Comedy, pathos and a midlife crisis
BRITISH comic Daniel Cainer explores his Jewish roots in The Jewish Chronicles, which begins its Australian tour at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival.
DANNY GOCS
BRITISH comic Daniel Cainer explores his Jewish roots in The Jewish Chronicles, which begins its Australian tour next month at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival.
The cabaret-style show had its origins in the Edinburgh Festival two years ago and has been staged more than 50 times in theatres around London.
“The show is connected to a midlife kosher crisis following on the heels of my divorce,” explained Cainer, 49, in a phone interview this week from his home in Britain.
“Although I was raised in an Orthodox-style family, I lived a fairly secular life and had not paid much attention to Judaism until my 40s,” he said. “It was like living 40 years in the wilderness!”
In The Jewish Chronicles, Cainer uses music and anecdotes to share insights he discovered while exploring his roots.
“I’ve drawn on my personal experiences and reflections — the show would not work if it was not genuine. It covers a broad spectrum of Jewish shtick.”
Cainer emphasises that the show is not stand-up comedy, but crafted storytelling laced with humour.
The show had its genesis when Cainer saw an advertisement in the London Jewish News to put a show together for the Edinburgh Festival.
“I had one epic song to my repertoire and thought that I could develop it to represent the Jewish experience and it just grew from there,” he said.
“I try to make it less exclusive and out of the ghetto. For some shows there were no Jews in the audience and I needed to explain the Yiddish, but I still got a good response.
“It was more challenging but very satisfying. It’s a universal
experience that I’m talking about. The whole premise is being caught between the secular and religious worlds and what it means to be Jewish in the 21st century.”
This tour will mark Cainer’s second visit to Australia. “I made a quick trip to Brisbane for four days when I was trying to get as far away from London as possible during my divorce,” he said with a laugh.
Cainer also writes music for television productions and is the brother of astrologer Jonathan Cainer, whose star guide appears in newspapers and magazines around the world including the Herald Sun in Melbourne.
But he would not be drawn on whether Jonathan has predicted a rosy reception for the show in Australia.
The Jewish Chronicles is being performed as part of the Melbourne International Comedy Festival from April 1-11 at Theatre Works, St Kilda. Bookings: www.theatreworks.org.au It will also be performed at the Bondi Pavillion Theatre, Bondi Beach from April 13-18. Bookings: 1300 306 776 and www.mca-tix.com.au
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