[00:00:00] Speaker A: Anumatri Matsuve. We make people who are sad happy inami. And also, when there is a riff and problems and disharmony, we bring peace through laughter.
[00:00:34] Speaker B: Welcome back to another episode of the Karin podcast. We have a really, really exciting episode lined up for you today. We are going to be speaking to Modi Rosenfeld, the wonderful comedian, about his tara. Al Regal ahat.
Looking forward to what I'm sure will be a interesting and hopefully very, very funny conversation with Modi in time for Purim. So without further ado, let's jump in to Modi's Torah. Al Regal ahat.
[00:01:03] Speaker C: We are delighted to be joined by the one and only Modi. Modi, thank you so much for joining us on the Quran podcast.
[00:01:09] Speaker A: Pleasure to be here.
[00:01:10] Speaker C: So let's get going with our one question, which is, can you teach us the Torah while standing on one leg?
[00:01:17] Speaker A: Okay, very simple.
Create mashiach energy.
That's it. Obviously, as we know, the question comes from Hillel, and he was asked to tell the whole Torah on one leg, in one word, in one sentence. And he said, am I right? Yep. Love your neighbor as yourself. And I think the best way to do that is through creating Mashiach energy, because Moshiach is the end goal. That's the end goal. Beautiful.
[00:01:48] Speaker B: So I know you've spoken about it in your stand up a bit, and definitely in your podcast, too. What is Moshiach energy for the audience who may not know? What is it? What does it look like?
[00:01:58] Speaker A: I mean, to me, I discovered and I realized what Moshiach energy was after COVID doing shows, when all of a sudden I'm in a room with people who had been locked up, and then now they're laughing together, and there's an energy in the room that we've just all survived something, and we all went through it. And I just see this laughter as it was an hour or ten minutes, whatever time was on stage, that it was just mashiach energy. That's the energy. That's the goal. Energy, which is the goal, obviously. The goal is moshiach, and that's the energy that would be created through that. But it could be through anyway. Mashiach energy can be literally just having respect for somebody, helping somebody. Harmony, lots of harmony. When things just helping people cause harmony in their life, from as easy as suggesting a good doctor to somebody, to helping out somebody that wasn't expecting the.
[00:02:56] Speaker B: Help that's creating mashiach energy, it's a really wonderful thing. So you talk about how you sort of came to this idea after COVID, I know you were here in Israel on October 7.
What does Moshiach energy look like now?
[00:03:12] Speaker A: Again, for me, every night I get on stage now since October 7, and I'm in front of a jewish audience. And sometimes not that jewish, a little jewish, and non Jews, especially for the jewish audiences, they have an hour and 15 minutes. I'm on stage where they are not in the war because of our social media and the way the news is presented to us now. We're in the war.
We are real time in this war, watching what the soldiers are doing, who's dying, who's captive. We're in the war. It's not like back in the day where you went in front of your television at 10:00 and watched the news, and that was it. The news is twenty four seven. And for an hour and 15 minutes, people have this mashiach energy, this moment of not being in the war, laughing and uniting together as Jews, as people who have the common cause of coming to a place to laugh.
And it's been insane.
I was in Israel on October 7, and then we flew on October 7 to Paris because I had four shows. And those four shows I was watching people in the audience watching the war, us just finding out that kids'heads were slashed off, that this was taken, and he was taken, and already soldiers are dead. And then the curtain goes up, and here comes Modi. And here's Modi, which is why the name of my podcast is. And here's Modi. Because I'm always following crazy situations.
Since October 7, every show I do, I sing Hatikva at the end, and I remind them, I'm so happy I had this hour and change with you. And now our hearts are back with Israel and what's happening there.
[00:05:03] Speaker C: So it doesn't sound like you've got a chance to even think about, am I going to do comedy now after October the 7th? Because you're basically already doing it.
[00:05:12] Speaker A: When that plane took off, that plane had a four hour delay.
You never felt your kishkas. You felt you were dying. And then we're plotting in the chair, sitting on a plane for 4 hours, hearing sirens. And I said, if Hashem puts us up in the air and we get to Paris, that's what it's meant. We didn't cancel any of the shows. Well, not true. The police asked us to cancel one of the shows because there was a protest right, by theater, but we moved it to a matinee on the following day.
But God put me in Paris, and it wasn't to cancel shows. It was to connect with the jewish people and give them a little bit of hope and a little bit of chizuk and Amuna and mashiach energy.
[00:05:59] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:06:00] Speaker A: I'm not saying I'm mashiach because I'm bringing moshiach energy. I promise you. In the theater, all the people laughing, the one who's having the best time is me.
I'm having more fun than anybody in this audience laughing. I promise you. Yeah.
[00:06:16] Speaker C: And do you think if things been different, your flight been delayed, you'd got stuck in Israel like some people did after yonder? Do you think you had more time to think about it? Do you think you would have kind of gotten straight back into it like you did, or do you think you would have taken.
[00:06:28] Speaker A: I know I would have. Look, if that flight would have been cancelled, there were no flights. It was the last flight out of Israel. There were no flights for three more days. So I would have missed those shows, but gotten back to America and I would have just popped right back on.
It's a very holy thing. I think I do. God put me here with a cancel.
[00:06:53] Speaker B: Let's rewind a bit. How does modi Rosenfeld become Modi of and his Modi, how do you get into comedy?
I think it definitely is holy that making people laugh, making people happy, that's like an unbelievable thing. To be able to do that every single day is fantastic. So how do you go from growing up to, what's the story again?
[00:07:18] Speaker A: No, it's not into the background story. Basically, I was working in investment banking. I used to imitate the secretaries when I came and hung out with my friends. One of the friends says, do this on stage. This is stand up comedy. I'd never been to a comedy club. He set it up. His name is Donnie Moss.
I'd never been to a comic, but I just did the invitations on stage. The owner of the club said, this is great.
So I began doing stand up, and then obviously the voice comes out. Once you start doing, you have a voice. It was a jewish voice, and this is a comedy club. This wasn't jewish events at first. And then jewish organizations saw, he doesn't curse on stage.
He's always in a suit, because I was always coming from work. And so I began to get jewish events, synagogues, JCCs, the Castles, had a little bit of whatever was left in it. And so that's how I managed to get into the jewish world.
And then when you begin, you begin with full ego. I have to have a television show. I have to be more money.
Then you realize, every time I would do a jewish event, they would always introduce me with a phrase from the Talmud, which is a story about Eliyahuanavi being in the shook in the marketplace. And two people asked him, who in the market here has Helig Volamaba? Who here has their apportion in the world to come? And he pointed to two people. So he went over and asked them, what do you guys do? What is your work? And they answered him, Anu anchibadike. We are anche Badike, people of laughter, right? So, obviously, it's a comedian. And then they go, and here's Modi. Please welcome Modi Badike. Anumatimatsuve. We make people who are sad, happy, inami. And also, when there is a riff and problems and disharmony, we bring peace through laughter. Two things. That's the job of Dichre. So then I always thought to myself, that means every comic is anshe Badike. And then I realized, why would the Talmud say that it's Anshebadi? The guy over there, he's a comedian. He has Helez Berlamaba. He has the portion of the world to come, but it's two people, because the anshe Badihe, the comedian, needs help. You have to have the guy that pays for the comedy event at the synagogue. You have a friend who sees that Modi is coming to town, and he buys ten tickets, knowing that all of his friends will forget to buy tickets and need tickets, and he'll have them. He's now creating mashiach energy. He's anshe Badike. That's how it all comes around to your first question.
[00:10:26] Speaker C: And do you think there's, like, something you mentioned a couple of examples, but more in terms of the approach that you take to comedy, or the comedy that you do or the topics you talk about, that kind of fits that.
[00:10:39] Speaker A: Think that you have that in the back of your consciousness. You have that in the back of your. And then it just happens. The comedy, the material happens. And that's all from Hashem. That's all. God, any joke I've ever written that's been good was a little bit of Igbor from Hashem. It has nothing to do with me. I just was a vessel for it, and the joke came out, and I thank God for every joke I've ever had.
[00:11:01] Speaker B: Are there any that maybe, I don't want to say, gone too far, but there any jokes where they've not landed, not like you bombed on stage. Whatever, Khalila. But it's not brought the people together. Perhaps. It's perhaps struck a nerve slightly too hard. What something that's any of those juicy, interesting.
[00:11:19] Speaker A: You asked that.
I'm on tour doing these theaters where I'm in front of thousands of jewish people and non jewish, too. Non jewish people and gays had been coming to my shows. Abroch Hashem. Great. Two audiences to connect to. But you look out and you see white shirts and sitzis and big black yamukas, and then you see non jewish people.
So you feel whatever you say. Pro jewish is very resonates. And then I was home for a week, so I was doing shows at the comedy club, at the comedy seller, and I was doing this joke about the politician in Turkey that screamed out that Allah is going to kill all the Jews and destroy Israel. And I phrased it in a way as know, in a way that I shouldn't have kind know because it got a laugh because it was funny, and the cadence of the joke was funny, but it took a shot at Turkey. It took a shot at any doctor that's in Turkey, and that's not mashiach energy.
And you just have to adjust a little bit. There's no need for people to be offended by your jokes. You can always be funny. There's like a line. You can't cross the line.
[00:12:46] Speaker C: Do you feel like you have comedy inspirations, or do you feel like. Actually, the unique thing about your comedy is, like you say, I've heard people talk about it in terms like nigunim. Like a nigun is brought down from shemaim, and then the musician sings a of sort of what I was hearing when you took out jokes, like, you're bringing down a joke from shemaim and sharing it. So is your inspiration divine inspiration, or do you feel like.
[00:13:10] Speaker A: Or do you have comedic inspirations as well? I don't know.
Everything is divine. Everything is from Hashem.
And I don't sit and write jokes.
It comes to me, and I think of something funny I might be working out. And if something comes to me that I bring it to, either talk about it with my husband, or I try it on stage or try to figure out what the taglines would be or add things to it or call a few friends and run it through them.
It's observational comedy. It's observational comedy.
But that little bit of that spark comes from God. It doesn't come from. Because I'm a genius. I'm a comedy genius. It's not like that.
[00:14:03] Speaker B: It's that as well.
Do you feel maybe, like the rabbis might have a bit easier? The rabi can get up and give his drash or a Shabbos and make some terrible joke or some terrible pun, and everyone laughs because you got to laugh.
[00:14:18] Speaker A: What they're.
He wasn't up there to tell a joke, so all of a sudden, he said something humorous. So he gets like, oh, wow. He's a very funny rabbi. Yeah, but some of them are very funny. Some of them. Some rabbis are funny.
My rabbi Galvalino writes jokes with me and is very funny. And whenever something happens in the news, he sends me, like, here's the take on this. And we have fun with.
[00:14:49] Speaker B: Mean, going back a bit to where we are now and moshiach energy.
You've given some examples of not being a comedic. The non comedic elements of it. But what are things that people can do? Like a takeaway that can ensure. I guess it's not just doing a mitzvah. There's something more to it, right? It's not just like putting on tefillin. It's not just giving a staka. There's another level.
[00:15:12] Speaker A: There's also a conscious level. Conscious level.
Everybody thinks mashiach is just a chabad. That's just a chabad. It's not. It's not just a Chabad thing. How lucky are they that landed with connection to mashiach? How genius is that?
You guys are connected to the sitter. That's the hardest thing in the world to read.
But they are connected with.
And it's funny. I told you before about your sitter. My rabbi only uses your sitter. I can't read a word in your sitter. It literally looks like something that's on the side of a cave.
The font.
I'm dyslexic and have ADHD. And when art scroll finally came out with that beautiful citadel, I'm like, this is it. This is Mashiach Hananji. I can eat, I can read. I can follow great bars of instruction. What to do.
So what was the point of that? I'm sorry. I completely wrong.
[00:16:12] Speaker B: What's a call to action without using the a word? A call to action for people can do to bring that moshiach energy. As you said, there's something conscious about it. It's not just.
[00:16:28] Speaker A: Again, moshiach, moshiach, moshiach. This is the goal. If you look at the prayers that we pray. Mincha, myrev, shakras. It's Mashiak. We're asking for Mashiach whether you go to shul once a year or once every 15 minutes, you're asking for Mashiach.
And you have to believe that we're in that time already. I go to bed every night and I swear to God, I think tomorrow I'm going to wake up and I'm going to open my phone, and the first thing I'm going to see is all the hostages were released. All the hostages were released. And a few days ago, I woke up and two of the hostages were released. I'll take that. I'll take two can give me tomorrow another two. You have to believe in it. So that's a mashiach energy.
I used to do a lot of Chabad houses, like the bigger Chabad houses, when they could afford me.
Whenever you get to a Chabad house, they give you the ahana. That what's happening in this is the Shul. Basically, only the rabbi and his wife are religious. That we have Israelis, we have this, we have that. There's a few couples that aren't exactly all jewish. And then they tell me, like, one time I was at the Chabanas, and the guy says, and we have a few couples that are same sex marriages, and they have their kids in our day school, and we love them, and they're lovely. They're one of the best children we have. They know the olive bays, they do the Shabbat, the mach Shabbat on Thursday, and they're amazing. And I'm thinking to myself, here's a Chabad couple. She's with the wig and the whole thing, and he's got the black hat. And they're telling me that they have this gay couple in their Shul, and their kid is in their yeshiva, and they treat this kid the way they would want their child to be treated at whatever yeshiva he's in. Mashiach energy, God showed you. Here's Mashiach energy. Here's this ultra orthodox couple with respect for everybody.
Mashiach energy. They create Mashiach energy.
That's how it is.
[00:18:53] Speaker B: What you're saying, with this consciousness of it, and there's that extra level.
Ari and I spoke with the parents of Hirsch Goldberg, Pollin, one of the hostages. We recorded an episode of the podcast with them, and I don't want to put words in her mouth, but his mother, Rachel, her Torah al Ragalacha was Loba Shamaimhi. The Torah is not in Shamayim. The Torah was sent down to us, and it's for us to put it in. I think that Moshiach energy is that it's taking the Torah and the ideas within the Torah, like Hamacha, which was John Hershey's father's. His answer was, that's what it mean. The way I'm understanding it, at least, and I think this is Judaism as well, is you're saying something, and I'm going to understand it the way I want to understand it. But that the way I'm saying is that's moshe energy. It's taking the Tara, it's taking Judaism, it's taking all these beautiful things and putting them out in the world in whatever way you can.
[00:19:50] Speaker A: Absolutely. Creating it in whatever way you can. Absolutely.
Someone sends you a DM saying, hey, guys, love your podcast. I listen to it every time I walk my dog. I look forward to it every time. You created a moment with this person that's know a harmony, a oneness through a podcast. How great is that?
So it's little things, but you have to recognize that it is mashiach energy, and that's mashiach. Mashiach here in a way.
I don't know what best would argue with me on that, but I literally feel as though Mashiach is here when things happen that are aligned and great Mashiach is here.
[00:20:37] Speaker C: I wanted to ask you about, obviously, as a comedian, this episode is coming out in the month of Ada for you. What's the bashat of Ada in terms of this idea of being Marvin Simcha, having a specific time in the year to be Marvin Basimka? What's it all about? What do you think it's about?
[00:20:55] Speaker A: I'm more on the.
Yes. You know what? Why not? Why not? Let's make this month an extra. We should always find a way to be basimcha and to make somebody else be Simcha. But this month, even more. Even more. Okay, let's take a month for even more. And astrologically, Adar is a happier month. I'll pick a balla.
The universe is open to it now. Consciously, yes. Making people more happy, be more happy. Find ways to go to a comedy show, watch something funny with a friend, and have a good time.
Yes, it's funny because my comedy special is coming out in April. Just going to be other shaney.
The company that's releasing my special is called 800 Pound Gorilla, and they've decided that every April from now on is going to be dedicated to comedy. It's going to be like, you have February's black history month, and this one is breast cancer month. And they decided that April should be not me. They decided. This happens to be my specials coming out on that month. And it's know again, it aligns and everything is mashiach energy. And so for other. Yes, we're an Adar. Find a way to make somebody happy.
[00:22:24] Speaker B: I think that's a beautiful note to end. You know, Modi, thank you so much for joining us. It's really been fantastic talking to you. And, yeah, I guess, you know, the takeaway is just create mashiach energy. It's a wonderful thing.
[00:22:35] Speaker A: Yeah, create mashiach energy. Yeah. And one of the ways to do that, I've recently joined this organization called jewish Future Promise.
Real funny. Mashiach energy story. They reached out to us when we were in Atlanta. I had a show in Charlote, North Carolina, and then Atlanta, and they reached out to us and said, we'd love to partner with, and if you really want to hear the whole story, it's so funny. And we said, okay, look, if you want to bring a camera crew and whatever, and we did it. We got to the hotel that morning in Atlanta, and the woman behind the counter says, your room is not. Usually we take a room the night before, so we take two nights, so that when I arrive ten in the morning, there's already a room available. So it's not like I'm sitting in the lobby waiting till 03:00 for check in, and the woman said, there's no rooms. You have to wait till they clean it or whatever it was. And this is really happening. Luckily, I had cash on me, and I slipped her 100, and she gave me an upgrade. Upgrade, upgrade of a room. And then these guys came.
Future promise, I believe. Didn't even know who they were, what they were doing, and they came with a full camera crew. If I didn't have this suite in the hotel, it had been, like, the bed and the entrance. It would have been on the bed.
Something is a little harmonized and connecting and a little mashiach energy. And then they're explaining to me what they're doing, and they're not asking for money, they're asking for you. When you make your will, 5% of whatever you're giving away should be to a jewish cause, which is genius, because there are people who. There are Jews who are so unaffiliated that they leave everything to the Guggenheim museum, which is also a jewish thing, or to some school that they're an alumni of, and they don't leave anything to help other Jews.
And they're just saying, leave 5% of whatever you're doing to a jewish cause. And I tell you what cause to give it to.
Again, it's consciousness once you pass away. It's genius.
And they're a little mashiach energy, so they made the shit between us. So give them a shukoyach and that's it. And anybody listening to this, again, be the friend that brings the friends to the comedy show. Go to modilive.com, my website. Find a show near you or near one of your friends, send them the link. If I'm not there, find something else to bring your friends to. It's going to bring laughter, and that'll bring moshiach even more.
[00:25:34] Speaker B: Very nicely done. A nice plug right there.
Thank you, Modi, so much.
[00:25:39] Speaker C: Well, that's all for this episode of the Corinne podcast. Thank you so much again to modi for joining us on this episode, and to our friends at the jewish future promise for setting it up. Depending on when you're listening, don't forget to pick up your McGelot before Purim from our website or maybe your hagadot for Pesach, also available on our website. And you can get 10% off those or your entire purchase using promo code podcast at checkout. If you'd like to reach us, you can email us on
[email protected] or reach us on all socials. Until then, have a friend and we'll see you on the next episode.
[00:26:14] Speaker A: Bye. Me.
