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Friday December 7, 2007

Mo to love: Boonville comic to play Chopshticks

by dan pine
staff writer

All the Jews down in Boonville liked Chanukah — a lot.

At least that’s how Mendocino County native Mo Mandel remembers his childhood, especially since his was one of only four Jewish families in town.

“We had a shrink, a real estate broker and a doctor,” recalls Mandel of the Boonville Jewish community. “It was like they just imported Jews to improve the town.”

Such is the fodder for Mandel, who’s now a standup comedian. He’s on the comedic fast track, having played Cobb’s and Caroline’s in San Francisco, big name clubs in New York and L.A. and appearing on “The Late Late Show.”

Mandel will be back in the Bay Area to co-headline this year’s Chopshticks, the South Bay’s comedy-and-Chinese-food Jewish alternative to all those elves and reindeer. Mandel performs Dec. 24 and 25 at Ming’s Restaurant in Palo Alto with Lenny Marcus and Brad Zimmerman.

At the tender age of 26, Mandel is relatively new to the standup circuit. But what he lacks in years, he makes up for in moxie.

After graduating from U.C. Santa Barbara with a degree in creative writing, Mandel headed for London. He had long been in the habit of jotting down his many musings, comic and otherwise. So while living on that side of the pond in 2004, he took the plunge at a local comedy club’s open mic night.

“I loved it. I’ve never been too nervous around crowds — I paid for college by winning public speaking contests. We were just going to war [in Iraq] then, so the British were not so happy with America. But if you dissed America, they loved you.”

Mandel soon returned to America (which he loves — really) and got busy launching a proper standup career in San Francisco. In 2006 he came in third in the San Francisco International Comedy Competition. He claims he gambled away his $4,000 prize money in underground Jenga tournaments.

His act used to include a lot more about his hippie Jewish upbringing in Mendocino County (his bar mitzvah took place outdoors in a eucalyptus grove). “We were observant, did the High Holy Days, but from a New Age perspective.”

Still, Judaism and Jewish culture affect way he sees the world. He recently took advantage (at 26, the last possible year) of the popular Birthright program, which provides young people free, 10-day, first-time visits to Israel. While there, he even took in some standup comedy in Jerusalem (which begs the question: How does one say “What’s the deal with airline food” in Hebrew?).

Now based in Los Angeles, Mandel has his eyes on the prize, developing his comedy act while also working on possible film and television projects. While here for Chopshticks, he will also play his old comedy club haunts and take a turn behind the mike on “The Sarah and No Name” show on S.F.’s Radio Alice.

And if Mandel is performing somewhere, anywhere, there’s a good chance his aging ex-hippie Jewish baby boomer parents will be there too.

“They come to so many shows. Too many, really. When I was on the Craig Ferguson show, I got to make fun of my mom on national TV. But my parents love it.”

The Albert L. Schultz Jewish Community Center presents Chopshticks, 7 p.m. Dec. 24, and 6 p.m. Dec. 25 at Ming’s Restaurant, 1700 Embarcadero Road, Palo Alto. Tickets: $75, includes dinner. Information: (650) 493-9400 or online at www.paloaltojcc.org.

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