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Friday December 6, 2002

A side-splitting Kung Pao tradition continues in S.F.

LIZ HARRIS
Bulletin Correspondent

Most comics grow up being the class clown, but not Eddie Sarfaty. "I was the class president," he offers hopefully.

And though he grew up on New York's Long Island, he did not live in one of the predominantly Jewish neighborhoods. When his family moved into the neighborhood, "I was the first Jewish kid on the block, " he says. A family of four, among "these huge Irish and Italian" clans of 11 or 12.

Plus he was chubby, and gay.

This is all fodder, of course, for his shpiels, which he'll undoubtedly roll out during Kung Pao Kosher Comedy in San Francisco. The Dec. 23 to 26 show at New Asia Restaurant features Sarfaty along with Jeffrey Ross, Cory Kahaney and Lisa Geduldig, the founder, producer and emcee of the annual event and fund-raiser for nonprofits.

Sarfaty's father's family was Sephardic, his mother's mostly Orthodox. As a result, in his household "there wasn't all that Yiddishy, Borscht Belt kind of humor going on," relates the New York City comic in a phone interview last Friday. Again, his was not the typical Long Island Jewish family, but he had plenty of friends at synagogue, Hebrew school and Hebrew high school who fit the stereotypical bill -- all now perfect targets, along with his family -- for his wry, humorous observations.

A regular performer at comedy clubs in New York City, with summer gigs on nearby Fire Island, Provincetown, Mass. and Key West, Fla., Sarfaty gravitated to comedy by default. The shift from theater to standup came after completing undergraduate studies at Vassar College, while he was attending the National Theater Institute. He can remember "just butchering" a Shakespeare monologue. He was so bad it was funny -- to everyone else, anyway.

That was about 15 years ago, and slowly, Sarfaty got his feet wet at clubs, cabarets and cruise ships. He has performed more recently with fellow comics Jaffe Cohen and Danny McWilliams as part of the trio Funny Gay Males, but never set out to be a "gay" comic per se. "It just sort of happened" that he appealed to the "gay and lesbian market," he explains.

He is not down and dirty. "I'm not very graphic," he says. "My stuff is very dry. It's sort of observational with attitude in it. It's not nasty at all."

But don't take him too seriously. "It's not like I'm not fun at parties," he insists. And he's a great conversation starter at family gatherings: "It's always fun conversation for them to bring me along" to extended-family gatherings.

His parents supported his efforts, he says, though "there were suggestions made to do other things." But overall, "my parents were great.

"My mother would say, 'I don't care if you want to grow up and be a bum. But you're going to college and be an educated bum.'"

Standup comedian Geduldig, who founded Kung Pao 10 years ago, is always on the lookout for comics such as Sarfaty to bring to the show. The concept of performing comedy at a Chinese restaurant on Christmas "was a total joke" at first, she admits. Now, Kung Pao Kosher Comedy can honestly promote itself "as much a holiday tradition in San Francisco as 'The Nutcracker' and the Loehmann's after-Christmas sale."

A repeated sellout, the show has expanded its audience well beyond the original fan base, which was "99 percent Jewish," according to Geduldig. With a name like Kung Pao Kosher Comedy, though, it still attracts its fair share of Jewish audience members.

And in a nod to tzedakah, Geduldig designates some of the proceeds to benefit nonprofit programs. This year's recipients are the Gay-Straight Alliance Network, which works to end harassment and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity in schools, and the Jewish Home in San Francisco, which will use the funds to create a comedy clinic for interested residents. Local comics will teach the 10-session course while students will learn standup techniques and put on a show at the conclusion of the series.

This year's Kung Pao headliner, Jeffrey Ross, is a veteran of late-night TV shows and sitcoms and has performed previously at Kung Pao.

This will be Sarfaty's first San Francisco visit, and he says he's looking forward to it.

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