker 2:I'm in a synagogue with 500 lawyers.
Speaker 1:Okay, you've heard of Whites and Luxembourg. That's the law from you, one on your side. If you ever have the sholam need a law firm, that's what you want on your side, arthur Luxembourg, a big, big friend of the podcast, and we thank you for being a part. Now, the real reason I brought you here. Okay, just give everybody a hand of how we know each other.
Speaker 2:This is the warmup, you know the cantors need a warmup. This is the warmup.
Speaker 1:Yeah, this is the opening. This is the chazen rison, the chachos chazen. All right, you have your finger on the pulse of Chazonas of today, cantorial singing. I don't know if people even know what I'm talking about anymore. Do they know what I'm talking about?
Speaker 2:So some know it just anecdotally. They know it through their parents or grandparents. That's the larger community.
Speaker 1:I want you to know that I brought Eli Levin on the show to talk to him. I was hoping to get into Chazonas and I was Nothing, nothing, nothing. We spoke about Shwecki and Lipa and Avrafreeda. But I wanted to get into it with him and he is the best. Eli Levin is in the Shama, he's a soul and he sings beautifully. He did not have any Chazonas background to even talk about it with me, so I had to bring you. I said I'm going to tell you I love Chazonas. Now, listen to it any place and once in a while, even with a little shmek of marijuana, chazonas is on another level.
Speaker 2:For the listener or the performer? No for the performer.
Speaker 1:I don't know. I've never really I never did it on. But when I'm at the gym, a little bit, very, very little, it puts you in a different space and you're hearing the Chazonas and I said I want to talk about this. I go, who am I going to talk to about this? I go, benny, I want Benny on the podcast. I told Leo he said go ahead. So that's why I have you here. I have so much to talk to you about.
Speaker 2:Well, let me just say I'm very happy to be here, I watch it and I love everything that you do. You really are a super talent and maybe because I am a performer and you know I'm a canter and I've performed at concerts and I lead Dovahning, so I get to appreciate what it's like to be on stage. It's a different experience.
Speaker 1:Of course.
Speaker 2:You've never done it. You don't always necessarily appreciate how creative you have to be on the spot, and I was thinking even on the way here. Canters and comedians have one thing in common it's mostly not scripted. Yes, you know what your music on Chambis morning, but sometimes something happens and you need to change. Sometimes the rabbi looks at his watch and you got to move things along. You have the same thing in your line. You got to be quick on your feet.
Speaker 1:Stretch when the guy goes, stretch it. The other comic didn't show up. Stretch, slap it out. Slap it out, slap it out With canters.
Speaker 2:Right, that's most often what happens with canters. Let's go Move it along, then you start doing it.
Speaker 1:By the way, the first time I ever, the first time Leo ever came and watched me dobbin' and you're like you do the piece or what, or you've not a piece, or you do a piece, something strong, with nusukh, and you give it and you slap it out of it and then you go what are you doing? That's not saying anything, but you're not saying anything. So sometimes you have to move it along. But what were we saying, we, you?
Speaker 2:So I was just saying, first of all, so I can connect very much to the life of the comedian, to what the performance is like, because we also in the cantret have to do that. And yes, I do want to recognize how many things we did during COVID pre as well, but during COVID and some I don't know if you remember Mody very meaningful things. I remember that I put you on the phone with a guy who was dying of cancer and he couldn't speak anymore, but he was there with his whole family and I was thinking here I have a comedian on. You got to make them laugh. They're crying, right, but we still want to make them laugh. And there were these moments that were just incredible and I don't know that we would have had them if not for COVID, if not for the dark days, 100 percent.
Speaker 1:I I one of the things that COVID helped me discover was Mashiach energy. I began to understand what Mashiach energy is and and live in a way that Mashiach is already here, which is have to reveal it, which might be too deep for people, too crazy for them, but that's during COVID that that, especially coming out of COVID, that happened. But you're here because I want to get a gazonis off my, off my shoulder. Let's do it. The Rebbe, Zohran Lutz Ruh, said that a Jew has an asham and has to be ignited. Yes, it has to be ignited.
Speaker 1:Some people grew up in a religious home with the Shabbos and Yantifs and everything's kosher and still doesn't have an ignition to it. Maybe they have a rabbi that they hear a sermon and something gets them going. Maybe they meet the Rebbe. I mean, I know when my Yiddish in the summer was ignited, I know I was either nine, 10 or 11 years old. We were living in Northwoodmere next to Temple Hillel and we became members and they had a chasen, a chascala ridder. I was blown away to the point that I, every Shabbos before I were mentioned, I would go sit up front and watch him mesmerized. He was a Latoric baritone. I don't think he was a tenor. I mean, if he was, I'm so sorry. But if he was the killer, but I think it was a little the way he sat on his notes. The Nussach, the professors, it's also high, drag the robe, the hat the glasses.
Speaker 1:It's, and he had that old school talisman that like it's not a talisman. What is that thing? What is that like from the pope? It's ridiculous, it's like. But this way he's not fudging all day long like this. There's nothing worse than you see the chasen just trying to get his talisman back on. He had the little robe and he had this little little sitter the silver sitter that you buy in Jerusalem like this and he'd hold it and sing it, and I loved him. I loved him.
Speaker 1:I would always talk to him during kid-ish and later on he had diabetes so he began to lose his sight and he was diving completely by heart, completely by heart, and I used to walk him home, I used to walk him back to his house and listening to him was the most amazing thing in the world and it ignited my soul completely, and there was Mashiach energy there too. So throughout every Saturday the shul wasn't full so I'd sit up front. I had the top spot for Chazen Ritter Amazing. And now the Yantos came. My dad's not buying front seats. He's my dad's not a president of synagogue. He doesn't have any shachis to being in the front of the I'm not translating it. He's no shachis to being up front by the best term mentioned. No, luckily, I were friend, joined the synagogue, my parents friend, and they had a rich. His name was Boris Weinstein. Let's give him a shout out here. Boris Weinstock and his father made a donation of a sefer Torah.
Speaker 1:So now on the side of where the Bema is, it was a stage. It was like a conservative but more towards Orthodox shul, and they put chairs for him, so Russian shul. I was even closer and we sat and I was met, I was done, I was unhinged by how great this was and I, and then that sparked my Yiddish in Ashama 100%. And then my grandfather passed away and I had no idea that he listened to Chasdan. So my father came back from Israel with a box full of cantorial tapes. Those tapes, you know where they all have that same headshot Sure and then cotton, you know, and I listened to those and I was undone sitting in my room, 13, 14 year old, listening to Chasdan. Is unbelievable, I couldn't, I couldn't, I couldn't get over it. Right, and that's literally where my Yiddish in Ashama was sparked from, from Chasdan is.
Speaker 2:Look, chasdan is his soul music. It's you know. We say these beautiful words for Russian, shalim kippur hanashama lach. No, think about it, someone. What is an Ashama? You can't see what is a soul. You can't see it, you can't touch it, but you can feel it. You close your eyes, you go to shul and you hear the music, you hear the chasdan, you hear his soul and it's this most incredible feeling. And so, yeah, when you say you talk about Neshama and I always say, the people that love Chasdan and they can appreciate it have a very, very deep Neshama. It's an acquired taste, but it's, it's a tradition.
Speaker 2:A lot of people listen to Chasdan and they remember, like you said, they remember themselves as a kid, they remember their father, their grandfather, what it meant to them, right, what was a Chasdan in Europe? He came to shul to tell the story, the pain and suffering of Jews, and in 15 minutes he sang this beautiful anenu which made you cry. Why? Because you remember your suffering and you connected with him and thereby you connected with God. And I think, in an age where it's so hard for us to connect with one another and everybody's texting and everybody's doing everything online to be able to listen to something and feel inspired. The man or woman that can do that it's a gift 100%.
Speaker 1:You know, back in the day. So this was in the 70s, 80s. No, 80s, I'm not that old, it was 80s, maybe even to a day there was a Chasdan in the shul. There was a Chasdan, a guy was paid, he wore the robe. Now it's whoever goes up and does Karbach na Gunam Right. And, by the way, I will once say that I went to. I don't know if you know this, this might blow you away. I've stolen a lot of things from you, from your nusukh tapes and from listening to you, but you once held a seminar before Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur Davening. You held it at that shul on 86th Street At the Jewish Center.
Speaker 2:Yes, on the West Side.
Speaker 1:You were so strict and mean about how things have to be done. You can't just put a Karbach na Gunam because you feel like it. At least give two lines of nusukh and then do your Karbach na Gunam you got it Tradition, am I right you?
Speaker 2:literally tradition, absolutely Tradition.
Speaker 1:It was like this guy is, you know. And then you brought in the ENT of Albert Kekantar Mizrachi, dr Wu, to show the nun. Everybody wants notes on how your voice is Right. I'll tell you, the big difference between Chasdanem and a comedian is I've gone on stage with 103 temperature, with no voice, that whole day until I hit the stage. If the Chasdan's voice is not on, it's not on, you're cooked.
Speaker 2:That's the greatest anxiety. Greatest anxiety by far Chasdan has is two things. One I don't feel well till I get to the Ahmad. The second thing I'm not trained well enough and I get up to sing but I run out of juice 20 minutes into it. And what do I do then? I still got an hour of service and if you're not trained and you don't have backups, you really need God's help.
Speaker 1:It's more than a prayer.
Speaker 2:You need a miracle.
Speaker 1:You can't just fake it. No, you can't fake it. You can't fake it. I can just do it and get a quick joke. It's something I know it's gonna work. But I've been on stage with 103 to temperature and there was one time I had no voice the whole day. I just didn't talk voice sounds and I hit the stage and whatever I had I gave 40 minutes done, Went back home and just vitamin C, honey, all the nonsense, and you figure it out. So that was the thing. And then the one thing I always get a great reaction from that I stole from you is in Friday night, dovening.
Speaker 1:Talier of Yim tang you, first of all, if you have your voice in, you can go berserk. You can really blow the line.
Speaker 2:You can climb the ladder there, no way.
Speaker 1:It's scaled up, you're great on it, and then you set up for the end and it's at the point that service everybody's already done. They're very good, they're hungry. There's a holla waiting for them. They're done. What a great piece. You have two Nusuch tapes out.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:Available on Spotify, by the way. I love them and I listened to them always before, every once in a while, Again, a little shmech and they're amazing, the Konedre.
Speaker 2:I have Verosh Hashaniam Kippur, yes, and Friday night.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I'm actually right now working on Shabbos Day.
Speaker 1:Really, yes, it's so good. It's such good Nusuch and you have an amazing voice, but if you have Nusuch down, you don't really need that great of a voice. 100%, you do not need that great of a voice. Yeah, so I'm going to say something else. I'm dying on the. The second time when the shema was like punched again was from another chasun. Now again, we spoke about it before. The podcast Chazonist is not bad. There's your flavor and your choice.
Speaker 2:Correct.
Speaker 1:I think one of the greatest chazonim of our time. I don't know what politics anybody has. I think he is the best thing that I was able to experience. Obviously, you work with Chas and Helfkart Like wow, wow, wow. We have to give credit for what?
Speaker 2:that man did he brought it back.
Speaker 1:People were buying CDs, kids were listening to it in the minivan with their parents. Chas and Helfkart delivers. This voice is insane, it's reliable, it's reliable, it is, and he's so sweet. If you get to know him and then you watch him, daven, you're wow. Chas and Ari Klein blew me away.
Speaker 2:Let me just say Ari Klein is what we call an Esham-e-Chas. Not every Chas is an Esham-e-Chas. You can have a Chas with an amazing voice and he could do something to you because of the trill, because of how he hits the notes, but an Esham-e-Chas with the first note it just gets to you and you know what. They say. That about Rosenblatt. When people say what was great about Rosenblatt, jackie Mendelssohn, my dear friend, fantastic Chas, says you know, my mom when she'd listen to Rosenblatt, this first note, she would start to cry.
Speaker 2:Really Because there was so much emotion there, klein is an Esham-e-Chas, full, full.
Speaker 1:And let me say something. I'm going to say this also I understand Rosenblatt was the bar, or whatever you want to call it. He never spoke to me in the way other. I know. Listen, I love his stuff, I listen to it, but if I'm choosing a song for one thing, quartin.
Speaker 2:Wait, another N'sham-e-Chas, that's a full N'sham-e-Chas.
Speaker 1:Full Quartin. Oh my God, any of his songs, but especially the Ludovic Mismora, tia Robbie Schmuel. Here we are seeing all day long anti-Semitism. They put on our aswastika on our shoe.
Speaker 1:You're here to hear Robbie Schmuel's asma. That's anti-Semitism. That's anti-Semitism. Wow, Quartin blows me away. I'll tell you a funny story. So I have so much to talk to you about, I hope you can pop this one. First of all, I studied. I made friends with Ari Klein Again. My first apartment in Manhattan was on 69th and 1st and your shool was up the block. So that's where I discovered Ari Klein. I walked up the block two Friday night, Boom, I was hooked, addicted, addicted to Ari Klein. And then we became friends and he treats me like family, Like family. And then he I always beg them, give me voice lessons Please please.
Speaker 1:Please teach me. Finally, finally, he did. I want you to imagine me and him screaming at the top of our lungs in his kitchen on the Upper West Side. That was it. My voice was with him. But one time I said and he has a great sense of humor- yes, yeah.
Speaker 1:Hilarious guy. I said to him why do we and I remember the exact like story about the Chasms. I said to him how can we always do the Dov and Mismore for the end of Rosh Hashanah at William Kippur Davining After Shonest In the Quartin, why he goes? He watched his house burned down and his parents killed by Russians. Do you want to write one? Do you want to write another one? You're like that. I think he's qualified. So true, with his Chasms went through.
Speaker 1:I sang in his choir and I want to tell you I sang in a few choirs and I've always had the best time with them. First choir I ever sang with Asher Sharf.
Speaker 2:And you know him.
Speaker 1:Mansi yes, he's still alive. Yes, comes to shows once in a while. I love him. I fell in love. I didn't know Chazakabiso sweet Right, he was the sweetest guy. He davened at a shoe by our house, or Torah Young Rice. Sure, rabbi Young Rice, rabbi Young Rice's shoe, his wife after Young Rice was there, right, but Rabbi Young Rice was a soul Right and he had this Chasms and we sang in his choir and it was so much fun, wow, and he gave me solos and he really again sparked in the Shama of it and it was such a blast and I sang with Ari after he left. Parki Sinangak did this whole thing. Kol in the Shama Kol in the.
Speaker 1:Shama and we sang with the family and Moe and Moe Kiss, moe Kiss, and we had the best time Right and we did. It was Carl Bach mit Chazanes and it was amazing Right, and I love the way about singing in a choir Now the choir by you guys. Is anybody Jewish in your choir?
Speaker 2:I plead the fifth, you plead the fifth, but they're all singing.
Speaker 1:They're reading music.
Speaker 2:They're all reading music.
Speaker 1:Who is it? I don't know.
Speaker 2:Don't ask any questions, just read the music and move on.
Speaker 1:Okay, the Ari Klein way to get that talk to you. I mean, the problem with Chazanes is that you can't really record live Because it's on Shabbos, correct? So the albums that are out there are Slichas, right, slichas is the Saturday before Rosh Hashanah, it's in the evening after Shabbos and you can record it because it's not Shabbos anymore. And I will say to you again a huge Ari Klein addict His Slichas album is one of the best albums that are out there. Yeah, it is, his son produced it, mendy produced it. It is taped at the Parki synagogue.
Speaker 1:He was on the Neshama. Was there Anybody into Chazanes, learning Chazanes, trying Chazanes? It is a mandatory.
Speaker 2:Overflowing with soul.
Speaker 1:And you can tell he's improvising or whatever. Now I will say something else about. I'm sorry, I'm not letting you talk at all. It's okay, I don't think it's up. Moe Kis, yes, sent me a bunch of Moistur's Moistur's Doveening, I don't know, but Shabbos doveening, right. Someone wrote have you heard these?
Speaker 2:Yes, I have heard some.
Speaker 1:There's a Kon Nidre he has out there that someone, I guess, put a machine Right which is against Halacha. But you know what, Don't ask, don't tell Don't ask, don't tell. And he does this, kon Nidre, and he improvises in the middle of it. It is so, it's so insane and I just I can't. It's great, and you had him, you produced, you produced a.
Speaker 2:Spira concerts Right On the Lower East Side At the Biala Stakashul.
Speaker 1:Sure, I was there for the live. I was there for it live, and then I bought the album Right and it is. First of all it was. I forgot who did Mincha, and then my Rive was Moshe Stern and health got did Cantor, health got did Spira, and so Moshe Stern's, my Rive that night was probably the best thing.
Speaker 1:It's fireworks, it's just, there's no other way, and first of all, there's in the beginning of his, in the beginning of him coming on after the next part, some guy sneezes, but the guy sneezed too. It's like an old man, but he sneezed on key, on key and on the beats. Were you dying in the editing room, were you like? Please get this out somehow.
Speaker 2:But you can't get it out. It's a puzzle. It's like the guy whose cell phone goes off just during when it's quiet, right, but there were no cell phones that didn't go off for some reason.
Speaker 1:But that's sneezes, I always anyway I am. And then again you can only see sleeker stuff. And so, like Chaim Adler, right when you watch his sleeker services you're moved, you're blown away.
Speaker 2:It's magnificent, it's magnificent. What's also interesting is how and again I relate this to comedy In today's world it's very hard to get 500 people in the room to agree on anything, right, because everyone has their own opinion, and I would think as a comedian you can make two people laugh, or on the opposite side of the political spectrum, but the laughter they'll be unified in. They'll laugh because there's no harm done. Same thing with Tfilay. I look at the people in the shul, in our shul and other shuls, many of them not religious, some of them completely to the left and right. When it comes to Dhavani, it comes to Tirabhi, shmuel, asma. Comes to Hineni, barush, hashanah and Kasevan, they're united.
Speaker 2:It doesn't make a difference where you are in the political map. You're here. You're here to pray, to connect with God, and that's what's so beautiful about Chazanim. Chazanim have that switch that if they just do it right, they connect with the audience in a way that's second to none.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but I will. I agree with you, but also a little disagree. Someone's coming to see my show. They're coming to see Modi, Right? Someone's going to shul. They might not want to hear a chazan. They might want this to go quicker.
Speaker 2:They might want it to go quicker, but then they have. They can shop for other options. In most cases, if a guy's coming to shul and Risheshani Mkhilpur, he knows what to expect. That's when the service is going to start. Who's going? To lead it, etc. Etc.
Speaker 1:But yes, you're right Very often yeah our shul downtown I go to Sixth Street Synagogue. Rabbi Bolino also been a guest on the podcast and I did. I was doing for many years the Kulnajri service, which is my favorite because it's six in the evening.
Speaker 2:You've eaten, you're full.
Speaker 1:Your voice is there. There's no. In the morning from fasting, there's no, none of that. Your voice is there. I'll do Kulnajri, I kill it, done Whoever's doing most of it. The next thing all yours, it's a shul that we do Kaalbukh in Nagunam and we have a guy I forgot his name but he's wonderful. He was a Maccabee and he learned the Nusukh and he's great and we enjoy it and it's about being just standing and singing along rather than having to worry about all that stuff and it's great. Every shul has its own vibe, 100%. Your shul is listen, your shul is really like I don't say fancy, but it's well to do people Right. It's showing up in suits.
Speaker 2:Oh, absolutely, there's suits.
Speaker 1:There's no. No one's wearing a suit in our shul. It's an orthodox shul, but no, everybody's casual. No formalities, it's all formalities. And the fact that you call Khazan help got chief Khazan. That's like so old school, right when you hear Khazan Hirshman, who was the chief cantor is Krakow or wherever they were, is chief Khazan.
Speaker 2:That means there were five of the Khazans. Big deal correct, Right he took the cake.
Speaker 1:He was the head of that and it's amazing. I just can't tell people how Khazanesh could really just move you. It really what else do I want to talk to you about? That's, I don't know. I kind of needed to get that off my chest. It's just Khazanesh and what? Where do you see Khazanis going?
Speaker 2:Oh, I did a, I did a show for you.
Speaker 1:I poor bet you haven't gotten a word out yet. You really haven't Mama's a curbin. I brought you like a curbin for my rant. You brought me to a show once. It was a Khazanesh weekend, right yes? It was so good, right, I was there, so you did a weekend with the tell us, but what was?
Speaker 2:it. So we had to Khazan health. God other Khazanim it was. We started job this morning at, I think, 815. We stopped at 12 for short kid and we continued another two and a half hours. Wow, you understand. By the time that Dominic was over, there were no tissues left in the room. Everybody was crying. They cried their soul out. That job is now come Saturday night. Here's Modi. Now you're going to try and mitigate some of what happened here. The whole shop.
Speaker 1:And I think the stand out. I'm Stan. It's the black hat crowd Right. So black hat crowd, upfront is all the Khazanim Right, all of them. Who was there? Health, god, what.
Speaker 2:Yes and health God. Boyer, rosenfeld, motsen, every name you. Miller, I think Miller's son was there and what's his name?
Speaker 1:But from the choir.
Speaker 2:Russell Gair was there. He loo pose, he loo.
Speaker 1:Everybody was there. I get up Right and I said and I just started going off on Khazanim Right and I thought, and it was so much fun, I did like 30 minutes. It was so good, it got everybody in the mood and it lightened the whole thing up 100% and you knew that that was a a, it was a connector. I felt that it just knew it yeah.
Speaker 2:So I love it. Just say I was sitting next to Khazanim Health God as you were going up the show, and his English is okay, but when you speak fast it's hard for him to understand that. Can you imagine what it's like to translate what you're saying to hit from English to Hebrew? And he didn't even understand my Hebrew. He needed it in Yiddish. Yeah, and I'm trying to tell all your jokes.
Speaker 1:It's so, it's so funny because you, you really get it and I'm going to. I'm done with my Khazan ish rant. I think I covered everything. I was really. I wanted to do anything you want to add about Khazanis and one other topic I'll talk to you about.
Speaker 2:I'll just say, you know, as it relates to Khazanis, people say is it dead, is it alive? I think there's no question that Khazanis is still alive, but in a very different form. People don't have patients today, right, and a cantorial piece in order to get going takes 10 to 15 minutes. There's no such thing as a short three minute piece.
Speaker 2:It just doesn't work that way. People today, they want to move things along. It's like the WhatsApp, you know, in double speed. So, people that are smart, khazanim, that are smart, even Karl Bach, you got to do it faster, you got to engage the crowd. You can't sit there for two hours and be singing aneyno, because you'll be left basically with the keys to the door without anybody in audience.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Smart Khazanim that are able to navigate the service and be in touch with their audience can keep cantorial music alive.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's not a full piece. Put a part of it into it.
Speaker 2:It's a little bit into it you know we say on Shabbos to Amel Chaim Zakhur, right, hasidim, like this thing to Amel. It's a taste. You don't have to give people the full menu.
Speaker 1:Give them a sampling.
Speaker 2:So that they walk out. Inspired.
Speaker 1:Good, good, it's real. No, it's just. That's the world we live in. You can't listen to a seven minute piece anymore, that's. But if you pop in a little bit in the Karl Bachanigan, you do that. You really make that.
Speaker 2:Um, you slept out a little bit and then go back and then you go back to the more on her and then you marry both worlds in a very, very creative way.
Speaker 1:So when we sang with colonel Shama, with Ari Klein, that's what we did, right he, he gave them that thing that you know, besides the Nishamah, he's one of those also screaming or or whispering, right.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:Anyway, I'm going to say Back to the events that we've done and being a comedian and all of that you know in the and you have to deal with shools and your shool and there's money involved and there's money there, you have to make sure it goes to the right places. It goes to the right of the Wow and we, when COVID hit the school, the Arthur Schneier School was open before anybody Right and we had to do a video and it was.
Speaker 2:I thought you would never talk to me.
Speaker 1:I'm going to show you what Messiah Khenerji is. Show you what Messiah Khenerji is. We had to do this video to describe what's going to be happening in the school, right, how these poor kids had to sit there with the plastic on there and their lunch was going to be brought to them and there was a script that had to be adhered to. Right, all of these words had to be said in order to cover your tuchesses, right, 100%. So, and I don't know, I'm not going to memorize script, I was going to wing it and the kids will be here, they're going to get lunch and anyway, luckily, the sound guy is very sweet, like elderly black guy, really nice. He goes oh, this guy is an idiot. He goes oh, no, no, no, no, this, this, this guy. He caught it. I'm dyslexic, I have ADHD. He caught it right away. We went into the. There's like a little shop in the school.
Speaker 2:Like they sell store there. Has anybody sold anything from there? No, never. There's Menorah's and Sinai.
Speaker 1:There's nothing in there. So he closed the door me and him with the mic, taped the entire script and then we shot the script me wearing a mask.
Speaker 2:So he would know that he put it in while I'm walking.
Speaker 1:I'm walking and talking to whoever I'm talking to to explain, and the bathrooms have this and you're going to know if someone's in there when they come out. The next guy can come in. And it was that was Mashiach energy right then in there. But, as I'm saying, I'm getting to the point like this in the Gomorrah it says like this it's there's a story about, there's a story about Elia I know these in the in the Shuk, Right, and someone comes over here and says who, who here in the marketplace has a portion in the world to come, and I want to be turns to points to two guys and says them. And then the guy goes and ask what do you do, Right? And they say I know I'm she, but I say right, we are men of laughter. The foot jokes, laughter.
Speaker 2:I'm she.
Speaker 1:But I say I know my father. We make people who are sad happy, inami, and also, when there's a riff in the community or something, we bring peace through laughter. Now it's an amazing Gomorrah Right Now. I got into it in my head more. First, what's a Gomorrah? And we know that you don't just use words frivolously. Why is it, two guys, if you say every comedian has a hell of a problem, why is it? You guys said the guy that there's a comedian has a hell of a problem. He didn't say but I know, I know, but I know, right, I know I'm she. But the idea, one of them is a comedian, yes, one of them is a comedian, right, but the comic needs somebody else. The comic needs a Benny to make sure that, yes, we need laughter here right now. Let me organize this, let's put this together. That's Anshi Bedihei. Whoever gives you money for your events is Anshi Bedihei, right? Our sponsors here who know that this makes people happy, seth and Arthur, they give money. They Anshi Bedihei. That's Anshi Bedihei.
Speaker 1:And the piece I remember during COVID there were shuls that were ripped apart because of outside minion, inside minion. Some guys said I remember this on Purim he goes whatever cost to bring Modi. I'll pay and just and it was the first time the shul united. After Anshi, he was Anshi Bedihei. Turn to the rabbi. What do you need? To make a comedy show happen? Make it happen. When Trump was elected in 2016, the first time synagogues were ripped apart 100% Ripped apart and the first time laughing together was when I get. But whoever put that show together?
Speaker 1:it's not just the comic, it's whoever. So you know. So I tell you know, now I have a price for when I do shuls. We're not doing that many shuls anymore because it's I'm doing theaters Borgeshem, they moved on. But, like recently, I had an event where the guy came only five. He wouldn't go to my price, he came just below and I said no, you know why I begin to believe that this comedy. It's like when you buy a Torah or you buy a Mizzuzza it's precious something precious you're not allowed to negotiate with.
Speaker 1:I forgot the laws Like if someone, if the soifer, says my Torah costs $100,000 and you're willing to only pay 80, you put it out there. If everybody's happy, okay. If not, not, you walk away. You don't negotiate on different, on different kadushas.
Speaker 2:I would call it yeah, different kadushas.
Speaker 1:Different kadushas. So, and I think the comedy is something that unites and brings people together and that's why I that's it, I'm on it. But you are 100% Anshebediche. You created, you create happiness, you created a vibe in that shul. You bring that shul to. It's amazing, it's just amazing.
Speaker 2:You know, mody, I remember. First of all, what you say is very kind and generous, and I do. I very much relate to what you say about Anshebediche, because I believe that every person has what you would call Yiddish a tafkid. They have a role. We spend half our lives trying to figure out what is our role and some people can live an entire life and not know what they're here for. If you know, because you see from people how they respond to you, you're doing God's work. It may be a secular stage, but it's God's work. Yeah, and I say the same thing about cantorial music.
Speaker 2:Forget the traditions in Rosenblatt and Khvartan, they're all great. If you got off the bima and you inspired someone, you did God's work. You did the Nusukh. Obviously, nusukh matters, I'm not discounting it but more than anything, it matters to to touch, to inspire, to have people walk away, and you do that in your way and we try a little bit in our way to do that for people and inspire them and have them connect to Hashem and, more importantly, even connect to each other, which we have to try and do. So I'll just say it's, first of all, it's wonderful to be with you. The one thing that I feel, when it comes to performers in general, and especially in music, the people that get the least credit are those that do the work behind the scenes. So, for example, you never know who someone's voice teacher is. They could be gargling, like you did with Ari Klein, for 50 weeks, and then one day they get up and they bring it out.
Speaker 2:And they never say, oh, I'd like to thank my voice teacher, because they just they're the unsung heroes, Right? But you know what the work is, you know what prep is before you get it, you know how much you're shaking as a Chasm. I have the notes. Do I feel well? Did I take the medicine? Is my wife inshul right? There's so much that goes into it and the ability to put that all together, to harness it and then promote and preserve and connect to Yiddish guidance and connect to music or comedy. It's a gift and I'm proud of you as my friend that you have that gift, and I'm proud of us as a shul and human beings that we're able to give that gift to so many people.
Speaker 1:No, you obviously have that gift, as you also are Chasm. You have done that and also the gift. You also behind the scene person, right? It's not? You really straddle both worlds, right? It's amazing. Anyway, I think I got everything I had off my soul to about how important Chasm is to me.
Speaker 2:I think you have to sing the first line of Konidre. But for just in honor of the most famous song, I would say ever ever sung is Konidre who doesn't go to shul, and Yom Kippur. So one, the first line, something.
Speaker 1:That's the first line of Konidre. It's not Konidre.
Speaker 2:No, that's the opener, that's the warm. That's when you set it all up, 100%, that's when you set it all up.
Speaker 1:It's beautiful. It's so good to have you. Are you plugging anything, are you? What do you want? I'm?
Speaker 2:plugging just to listen to Noosek. Listen to the CDs, come to shul, be inspired and paid forward.
Speaker 1:And your shul Kenai Nohara, has Chasm health guard and there's plenty of empty seats on. Shabbos.
Speaker 2:It's a massive synagogue.
Speaker 1:You can, if anybody is on the Upper East Side, or make it make enjoy. Go listen to Chasm health guard, you will. It's life changing 100%. There's a choir there with that guy. What's his name? 5, 6, 7, 8, 3, 2, 7, 8.
Speaker 2:Right, that's exactly right, literally. And God, if somebody speaks next to him and he can hear him, he'd shoot him with that baton. Take it easy.
Speaker 1:Right, and so go visit Park East synagogue. You're my guest, I am a member and you are my guest. Go listen to Chasm health guard or Chasm Benny. And is there any website you want to plug or anything?
Speaker 2:ParkySynagogorg I would say, and you know it should be a good, good bench to your Amen. We all need blessings and follow Cantor's World.
Speaker 1:You can find them on your Cantor or your concerts. Yes, all Cantorial.
Speaker 2:What's the what is?
Speaker 1:it.
Speaker 2:It's cantorsworldcom, actually Cantorsworldcom.
Speaker 1:You also have Instagram. Instagram, yeah.
Speaker 2:Cantor also at Cantorsworld and myself personally cantorbenny yes, I follow it.
Speaker 1:Go see a concert, a Sphere concert, anything. It's. So, aslihous, do use of a favor, get in that like that mind for him. I'm going to go listen, even pretend it's an opera. Go and just enjoy it, but it'll touch you. I'm at modilivecom. We've added shows in Cane, aina Hara, charlotte, north Carolina, milwaukee. Who can you miss, can you miss from Milwaukee?
Speaker 2:No, I can't even say it. I can't say Milwaukee. I'm from England, I don't know.
Speaker 1:Milwaukee and Atlanta. The show tickets are going to be moving very fast. And then we have the shows in Europe and we have the shows in Israel. We added a few shows in Israel because we sold out modilivecom. Be the friend who brings the friends to the comedy show. It's just Mashiach Energy. Thank you again to A&H provisions and Weitz and Luxembourg. You guys are buddies. Thank you all very much. Thanks for doing this with me today, benny.
Speaker 2:Good convention Yara everyone, thank you.