Speaker 1: Hear me, oh, hear me, oh paied the Lord, the
Speaker 1: Lord Jehovah has given unto you.
Speaker 2: He's fifteen.
Speaker 1: Hey, ten ten commandments fall to pay. Welcome to this
Speaker 1: special passover episode of Amusing Jews, where we celebrate Jewish
Speaker 1: contributors and contributions to American popular culture. Passover Sadyers can
Speaker 1: be a drag, long, slow, repetitive, inscrutable, leaving attendees young
Speaker 1: and old snoring to the finish line. Of course, that
Speaker 1: wasn't the case when the sator was held at Sid
Speaker 1: Caesar's house, with a guest list that included mel Brooks,
Speaker 1: Carl Reiner, Richard Lewis, Laney Kazan, Theodore Bikel, Connie Stevens,
Speaker 1: Monty Hall, Arthur Hiller, Jeff Ross, and today's guest, I'm
Speaker 1: Jonathan Friedman.
Speaker 3: And I'm Joey Angelfield.
Speaker 1: Producer engineer Mike Tomren is working somewhere behind the scenes.
Speaker 1: Amusing Jews is a project of a Dad Javerin, Congregation
Speaker 1: for Humanistic Judaism, the Jewish Museum of the American West,
Speaker 1: and Atheist United Studios.
Speaker 3: We're excited to chat again with Rena Strober, a Broadway
Speaker 3: television film and voice actor who's currently working on a
Speaker 3: memoir singing for Sid and other Wow moments. Rena, welcome
Speaker 3: back to amusing Jews.
Speaker 4: Thank you. You guys have not aged a bit.
Speaker 3: That's so nice of you to say so. Rena, tell
Speaker 3: us how'd you get to know the legendary said Caesar.
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, it just gets more and more Jewish.
Speaker 4: I was doing a musical review in Los Angeles.
Speaker 2: I just moved to LA from New York in twenty
Speaker 2: twelve or twenty thirteen, and Jason Legs and cast me
Speaker 2: in a.
Speaker 4: Musical review called when You're in Love.
Speaker 2: The Whole World is Jewish, based on the Bob Booker
Speaker 2: albums A fear of that age. There were these records
Speaker 2: that sort of broke down the traditional Jewish jokes into scenes,
Speaker 2: and Jason directed sort of a stage version of it.
Speaker 2: And I just moved from New York where I had
Speaker 2: a lot of cool things going on in my life,
Speaker 2: and one of them was I was a member of
Speaker 2: the Friars Club because.
Speaker 4: I am obsessed with old Jewish men. Not obsessed. I
Speaker 4: think I am an old Jewish man. Let's just say that.
Speaker 2: Born and raised in the Catskills, I'm a borsch belt person.
Speaker 2: So in my bio it's talked about stuff I'd done,
Speaker 2: and then it said I was a member of the
Speaker 2: Friars Club. And afterwards at adorable couple came over to
Speaker 2: me and they said, oh my god, you were great.
Speaker 4: We used to run the Friars Club. Here, would you
Speaker 4: want to meet Sid Caesar?
Speaker 2: And I was like, I had been stalking Sid at
Speaker 2: Factors Deli every Wednesday for good six months because he
Speaker 2: was meeting his.
Speaker 4: Writers there every Wednesday.
Speaker 2: I've loved Sid Caesar since Greece, History of the World.
Speaker 2: And then I got to know Caesar's hour, and I
Speaker 2: knew that he had not met anyone in at least
Speaker 2: in a year or so, because he was sort of
Speaker 2: house bound and getting older. But this couple said that
Speaker 2: they were his caretakers and would.
Speaker 4: I want to go up and meet him? And they'd
Speaker 4: never done this before, but something about me because.
Speaker 5: I'm an old Jewish man, So yes, I said, And
Speaker 5: the next day I was given the address and I
Speaker 5: met Arthur Hiller actually in the driveway and we walked
Speaker 5: in and there was Sid in a hospital bed.
Speaker 2: Giant, He's still a giant, giant, hand giant, eyebrows, and
Speaker 2: Arthur sat down next to him, and Arthur just started crying,
Speaker 2: actually because the Sid looked.
Speaker 4: Very old and frail and sort of not there. And
Speaker 4: I stood and I let the men just have a moment.
Speaker 2: And then lou this friend said, Brina sick because I
Speaker 2: sung in the show for Jason, sing for him, sang
Speaker 2: for him.
Speaker 4: My whole life, I've been forced to sing in funny situations.
Speaker 4: But so I started to sing.
Speaker 2: Sid's eyes popped open and his giant eyebrows went up,
Speaker 2: and he looked to me and and in like a
Speaker 2: gravelly voice, he said, oh wow, which is the name
Speaker 2: of the book I'm working on? And he started to
Speaker 2: sing No very long.
Speaker 4: There actual, and everyone was sort of shocked a bit.
Speaker 2: And to make a long story short, for a year,
Speaker 2: I went by his house every week and I sat
Speaker 2: next to him, and I sang, and I sang Gershwin
Speaker 2: and Rogers and Hart and Hammerstein, and the me music
Speaker 2: started to bring him back, and he then in return
Speaker 2: would tell me stories and I sort of became part
Speaker 2: of the meshbucha and I was there a lot, and
Speaker 2: Mel and Carl would go on other days. We all
Speaker 2: had our days that we went, and the village loved
Speaker 2: him and took care of him.
Speaker 1: I know the era died in the Wold in New
Speaker 1: Yorker and La is still not one hundred percent comfortable
Speaker 1: for you. What is the difference or what was the
Speaker 1: difference between the Friars Club in New York and in LA.
Speaker 2: I never went to the Friars Club here from what
Speaker 2: I know, because the New York Club made the La
Speaker 2: Club shut down many years ago.
Speaker 4: The New York Club was very exclusive.
Speaker 2: You could only walk through those doors if you were
Speaker 2: a member or with a member. We were fairly strict
Speaker 2: about it. And for those who don't know the Friars Club,
Speaker 2: we did the roasts, all the famous roasts we had.
Speaker 2: Milton Burrell left his five story townhouse to us on
Speaker 2: fifty fifth and actually all just shut down and it's gone.
Speaker 2: But during the Hey today there were the roasts and
Speaker 2: Freddie Roman. We would have lunch there, we would have
Speaker 2: chopped liver, Happy Hour. I sang there every week.
Speaker 4: But it was exclusive. It was a club for entertainers.
Speaker 2: I say I brought the average age down to seventy
Speaker 2: because it was mostly old people.
Speaker 4: Then there was Jeff Ross and me and a few
Speaker 4: other people. So the one in La.
Speaker 2: Was open to everybody sort of towards the end, and
Speaker 2: I think that was the problem.
Speaker 4: Anyone could go sort of as a restaurant.
Speaker 1: Enjoining the show, click like and subscribe. So how did
Speaker 1: you end up doing a passover Satyr with Sid Caesar.
Speaker 4: I'd heard that his satyrs were famous.
Speaker 2: Him and Florence were very social people, and they had
Speaker 2: this beautiful house in Beverly Hills, and they were infamous
Speaker 2: for throwing a second I think it was mostly the
Speaker 2: second night Satyr.
Speaker 4: And I'd heard that.
Speaker 2: Sid would only talk in his gibberish, and these were
Speaker 2: famous satyrs, and at this point I don't know.
Speaker 4: If they had been doing them, but we decided to
Speaker 4: bring it back. That year.
Speaker 2: It was his actually final satyr. I did two there,
Speaker 2: but the following year he had already passed away. So
Speaker 2: he was there in a jar with his wife in
Speaker 2: a jar and his dog in a jar.
Speaker 4: And I say that lighthearted because he would love that.
Speaker 2: But the year that he was there, Theo Biquel, who
Speaker 2: had just played My Father and Fiddler on the Roof.
Speaker 4: I was on the national tour with.
Speaker 2: Topel and Theo came in to fill in so I
Speaker 2: knew the Theo, So me and THEO sort of put
Speaker 2: this satyr together for Sid and all of his friends.
Speaker 2: And I was the youngest by far, so I got
Speaker 2: to sing the four Questions for the first time in decades.
Speaker 2: So these satyrs were infamous, and they had about twenty people.
Speaker 2: It was catered at from Brent's Delhi and they were
Speaker 2: the same people. And just a few moments that I
Speaker 2: want to share is mante Hall, who was one of
Speaker 2: the kindest, Like I knew him a little bit, but
Speaker 2: he is such a Nashama like he all he wanted
Speaker 2: to do was the Schehriano, Like can I please do
Speaker 2: the cheriano? Like that meant so much to him.
Speaker 4: And he did it. We would have dinner parties there too.
Speaker 2: We had a dinner for Sids ninetieth, his ninety first
Speaker 2: and this satyr and and MANTSTI always.
Speaker 4: Wanted to bring the cheeriano.
Speaker 2: So I just I always love that. And like you said,
Speaker 2: Lady Kazan was across from me. Connie Stevens Artie Butler,
Speaker 2: theo bikel who's just I mean. I did fiddler with
Speaker 2: him when he was eighty six. And this is a
Speaker 2: man who's eighty nine at the time, who at first
Speaker 2: feels very old, and then when he opens his mouth
Speaker 2: to saying, he goes back to his forties. It's it's magical, magical.
Speaker 2: He had an old, old Yiddish hagada. He's all so
Speaker 2: incredibly progressive. He sounds like he wouldn't be, but the
Speaker 2: orange was there on the satyr plate. He challenged every story,
Speaker 2: he challenged every cashrew rule. He had a laptop on
Speaker 2: the table because he had just met this woman and
Speaker 2: in India, so he had her face timing on there
Speaker 2: like and uh and.
Speaker 4: Mel brooks Uh was what I called Melijah.
Speaker 2: He was a few minutes late, and so we left
Speaker 2: a chair for Melijah. And then I was because I
Speaker 2: was the youngest, and I sat to theo's left, and
Speaker 2: I had to do the four questions, And so before beforehand,
Speaker 2: I thought, well.
Speaker 4: I have to make this night different from all other nights.
Speaker 2: And I rewrote the four questions to the tune of Pardon,
Speaker 2: Pardon Me Miss, which was Sid's big song on Broadway
Speaker 2: and from Little Mee.
Speaker 4: And then I did too too.
Speaker 2: If I were a rich man, I actually was to
Speaker 2: do the fourth one to springtime for Hitler in honor
Speaker 2: of mel But I was.
Speaker 4: Like, maybe maybe not the best choice. So I did
Speaker 4: if I were a rich man, and pardon me miss
Speaker 4: to the four questions.
Speaker 3: It sounds like it was more of a secular cultural
Speaker 3: event than a religious one.
Speaker 2: Well, I will preface this by saying, I think in
Speaker 2: that room, if they, if these were people who knew
Speaker 2: what humanistic Judaism was, they would sign up. Mel would
Speaker 2: always say, you know, there's no He would say there's
Speaker 2: no mel Brooks without Sidsey's, or there's only Melvin Kaminski.
Speaker 2: And then he would talk about how he was raised
Speaker 2: by Jewish parents, but he wasn't a religious Jew. He
Speaker 2: was a cultural Jew. And I think that went for
Speaker 2: everybody in the room. Maybe Monty Hall was probably your
Speaker 2: more religious Jew. Rabbi Jerry Cutler, may he rest in peace.
Speaker 4: May his memory be for a blessing who passed away
Speaker 4: just last month. He was the rabbi there reform rabbi.
Speaker 2: Though this was a culture event, this was a ritual
Speaker 2: Even to theo Bakel, it felt very ritualistic in what's
Speaker 2: on the sat or plate.
Speaker 4: Whenever we said why, you know, why is this night
Speaker 4: different from all others?
Speaker 2: Mel Brooks would scream because we wait so long to eat,
Speaker 2: Like the people were just yelling things out and Sid
Speaker 2: was not doing it this time, but he was known
Speaker 2: to just do the whole Hagada in Gibberish, like he
Speaker 2: would tell the story of the Exodus in Gibberish. I'm
Speaker 2: sure most of these people hadn't been to a satyr,
Speaker 2: probably in a long time, but this gave them this
Speaker 2: sense of connection the food, the bris kit. Even like
Speaker 2: in this book that recently came out about Sid Caesar,
Speaker 2: my quote that they use was when I walked in,
Speaker 2: it smelled of shallamar and chop liver. It's this old
Speaker 2: feeling and this old smell, and but that's what it
Speaker 2: was about.
Speaker 4: And to me, I think that's what Passover is about.
Speaker 2: Ninety nine point nine percent of homes, that it's about
Speaker 2: these rituals.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and Passover is the most celebrated of the Jewish
Speaker 1: holidays in the United States. And partly it's for all
Speaker 1: the reasons that you're mentioning that it is self directed.
Speaker 1: You don't really need a rabbi, even though there was
Speaker 1: a rabbi there who I'm sure was just enjoying being
Speaker 1: around all these legends just as viewer. But it can
Speaker 1: be done however you want to do it. You can
Speaker 1: do it in gibberish, you can do it quickly, you
Speaker 1: can do it with a lot of sarcasm and humor,
Speaker 1: which is I think something that outsiders don't necessarily understand
Speaker 1: about the Satyr, that it really is kind of a
Speaker 1: choose your own adventure cultural event. More than anything else.
Speaker 2: It really reflected who those people were in the room,
Speaker 2: and everybody had a voice.
Speaker 4: We were at three round no no, I was.
Speaker 2: At a rectangle table in the front, and then there
Speaker 2: were like two round tables I think.
Speaker 4: But it was a big event. I mean it was loud.
Speaker 2: People are screaming, Landy's yelling whatnot, and and uh, you know.
Speaker 4: Jeff Ross was just I've never seen him so quiet.
Speaker 2: I knew him from New York in the Friars Club,
Speaker 2: but he was in a state of awe.
Speaker 4: Just watching all of these these legends.
Speaker 2: I mean, I tell people, if I ever have a like,
Speaker 2: if you ever have one of those dreams where you're
Speaker 2: sitting at a table with all of your heroes, you.
Speaker 4: Know, and then you wake up like that was this
Speaker 4: for me.
Speaker 2: I just was like, how how am I at a
Speaker 2: Jewish event, which I love with these people like I
Speaker 2: would not choose anyone else to be at a satyr with.
Speaker 4: And then at one point mel Brooks called me over.
Speaker 2: I hadn't really spent a lot of time with him yet,
Speaker 2: and he has me sit down, and I was like,
Speaker 2: I mean, he is he's my hush em.
Speaker 4: I pray to mel Brooks and.
Speaker 2: He said, so, I heard you're coming by weekly to
Speaker 2: sing to Sid and I said yeah, and you know
Speaker 2: and I said to him, I know he told me
Speaker 2: the joke or the story the other day that when
Speaker 2: he hung you out the window in Chicago.
Speaker 4: And he goes, what do you mean he told you
Speaker 4: that story? I said, well, we just.
Speaker 2: Finished singing all of show Boat, and then he started
Speaker 2: to tell me that story, and he got very sort
Speaker 2: of quiet, and he took my face in his hands,
Speaker 2: and I was like, oh my god, Oh my god,
Speaker 2: what is happening. And he kissed me on my forehead
Speaker 2: and he just sort of blessed me, uh like I
Speaker 2: don't know how Moses felt when he had his stuff
Speaker 2: going on, but this was this was biblical.
Speaker 4: He thanked me because mel and Sid and Carl were
Speaker 4: a trio, and then when Sid was the first one
Speaker 4: to really succumb to age and dementia in a way.
Speaker 2: I don't want to use that word medically because I
Speaker 2: don't know if that was the diagnosis, but it really
Speaker 2: affected them.
Speaker 4: It affected Carl really hard that he didn't come by
Speaker 4: a lot during the weekend. He more.
Speaker 2: But mel had a hard time seeing his best friend
Speaker 2: slowly die, and so he kissed my forehead and just
Speaker 2: thanked me, and I was like, I need nothing else
Speaker 2: in life.
Speaker 1: I was gonna ask about that. It seems like this
Speaker 1: is a peak experience and any other Satyr or any
Speaker 1: other event at all is going to pale in comparison
Speaker 1: for the rest of your life. Like how is that
Speaker 1: sort of dealing with having that experience and then having
Speaker 1: to do so many other things afterwards, you know.
Speaker 4: I mean, I walk into Satyrs and I'm like, where's
Speaker 4: mel Brooks? Because if he's not here, I'm leaving.
Speaker 1: I wouldn't even go to Satyrs anymore after that.
Speaker 2: I sometimes I think about it as a fever dream.
Speaker 2: I'm like, did that just happen? Like, speaking of Monty Hall,
Speaker 2: his daughter's Joanna Gleeson, one of my favorite Broadway actresses,
Speaker 2: and I always sort of quote her into the woods.
Speaker 2: She goes, what was that was that me? That him?
Speaker 4: Did a prince really kiss me?
Speaker 2: That's jo Wanna Gleeson And I sometimes go into that,
Speaker 2: but I am like a seven year old.
Speaker 4: I don't know. You guys know this.
Speaker 2: I get so excited by everything. So I still get
Speaker 2: so excited to do a sator.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 2: I have my daughter now, who's going to be nine
Speaker 2: next month, and I get to pass down traditions to her.
Speaker 4: I get to watch herbie board and try to leave
Speaker 4: the table. But you're right, it'll never compare.
Speaker 2: But I also can compartmentalize a bit and honor that
Speaker 2: and not expect another one because the fact that I
Speaker 2: had one of those in a lifetime, and then I
Speaker 2: had his ninetieth I had was part of his funeral planning, unfortunately,
Speaker 2: slash fortunately. And then the following year we all met again,
Speaker 2: everybody met again, and had that satyr in which I
Speaker 2: led a lot more of it.
Speaker 4: THEO wasn't there.
Speaker 2: I think he was on his honeymoon, and so I
Speaker 2: got to lead it and that was very meaningful, sort
Speaker 2: of almost closure to end, you know, and knowing that
Speaker 2: Sid and Florence and Carlin his dog, were there. And
Speaker 2: it's been a while, but I hold it, you know,
Speaker 2: I hold it in my heart.
Speaker 3: And yeah, well that's, you know, a really wonderful story
Speaker 3: that I've now heard you tell a couple of times, Rena,
Speaker 3: and it gets better every time I hear it. I
Speaker 3: want to take pieces of it into my statter this year.
Speaker 3: But can you tell us a little more about your
Speaker 3: memoir and what we can expect from it.
Speaker 2: I hope it's normal that memoirs take a long time,
Speaker 2: because I started writing my story with Sid the year
Speaker 2: he died and we're talking twenty thirteen, because I didn't
Speaker 2: want to forget a thing. He imparted a lot of
Speaker 2: wisdom despite people not thinking he was there. He talked
Speaker 2: to me about love, He talked to me about writing,
Speaker 2: He talked to me about comedy, all because of music.
Speaker 2: And so I have all these stories and so, but
Speaker 2: believe it or not, Sid Caesar was one of many
Speaker 2: wonderfully random, powerful men that entered my life. Sid and
Speaker 2: mel But so I started writing these stories because I
Speaker 2: want people, first of all, not to forget about him.
Speaker 2: I want generations to know why they have the sitcom
Speaker 2: like Sid Caesar is the reason we have comedy on television,
Speaker 2: and I want him to be remembered for that. I
Speaker 2: also am writing this book to encourage people to talk
Speaker 2: to octogenarians. I don't just like celebrities at all, Like
Speaker 2: I have an affinity for people who have lived in
Speaker 2: our eighties and nineties.
Speaker 4: It's why I loved the Friars Club.
Speaker 2: Actually, I would sit with this old man, his name
Speaker 2: was Richard and he was a dentist. He was sponsored
Speaker 2: to be in the Friars Club and I would spend
Speaker 2: hours listening to stories. And I want the book to
Speaker 2: encourage people to open in those conversations. And then it
Speaker 2: actually goes a little bit into my time at REOs,
Speaker 2: which is a whole other story, but about other legendary
Speaker 2: older men that came into my life. And that was
Speaker 2: a mob mobsters, older mobsters. But my life has had
Speaker 2: this weird rollercoaster in and out of these stories that
Speaker 2: because I always say, don't write if you don't have
Speaker 2: anything to write about, you know, And between Sid and
Speaker 2: the Friars Club and REOs, I want to encourage people
Speaker 2: to look beyond age and see story and then see change.
Speaker 1: Well, thank you so much, Rina, for joining us. We
Speaker 1: look forward to reading your memoir eventually.
Speaker 4: I'm going to do it. It's going to happen.
Speaker 1: It's going to happen, and to our audience. Now back
Speaker 1: to your regularly scheduled lives.
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