¶ Survivors Project With Jillian Laub
Welcome to , and here's Modi . We are back and here's Modi , and the conversation , as we were setting up for the podcast is Jillian Laub is uncomfortable being on camera . She's an insane , amazing photographer who puts everybody on the spot and she now realizes who's alive . Uh , filming , and you're .
I have so much empathy for the people who I photograph because I realize how difficult it is when you know it's the worst . It's . I really , really don't like it .
To me it's the second worst thing I've been doing standup comedy . First is to travel , Second is doing the promo pictures . Mine is the guest list .
That's the worst thing about doing comedy .
Yeah , no , but you . It's so funny how you almost had this panic when you realized the camera with angles .
When I come . I didn't realize when you come in for a podcast . Thank God I had a meeting before this Cause I would have come in like a total hot mess hello , look at me I'm just saying you know , she looks like all right like the head counselor at some jewish camp .
She's adorable , cut off jean shorts and a gilbert godfrey shirt . We are in the studio with jillian lab and let me just tell you your name is something I look at almost every night . Your coffee table book is on our coffee table . And it's like in my level when I'm laying down on the sofa looking at the television .
It's there and it's such a beautiful color . It matches this beautiful objet I have on top of it and it's underneath . Underneath . That is Annie Leibovitz's book . It's the same color and it's a very nice piece on our coffee table . So I see your name almost every day , wow , and the coffee book is amazing .
Those of you who haven't gotten it and it was an amazing project you did .
Family Matters , family Matters . Thank you , it was sold out . It just got reprinted by the publisher Mazel Tov .
Put the microphone closer to your mouth .
It just got reprinted . I didn't you know , sorry , it just got reprinted with an additional quote from Amy Schumer .
Speaking of which , what did ?
Amy say Something really nice .
But I don't know it off the top of my head . I also love that you're on top of Annie Leibovitz . Oh my goodness .
Wow , wow , what an honor .
Her book is right underneath yours .
What a true honor .
Welcome back to the show . We just had to redact a whole moment because Jillian got too excited about a Bork project that she probably signed a lot of NDAs for , so she probably signed a lot of NDAs for you probably signed a lot of NDAs for that right I did .
I don't know about a lot , but it's definitely not a public event .
We're excited for the project for you and we'll get right back into the podcast and we'll cut that out .
I couldn't hold myself . That's amazing . Good for you , I have so many questions when it premieres can we come ?
Please , premieres , can we come ? Because please , no , really , though . Okay , for real , leo gets very upset when we're not invited to things we should be invited to .
He gets very , very upset . Even if I don't want to go , I want to be invited , right ?
I can say no , given that you're the person who's constantly putting everybody and their mother on a guest list yeah , yeah , I just mean .
Sometimes I see events that are like on brand and I'm like how are we not invited to this ? Although I did get invited to a thing .
What was the last thing that you were upset that you weren't invited to ?
The Israeli Day Parade . No one reached out to me .
That's a public parade , though .
No , but you were on a float last year , yeah .
Usually I was on a float year . Yeah , usually last year I was um . You please ask me . I think it . I I don't know what . What's your theory ?
first of all , we were we were away , but it's just um .
But they should still reach out to me yeah , you should have been on a float right
I gotta see a picture of you on the float I have a .
he was shirtless , with little pasties , no speaker um that . That's a different parade , a different parade .
But meanwhile everyone is such a I've been trying to get my family , it just hasn't worked out . But everyone that I've I don't know I've come in contact with so many people that are like oh , because I guess I've been just more curious about comedy and I ask what comics people are into and your name often comes up .
That's amazing , mashiach Hanonji comics people are into and your name often comes up . That's amazing , thank you , that's all leo . Leo puts me . Leo has gotten me into everybody's phone everybody . Leo has put like it's like into everybody's phone a good virus . It's all in there , yeah good virus , it's a good virus . It's , yes , it's great , thank you .
The special is out , know your audience and so people have been watching that and sharing it .
And then we've been chopping it up and just little clips here and there which are doing insane and that , um , and so I'm glad to hear that that's so exciting and good and please bring your family to a show I know , oh my god , I'm gonna be at the beacon in december oh , okay that's the new hour family will plots
die no , I know , I know , mike laub , I know , okay , I want to make sure to get that date now and I'll when will die ? No , I know , mike Laub , I know . Okay , I want to make sure to get that date now and when tickets go on… .
The tickets are on sale already for December 19th at the Beacon Theater everyone .
December 19th Ali , white-jules , mark and Carol , we're there , get them , yeah .
But be the one that buys the tickets and invites them . We'll get you your own ticket .
I like to support . I don't like , I don't . I'm not one that likes to get free . I I like to support artists .
Okay , good , good , we'll take the support um and support you and your amazing project that you just did with amy schumer oh come on , you were in the .
You were in the audience with Rachel . Oh are you talking ?
about the no , that was a different thing , okay . I was with Rachel , I was , yeah , no Go .
Okay , sorry , I thought you meant the Rachel Feinstein's .
You were the director of her .
Special , special . Amy was the executive producer .
Okay .
Which Mazel Tov , we love you , rachel . Mazel Tov to Rachel . Which Mazel Tov , we love you .
Rachel Mazel Tov to Rachel , mazel Tov to Amy and Mazel Tov to you for that .
But I was more blown away by your project with the… oh , with… the Survivors .
The Survivors yes .
She's like that wasn't me . You're like I have too many projects going on right now .
I'm so sorry . Okay , thank you she has a cookbook coming out , recipes of the laub recipes .
Oh goodness um the survivors yeah remember that remember those guys I'm , I'm still .
I just filmed um helena's 100th birthday wow so um okay , so a few months ago there was a huge project called live to tell , in which which Jillian Laub photographed 200 Holocaust survivors .
Yes Wow .
Would you like to ? Could you tell us a little bit about that , Sure ?
Okay , I'm very emotional right now , so Okay . That was my daughter's last day of school , so Today , yeah , oh , wow , high school . No , she's moving school . So it was just , it was yeah , sorry . Okay , I digress .
So , as we were all shook after October 7th I guess you know I can't even really describe the feeling of just helplessness and despair that I felt and then I saw that statistic of 20% of young people don't believe the Holocaust happened .
They think the Holocaust is in the air . I think it's more than 20% , but keep going .
So that was disturbing to me , obviously , and at the same time it's really crazy . I got this phone call from the head of the AJCF , which is the Auschwitz Jewish Center Foundation , ajcf , and they were doing an event at the Jewish Museum of Heritage downtown . Okay and where they were doing an event for survivors .
So he said , three days before the event was happening , I need you to shoot 250 survivors . And I said , okay . He said I'm told that you're the person to go to .
Photoshoot , just so we understand . Oh my goodness , yes , Photoshoot oh God , we did not need you finishing the work of the Nazis .
So in a few days I had to figure out how can I photograph over 200 survivors who the median age is like 90 .
Yes .
And I didn't know what health they were in , and so I just said a group portrait is just not going to be possible . I can't do that . So I enlisted Kira Pollack , who I've worked with for many years . She was at New York Times Magazine and Time and Vanity Fair I'm sure she's a photo editor .
So we decided that , you know , we had to figure out how am I going to photograph over 200 Holocaust survivors . So we built , we were inspired by the murals of Avedon Richard Avedon , yes , and the family photographs that . There's the sorry I'm like are you going to be able to edit my shit ?
You're good , you're fine , you're fine .
No , this is like please be able to edit . You're good , you're fine . You're fine . No , this is like . Please be able to edit , like to edit what you're killing it .
You're great . Oh god , I just take a deep breath .
Yeah , god , okay , you're fine photographing 250 holocaust survivors .
That's just insane to begin with now that you say that it was inspired by Avedon , I so see that like so clearly .
Well , I'm not a it's funny , I'm so not a studio photographer , so I had to kind of figure out and really his murals . I mean , if there's any pictures to be inspired by , they're his portraits . Wow , that's incredible and I just really wanted the people to come alive . So the day was , if you can imagine , completely insane and hectic .
Did you travel to them ?
No , we set up a studio . So they all came to you , so they all came with their helpers family .
Yeah , logistically that's hard , logistically it was a really , really complicated production .
But what I realized ? I was so focused on making the pictures in such a short amount of time because they came in on buses and they had to leave at a certain time altogether , at least not on trains . Oh gosh Folks .
Inappropriate . You both have a checkmark . That's striking in this episode . Keep going .
So I had to work very fast , so there was no time I like to really interact with people that I'm photographing with , and it was hard . But what I can say is that it felt so .
Every single person who was in front of the camera was just so emotional about the time that we were living in , and the anti-Semitism and the different anecdotes from the day just felt so , so , so powerful .
What anecdotes .
So well , I mean , they're very sad . So it's not like they're funny anecdotes , it's just . You know , there was one woman who said that she was supposed to go to a wedding of her niece and instead she went to two funerals because her niece and her fiance were killed at the Nova Festival .
Oh , wow .
So it just felt jarring . You know that we were in this moment in time and people who had survived the hardest and like seeing the worst of humanity were now in a moment where they're seeing it again they were seeing . Just you know , know , atrocities happen .
The one Holocaust survivor I deal with often said it was like watching the continuation , it was like the next episode .
Yeah .
Like watching the next . Here's the next season of the show . Here's the next season of the show is how he said it .
Yeah , and I also just like , wanted to know . It was a moment of like I was feeling helpless . Where do you find ? Give us some wisdom , please .
No , but it found you , you found where to help . It came to you . You had a desire to help and however , this project came into your life , it came into your life . You put that desire out there . I desire to do something and make something meaningful , and here you did . Yeah , you did you collaborate with Amy Schumer , right ? Well she , how was this ? Yeah ?
She was . I mean , I go to Amy , for you know we were both , you know , in the same headspace and I Amy is kind of like the person that I bounce ideas off of and so she was kind of a creative partner and she's .
Did you know when you were photographing them that they were going to be projected onto the Brooklyn ?
Bridge , no , so tell us how that happened so that's also kind of like amazing about I don't mean to sound corny , but like the creative process , because I had no idea what we were going to do . At the end of the day I just said , oh my God , there is something so powerful here . I don't even know what to do with it . It's hard to even process it all .
So I kind of had this like dream that how we should make a larger than life mural , um and of all of the people , full scale , um , and wrap it around , do a public art project and wrap it around a synagogue on the Lower East Side , like I kind of envisioned that . And then a friend of mine was like you can't do that , they're going to be defaced .
So she was . Actually
¶ Survivor Stories Projections Project
. It was so many like meetings of creative minds because a friend of mine said no , we need to project them off of , on landmark landmarks all over the city . They need to be . You know no one can touch them , or no one . The city . They need to be . You know no one can touch them , or no one , no one can tear them down .
So that's where it came into my head oh , we have to do that . How we're gonna do it , I have no idea , but that is really how did you get permission to do it on the bridges ? we did not get permission it was a gorilla thing , we would never get permission , yeah .
I don't think you need permission to project something onto something .
It depends there is a gray area . But because this particular friend worked with this production company who do guerrilla art projects , projections , they were this like amazing renegade team .
Wow , I love that yeah .
Production Triangle that's their company name and we worked with them and I set up more shoots . And what I did also is so important I wanted to know everyone's name and story . So we had to work backwards and I got my friend who had worked for the Shoah Foundation for seven years and had been had the experience of photograph , of interviewing survivors started .
We got , we started to get all the names and numbers and she started to interview the survivors because it was so important to me that they weren't just faces . I wanted to know . I wanted to know all of their stories . They weren't just faces , I wanted to know all of their stories .
So then the next few months we were just collecting interviews , doing more shoots and doing video interviews . Wow , and the goal was , with the projections is that you know ? And every detail was important , Like , do we want to say that they're Holocaust survivors on the projections ?
But ultimately I said no , I want people to walk by and just feel like , oh , that could be anyone's grandma . And then you get you the projections would call . It was called live to tell . And then we built out a whole Instagram page which was , to me , the way to . I'm like how do I reach young people . How do I ?
So it was like social media , and that's the only social media that I use and I'm familiar with , so I was like we have to do this on Instagram , so it's shareable , so all young people can be able to share these stories .
So that was the goal , was that the projections would be the call out to then go to the Instagram page to learn about people's stories .
So is there an Instagram page for all the photos now ?
Yes .
What's the Instagram page ?
Live to the number two Live to tell .
And you had like a quote from each survivor .
Yeah , so that was also we wanted . I really thought that it was important to not just have their faces but also have their quotes . And also you have to assume when you're doing a projection it was a new medium . It's not like a magazine or a book Somebody is walking by . You need to have that very , very short , to the point .
So that was also a process to get the right quotes . So that was also a process to get the right quotes . Some people I loved their portrait , but they didn't have the quote that actually fit on the projection . What ?
was one of your favorite quotes from the survivors .
Um . Every okay hold on . Every person saved is a whole world Right .
Wow .
I loved that one . Um , that's from the Torah Saved is a whole world .
When you save one person , you save the entire world .
Yes , Um , yeah , there were , just there were . Incredible .
It was , and I and I'm continuing to work on the project since then people , we also had a page where you could if , if you knew of anyone that would want to be part of this project , so so many people reached out to us and I've been photographing um survivors since then this only in the new york area yes , but we're expanding yes , you need to need to go
to Florida . Oh , yes , yes .
I have people for you .
Really yes , okay , okay , great , so yes , miami , then California .
I'm going to Israel .
I have people for you Like amazing that's amazing you do Okay , because we're doing a shoot in Israel the first two weeks in July .
Oh amazing . Two weeks in July , oh , amazing . Yeah , my uncle , oh great . Where is he located ? Right outside Tel Aviv . Okay , he was a kid in the camps . Wow , his story's incredible . Yeah , I mean everybody's story's incredible , and my very good friend Dina .
Her father was bar mitzvahed in Bergen-Belsen . Stop it .
Yeah .
Wow , incredible stories .
Yeah , he's one of the most incredible survivor stories you can ever . And the stories keep coming out of him . It's just insane .
Where is he in Israel ?
He's in Miami and he's a part of a lineage of the Karestir Rebbe . He's the oldest living great grandchild of this Rebbe and we go with him to the grave once a year and he's 93 now and , God willing , next year we'll be going for the 100th anniversary of his great-grandfather to Karestir and he's- .
When are you doing that ?
It's like the week after Passover next year . Okay .
Yeah , can you connect me with the family ? I'd love that you are .
I am the family , I am the family .
You're connected , maz . I'm the family . I am the family . You're connected , mazel tov . Yes , we are the family .
Yes , Okay , wow yeah .
So it's amazing . The stories that they have are insane and they keep popping up and they remember stories and other things that happened .
But that's the thing . They're not going to be here . I mean not to be dark , but they're not going to be here for that much longer to be the first person oral history , you know . So it is the responsibility , like they're passing the baton to you and the children and grandchildren , but still their stories firsthand are not going to be , they're not going to .
It's not going to be a firsthand story , it's going to be . My father was a survivor . But you have a project to send them to . You have somewhere , somewhere for them to go to and look it up . Yeah , you know , and that's very important .
That is really . That's what like kind of kept me sane throughout this time , because I felt I had a purpose in this time . I mean , you were so active and you've been doing so much .
I mean I don't . I mean I think everybody has done something . You know , everybody does the thing that they do and I think that's really what's been keeping a lot of us yeah talk about that .
on stage , everybody's doing their thing , whether they're going on a mission , or whether they're going sending things or doing your project , or you know providing laughter to people . Something happened right away . People just felt they had to be there . Even though the war was in full , full bloom , they felt they needed to be there . They just flew .
They just it was like we have to go . It is we just have to . Even if we just stay in a hotel , we just have to be in israel to show their support . It was an insane . I talk about that on stage . People felt a need to be there .
Yeah , it's incredible .
What other projects have you got going on ? What else is happening besides ?
Oh goodness . Well , there is a big project that is happening that is very top secret , so I'm sorry , but I can't talk about it , that's okay .
Tell us one that you can talk about . You've been really into comedy lately , yes .
¶ Comedy Special Direction and Editing
Have you directed Rachel's special ? I don't think I knew that , so tell us what that actually means , because you know I also have a director's credit and I don't think it's accurate . I don't think what I did was directing . I think you did more than direct . What do you ? What goes into directing a comedy special .
Look , I don't . I can't really take credit for much . I have to be honest with you , amy . It was here's the thing . It was really great to work with Amy , because she is she does everything .
She's shot a bunch . Yeah , she knows how to .
She just does .
How to make the sausage .
Yes , and so what I cared about is how it looked right , so I'm not going to give notes on somebody's . You know it's .
No , not on what Rachel's performed . Rachel Feinstein , she's hilarious .
So her special's on Netflix . It's called Big Guy .
So yeah , you weren't giving notes on like the content or how she was delivering it , but I . Visually .
Vis , I'm giving notes on like the content or how she was delivering it , but I Visually , visually , it was really important to me .
You shot at Sony Hall .
Yes , yes so we chose that venue , so it was just everything . From where are we going to shoot ? What is she going to wear ?
You know the lighting , the you know , keep going , keep going . Just so he hears , just so Leo hears .
The cameras .
Yeah .
I didn't do any of that .
Yeah , yeah , you did all of that . No , I didn't choose where the cameras were .
That was the producers . I didn't choose , I didn't design the lighting you designed the lighting . You designed the stage the color I mostly did the editing which you didn't get a credit for in the editing .
I mostly did the editing which you didn't get a credit for in the editing , which is one of the most genius editing I've seen in comedy specials and I mean like Netflix Big Budget Mulaney's . What Leo worked with was hands tied behind his back .
Yeah , but I just got the multicam view and then I did the time stamp . Sorry , you directed his I technically directed Bodhi's special .
He was involved in what I was wearing when I was shooting . Also , he was involved first of all , punchlines and second of all , the way I structured the set . Oh , a hundred percent . He doesn't take any credit . You're doing Wait hold on .
I'm not finished yet .
But I'm talking about when you watch a comedy special and the guy's delivering a joke , the setup , and then the bang , bang and Leo . At one point I saw him looking at all of the cameras and saying , and it hit him , he didn't need me . He's just like no 1.01 , cut two on this word .
And then if even the clips we have on Instagram , it's all Leo's cuts and they're amazing . He not only edited , he directed it and he produced it .
So wait , I'm confused . So is it because you didn't get credit but you did the work ?
No , no no , I'm listed as the director of the special , but when I saw that , I was like I don't think that's what I did .
I think I did something . I think my role was beyond that . You should not undersell yourself . I know when I see other people's specials .
It usually says written , directed and performed by the artist .
No , first of all , I love that you are like you wanna give , like that's so beautiful he's very nice , but you should .
You are like you want to give , like that's so beautiful , he's very nice .
I saw it , but you should , that is .
But I wanted to know what your definition of a director of a comedy special is , because Well , I didn't know .
So that's the thing . It was the first time I did that , so I didn't know I was I really I wanted to take Amy's lead because this is what she does and it was really . I appreciated the . I was so grateful for the opportunity and also to learn from her . So it it really what you ?
There's there's limitations to what you can do as a director for a comedy special right , so you it sounds like you did everything that a director does yes .
I don't know't know .
The answer is yes .
I think I just did like the editing , maybe like .
But that is .
That's the editing .
Editing is directing .
I mean editing is directing .
He did the editing too . Where . Why are you yelling ? Because I want it to be known and I don't want you to be all the shy thing . You edited the whole special . No , I special , genuinely , asking genuinely , and you generally , when we got there , you how you wanted the letters .
There was a problem with the letters , my moody name was problem and he fixed that . And then we and then um , where the ? From where the stool , where I'm walking to , where I'm , my angle ?
he directed me why are you not taking ownership ?
because I don't really remember all of it , that stuff I just remember doing the time stamps like and then on this backstage also watching what I'm doing and words I missed that we had to pick up afterwards .
Be proud of the work ? No , I didn't mean to hijack this . I was trying to ask I'll hijack it again , leo so nice .
I have to say , there's something so refreshing about this , and I don't mean to , but this is usually a woman who is second guessing herself . There's something . I'm sorry , there is something , really .
no , there's something really she's a lady . She's not a woman . She's a lady , but she's very .
But I'm saying like this is something that I feel it's just to have this beautiful man sitting in front of me and seeing you second guessing yourself .
that's so human 100% he has no idea . He has no idea what he does . That's not what I meant she's fine no , no , I'll take the opportunity . I will promise you my special that anybody has seen . It know your audience available for everybody on YouTube .
If you have parents or grandparents that don't know how to access things , a mitzvah , go to your grandparents and make sure they set up to watch my special , and Leo made that happen . That was literally . You know there's an expression yesh me'en . From nothing came something , from finding someone to direct . We were tight . The material had to get out .
We found someone to tape it and then we were almost left alone and Leo took care of everything . We were , there was situation . We had a very good producer helping us . Yeah , again .
Yeah .
Okay , matt Shuler did a good job . Yes , did Leo Vega do a good job , but the editing the editing was a hot mess .
The editing was a hot mess . You had to take care of all of it , did Leo ?
Vega do a good job , yeah , and on top of that , he also you know the special .
Okay , showing the special and watch a special , but the clips that he also cut out that are now having views of four to five million some of them .
Leo , it's a special that's own . When you directed rachel's special , you had never done a comedy special before but , you had directed like video content yes , yes , like what did you do ?
before that documentary , I directed a film called Southern Rights , that's on .
HBO . Oh , yes , about the voting .
No .
I watched it when we did your last episode , which was a long time ago .
It was about ? Well , it started out being about the last segregated prom .
Yes , yes , yes , yes , yes , yes , yes . So you directed that
¶ Transitioning From Photography to Video
documentary , yes .
Okay , so you directed that documentary .
Yes , okay so when you were enlisted to do Rachel's special . It's not like you had never directed video . No , because you were going for photographer .
Oh yeah . Because I know a lot of people don't cross that line . It felt like a natural . You know I direct and you know , as a photographer , you're constantly . You know that You're constantly directing .
There are people who have an eye for what the right thing is . You have it , leo has it . People see things and say this is how this could be better , this is how this should be . You have that , obviously .
I think the interesting thing about photography that I have learned from basically being a fly on the wall for so many years with so many great photographers is that , unlike video , they have one frame to tell an entire story .
Wow , yes .
Which is incredible . Now it's different because it's digital , so you can click , click , click and then you pick one , but that only changed very recently . I mean , you guys have been working in film for years and even when you select the final image , you have one frame to tell an entire story that we tell in .
You know , 30 seconds or a minute . You have to capture the essence in one moment . Well , that's the goal , that's the goal , that's the goal . So , but it's definitely working . Two different like two totally different ways .
So I mean , there are a lot of very well-known and famous and world-famous photographers who didn't ever work in video media .
It's hard to make the transition . It took a while , for sure , and you know the the first footage that I look at is like unwatchable . But then you know you try the . The goal is to try and make it like it's seamless , like the storytelling is seamless , whether it's a still photograph or moving image .
Yes , leo , edited between two shows .
And I was taking the setup from one show and the punchline from another , and that's how tight the times were .
Well , that's why editing is directing .
Because you're telling the story . So much of the final product is in the editing . So editing is so critical .
It is , but in stand-up there is a special hush , there's a special knack for it and you see it and I've seen after I saw Leo Dumont , I've seen the mistakes in others- Huge .
Can I say the one thing that drives me crazy about your special ? Yeah , you can bleep this out if you don't like it . Can I talk about the baseball hat guy that , yeah , go ahead . So we taped two seatings at the Grand Merced .
Theater .
I didn't realize because there's so much going on . We did two seatings in one night . I'm running around crazy . In the second show there's a guy like very visible wearing a baseball hat .
Mm-hmm .
Like a very distinct baseball hat .
So you had to take yeah .
And so a lot of the shots we wanted to use when we were like going through , like the multicam view , when we were like transitioning between shows I'm like this baseball hat keeps appearing and disappearing . So that is what our main limitation was , because it drove me insane . I was like how did I not catch this guy when they were being seated ?
How did I not tell ?
him to take his hat off . That is a key thing . So that's what the front row and the continuity between the two shows .
So there's some shots that are like the same camera but like cropped in .
Yeah , and those are the shots , if you're watching at home , where the baseball hat guy was visible , because there's some shots that don't make sense , where it goes from , like here , and then we kind of like crop in , because you have to get rid of the baseball hat guy , but it's not like a normal crop , like you'll see , like it'll be like from your ankle .
One of the cameras was on a tilt . There was a whole . I'm telling you . He did it with his hands tied behind his back and it was . I think it's a great special . It is a great special , it was a great special . That , literally , is what you know . I say be true to your audience . The rest will follow .
This show is it's made for Jews , and I'm explaining the whole show to a non-Jew that's in the audience . Oh , wow so that's the whole , this entire show . I'm explaining what's happening . It's what's happening . It's literally , it's a window into the Jewish world through laughter and pride , and and it's brought us people .
We now have Goyim , gays and theys as fans , and that's , and that's what that special did you know what ?
you know what film you should see if you haven't seen it yet . Do you know and I feel like the two of you would be friends Do you know ? Amichai Laulavi .
I know so many Amichais , I mean I literally my entire .
So Amichai Laulavi is the head of Labshul and he was . He's the his lineage . He's like the rabbinical lineage , like they're you know royalty Okay . Lineage um , like their you know royalty , okay , and um , he had a . Um , how do I say ? He had a , another person who was esther , queen , esther , do you know ?
Okay , anyway , the point is is that his story has now been made into a film , um called sabbath queen , made by by . Sandy Dubowski , who followed him for 21 years .
Wow .
And the film just premiered in Tribeca and it's amazing and I feel you would just Sabbath Queen .
See , that's something we should have been invited to you must , because so much of his alter ego was performance .
He , he basically took um . He's reinventing judaism okay through . It's called storytelling . So he's reinvented storytelling hilarious no , he's brilliant , he's really brilliant , he . I just think that you would appreciate him and this film so much . You must see it .
Absolutely . I love when Rachel does her mom with the men in polka cape . Oh God , her mom , I'm sure whatever you're doing in your craft room in Bethesda . I didn't watch it yet , but I've seen her like working out this material for the last year or so .
Oh my goodness , the material with her family , I mean her husband Was it so fun for you Like .
I know you personally , so I know that you have a great sense of humor . But was it ? It's not usually what you're in .
Well , amy , I had never . I had never . I didn't know about her except that she was Amy's friend . So Amy had called me last summer and was like , would you be , would you ever be interested in directing this ? And I was like , okay , well , if she's funny . But of course Amy has the best taste . So she sent me one of the specials .
I was like , oh , I'm in , she is so funny .
Yeah , she's funny . I haven't seen the special , but I've seen her doing this material at the cellar for a while .
Yeah .
But I'll go watch it .
Amy , since we're giving plugs , amy also did , I believe Keith Robinson's .
Yes which Keith Robinson's , I believe , comes out today . It just came out Today . Yeah , yes .
Also great specials to watch . Send them to your friends . Make sure pause for laughter , Make sure you find time and things to laugh at .
I haven't seen Keith's yet , but Amy is so proud of Keith's special . It's called Different Strokes .
Okay .
Oh wow , Because he had a stroke . Because he had a stroke .
He's had more than one stroke Right , right , right .
Yeah .
So where can people find you ? Where can people ?
find me Instagram so what's your Instagram ?
G-G-L-A-U-B G-I-G-I-L-A-U-B .
And the live2tel .
Live at live2 , number 2 , tel .
That's where they can find the projects about the survivors .
And my website , Jillian Laub .
Don't whisper it and my website Jillian Laub G-I-L-L-I-A-N . There you go .
L-A-U-B as in boy . Okay , there you go .
We want to take this moment to thank A&H Provisions . That is who we collaborate with to make these episodes happen and bring people like you onto the camera and into the audio . Best hot dogs you'll ever eat in your life . Mike would love them .
Okay .
And A&H Provisions Glock Kosher Meat . That's on another level , and kosherdogsnet is their website and if you put the promo code MODY you'll get for 30% off of your first
¶ Upcoming Shows and New Features
order . Thank you very much , seth at A&H , for being a part of this . Thank you for being here .
Wait , I have one more thing to say . There's a new feature . If you listen on Buzzsprout or if you listen on Spotify , there's a link in the description of the episode that says send us a text message . So you can send us your thoughts , feedback , questions , keep it nice .
So you have the option to send us a text message and we also have information on our PO box that we just opened in case you want to send Moody mail .
Yes , and we have shows coming up . Some of them are sold out , some of them aren't . Nashville is not sold out . There are a few seats left in Nashville . There's a few seats left in St Paul . There's a few seats left in Sydney , Australia and Melbourne . Two sold out shows there . One of the shows still has a few seats . The Beacon almost sold out too .
That's in December . Go to modilivecom . Find a show near you . Find a show near no . Find a show near you . Find a show near no . Find a show near one of your friends and send them a link to whatever If I'm near there and , of course , be the friend that brings the friends to the comedy show . Get a few tickets , Invite a few friends .
It's the best way to spend time with your friends and find time for laughter . Thank you very much for coming on .
Thank you One thing there are crazy , oh my oh we're still on .
Do you want to do another hot out ? Don't say another thing that you want us to edit out ? Is this redacted ? Should we ?
end now . Oh yeah , we should end . Okay , all right .
Thank you very much , the mysterious Julian Laub everyone .
Okay , but that one thing .