Feisty Old Jew

Fringe Description: Funny

Tthis “Feisty Old Jew” is forcing me to question my preconceptions.  “She gets too hungry to wait for dinner at eight / She loves the theatre, but never comes late / She'd never bother with people she'd hate / That's why the lady is a tramp…” This is the classic Tony Bennett tune playing as I walked into the Performance Works Venue on a sunny weekday afternoon. 

The bar doesn’t open for two hours and the crowd is sparse and the lights are up. 

A tough Fringe house.for any performer under these conditions.

But  the Tony Bennett playing over the loudspeakers set the scene for Charlie Varon. 

From Brooklyn via San Francisco. 'Nuff said, baby.

20 years since he’s been to Vancouver.

Paints pictures with his words. Such a voice.

Storyteller-extraordinaire. Spins yarns like nobody else.

 My goy gentile self was expecting a Shylock or Tevye - but he opened my eyes and my mind with his endearing and heartwarming, funny and adventurous tales of Bernie.

A hitchhiking octogenarian who hates himself for wanting cappuccino & has gone surfing.

And then Selma’s story. You gotta’ hear it for yourself. “Desire never ends.”

Wait. What? You mean it doesn’t matter what  age, race, religion or gender we are, but that we’re all the same? That’s just crazy talk! You want a “frictionless  life”?

I met a “vigorish” guy today, and before yesterday I didn’t even know what it meant, 

“But of all the skills I’ve learned was knowing when to shut up.”

Charlie Varon reminded us of something very precious going on at the Fringe, the awesome vibe as he shook everybody’s hand as they exited Performance Works.

 

 

By Don Foran