Popular Israeli-American comic Avi Liberman brought three hot comedians from the United States to Jerusalem on Tuesday night at the packed Gerard Behar Center, as part of this year’s Comedy for Koby tour. Dan Naturman, Ian Lara and Jim Colliton entertained a diverse crowd of Jerusalemites, each with with 30-minute standup routines that dealt with topics from fatherhood to investing to Tel Aviv.
Eliana Braner, sister of Koby Mandell and executive director of the Koby Mandell Foundation, began the show by addressing her brother’s tragic death at the hands of terrorists, in May 2001 and explained how the foundation came into being.
The Koby Mandell foundation runs a summer camp for children who have lost a parent or sibling, bringing children together to create an inclusive community. Over 300 campers attend the summer camp each year but due to COVID-19 restrictions, only 150 went last year. Comedy for Koby relies on donations and sponsors to allow children to attend this camp, and for well over a decade, Liberman has been organizing the Comedy For Koby tours to help raise funds for the organization.
Dan Naturman, who has appeared on America’s Got Talent, The Late Show with David Letterman and Comedy Central Presents took the stage. The New Yorker joked about his Jewish frugalness and evoked a great deal of laughter when describing his parents’ life in a Florida retirement community.
Ian Lara, who has appeared on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon and had never been to Israel before, expressed his surprise with how aggressive the Hebrew language is. “I went to the food court and this guy was yelling at me so loudly, I thought I was doing something wrong,” he said. “But Avi [Liberman] told me he was just asking if I wanted hummus!”
Closing the show, Jim Colliton had the crowd in his hand as he made light of his family life in the suburbs of Boston. The comedian, who has appeared on NBC, Fox and CBS, had the audience roaring, as he joked about being asked to donate to his daughter’s university that already charged him $60,000 for tuition.
Comedy for Koby continues its tour this and next week, headed to Beit Shemesh, Gush Etzion, Tel Aviv and Ra’anana between June 23-28.
For more information and tickets, visit: https://www.comedyforkoby.com/buytickets.