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Showing posts from October, 2014

Ventriloquism at Rikers Island

One of the more unusual performance experiences in my career occurred during the recent Jewish holiday of Sukkot. I was asked by Chabad - the outreaching Hasidic sect - to  perform a ventriloquist show during the annual Sukkot celebration that Chabad brings to Jewish inmates at the famed prison on Rikers Island, NY. This was a return engagement, actually, as they had asked me to do this same gig two years ago. I knew what to expect at this, my second Rikers Island performance...or I thought I did... Two years ago, having never been inside a prison, I was a bit nervous in anticipation of my prison debut. After security checks that lasted more than an hour, I finally was allowed to enter a gym together with about a dozen Chabad members who proceeded to set up for the party. A small band, also brought in by Chabad, set up and began blaring Hasidic rock. A small group of about a dozen inmates gradually entered the gym and took seats at round tables spaced widely apart on the gym floor. T