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| Ivor load of funny jokes to
tell you |
Have you heard the one about the Arabs
and the Israelis? Comedy pioneer Ivor Dembina has got the punchline,
writes Dan Carrier
THERE is nothing funny about the Arab-Israeli conflict. Such
a statement is like a red rag to a bull for comedian Ivor Dembina.
Dembina, who has run the Hampstead Comedy Club for 12 years, is
on a quest: in the midst of all the tragedy, he wants to tell the
joke that solves the violence in the Middle East.
Dembina is Jewish, but is not pro-Israeli.
“I am a comedian,” he says.
“I am also a Jew. I have the evidence – although it is
only circumstantial.
“And I’m a Jew who thinks we should give up the Occupied
Territories…but we should hang on to New York.”
Dembina, (pictured) 54, draws on his ethnic and religious background:
but he manages to avoid references to his mother (he instead tells
jokes about his father) and there is no mention of chicken soup.
“I did a show with an Arab comic,” he says.
“It was originally just going to be an Arab show, but I occupied
half of it on behalf of the Israeli government.”
And this Christmas, his Saturday night show at the Washington pub
on England’s Lane, will see him perform a set that mixes his
three favourite turns since he started.
It’s ‘my greatest hits’, he explains, a mixture of
three acts that have made him a mainstay of Camden’s comedy
circuit.
And while writing the show, he has had the chance to go back over
some of the things that have made his audiences laugh – and
also chronicle his own journey as a comedian.
It started in the early 1980s. He was living in Gaisford Street,
Kentish Town, and trying to earn a living writing plays. He failed
– because, he says, “they were frankly awful”.
Instead, he began compering at the Comedy Store in Soho on Saturday
nights.
Comedy was under going a revolution.
“The club was popular, but it was only open one night a week,”
he recalls. “It was a shame that all these great acts were
sitting around waiting for Saturday – so I hit on the idea
of opening a week-night club.”
Dembina’s club was in the foyer of the St George’s Theatre
in Tufnell Park Road – and among the people who performed were
Ben Elton, Clive Anderson and Rory Bremner. But Ivor didn’t
tell jokes – he was organising back stage, booking comics,
selling tickets – and introducing the show.
“I didn’t have a compere, and because I was running the
place, I’d walk on stage and say: ‘Hi everyone, thanks
for coming, we’ve got someone called Ben Elton on tonight...’
and then Ben would walk on and be hilarious.”
His comedy club was being moved about from one room above a pub
to another. They were always successful but landlords would chop
and change and he’d find himself on the road every six months.
This continued until he found The Washington, in Belsize Park.
He took up a residency there, expecting the same thing to happen
– a stint of a few months before the landlord got bored and
reverted back to pub-rock bands – but Dembina is still there.
It was watching all these acts get the laughs that persuaded him
to try it himself.
“I liked to be in the spotlight,” he explains.
“I thought I’d tell a joke or two before the real comedy
came on.”
In 1994, he decided to see how well he could do on his own. Instead
of a few one-liners before the acts started, he wrote his own show.
As a writer he knew it would be crucial to get material he felt
comfortable with – and so he drew on his experiences as a Jewish
person growing up in north London.
He took it to the Edinburgh Festival and his tales were well received.
His next show – called Sado-Judaism – also went down well,
earning him bookings across Britain and America.
It seemed natural that he would finally, in 2003, turn his pen towards
Israel and Palestine.
“I travelled through Israel and the West Bank, and I had a
thought that the situation was so dire, it would be a challenge
to write a show about it,” he explains.
From his travels, he returned to write This Is Not A Subject For
Comedy.
“I decided to write the joke that would solve the Middle East
crisis,” he said.
And although he may not have achieved that, he has found a way of
making the situation – the violence and hatred – appear
as stupid as violence and hatred should seem.
He took the show to Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, and the West Bank, and
got a good response.
“Even the Israelis who do not agree with you respect your right
to speak honestly about your feelings,” he says.
“They admired me for that. One thing about Israelis is it is
fashionable to knock them, but they want you to say what you think,
as long as they can too. That is a healthy thing. They are great
debaters – they believe in debate.”
However, not all have been as ready to understand how a Jewish comedian
can make jokes about Israel.
He has been placed on a hate list on a far-right Israeli website,
managed by radical Zionists, accused of betraying his faith.
“Within the British Jewish community, people are often brought
up to offer unqualified support for Israel. I have been subject
to some critical comments from people here. Right-wing Jewish groups
said here is a Jew who is saying bad things about Israel –
traitor! There is a section of the Jewish community who are unused
to hearing a Jewish person speaking out about the political and
military excesses of Zionism.”
“When you get that feeling that someone is trying shut you
up, it only makes you redouble your efforts,” he says.
“What I do is try and confront issues using the traditional
flavour of Jewish humour,” he says.
Ivor says within his family there has been disagreements about his
show – something he has gleaned material from.
He says: “My cousin Sylvia is a monster. She is a settler in
the Occupied Territories and when ever I visit her, we argue constantly.
“She said to me she had every right to be there because God
had given the land to the Jews.
“I said nonsense. So she said, it is here, in original Hebrew
scriptures: God gave us Hebron. I said Sylvia, you have read it
wrong: that says Hendon.”
• Ivor Dembina appears at The Washington, England’s
Lane, Belsize Park on December 5, 6 and 7. Phone: 020 7633 9539 |
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