Seriously funny

By BENJAMIN SPIER
07/09/2010 16:41

Ari Teman joins the growing list of American comedians looking for a laugh in Israel.

Q & A with… Ari Teman

Published: Thursday, May 27, 2010 11:55 AM EDT

Comedian and Jewish Community Hero to perform at Heritage Academy

By Stacey Dresner

LONGMEADOW - Comedian Ari Teman will perform at Heritage Academy’s Comedy Night on Sunday, June 6 at 7 p.m. at City Stage in Springfield. This year the school marks its 60th anniversary, and during the event its founders and people instrumental in the establishment of the school will be honored.

Teman is an award-winning comedian, headliner and regular at A-List clubs, colleges and around the country. Recently seen on VH1, and featured in “Time Out NY” magazine for the Joke of the Week, Teman is also a Jewlarious Magazine-featured comedian, along with Jerry Seinfeld, Larry David, and Robert Klein. Teman is the host of “Further,” a stand-up showcase, a regular headliner at the Meshugeneh Comedy Festival, and a frequent performer at universities and premier events.

Teman, founder of JCorps, the Jewish social volunteering network, is also the Jewish Federations of North America’s “Jewish Community Hero of the Year,” selected from more than 400 nominees and after having received more than 570,000 votes.

JCorps, which Teman runs entirely as a volunteer, groups Jewish young adults of all denominations and from over 170 colleges and 450 companies together to help in hunger-relief, children’s hospitals, senior centers, and park and environmental projects. JCorps is now active in four countries and eight cities. Teman, a graduate of Brandeis, is also CEO of 12 gurus, a company that helps start-up firms “innovate with integrity.”

The Ledger recently spoke to Ari Teman about his comedy and his role as Jewish Community Hero.

A: I was raised Modern Orthodox in Teaneck, N.J. I went to various yeshiva and day schools.

Q: You majored in studio arts and psychology at Brandeis. So how did you end up in comedy?

A: I got into comedy pretty much the year after graduating from college. It was something I always wanted to do - It was something people were always telling me to do. I got up and did it, and fell in love with it and kept doing it.

Q: How would you describe your comedy? Is it very Jewish?

A: It’s mostly Episcopalian, which was a surprise to me as well as the audience - especially when Federations hire me to perform.

I mean, I am a Jew and sometimes when I complain it sounds like I am ordering at a deli. For the most part it is observational humor that is about life and relationships. I have one or two jokes about Jews.

Q: When did you found JCorps?

A: December of 2007.

Q: And what was the impetus? Were you a volunteer before you founded JCorps?

A: No, I don’t really like helping people. I am actually a registered Republican. I basically said to myself, how do I meet nice people? I just didn’t feel like going to synagogue or temple, and I didn’t feel like going to nightclubs was a great way to meet decent human beings. So I said, volunteering, and the idea for JCorps came into my head.

The idea is to keep it social. The basic idea behind JCorps is that helping people can and should be a selfish experience in the sense that you should feel you are getting back what you are putting in - people who like working with kids should work with kids, people who like working with animals should work with animals. [If you are in JCorps] one of the things you want to do is connect with other people, so we want to preserve an environment where people can connect.

We also make it very convenient to volunteer. People are busy - they don’t have a lot of time to run around and go on-line and find volunteer places, sign up and apply. We make it so you fill out a form, we screen you and you show up.

So it is definitely a convenience issue, and it is also the fact that if you’ve got to choose between two volunteer opportunities and one will let you meet a bunch of great people you are going to choose the one that lets you meet a lot of great people.

Q: You were nominated for and were named the Jewish Community Hero of the Year by the Jewish Federations of North America. Was that exciting?

A: Yeah, a friend nominated me, obviously making a huge mistake…

But it was great for the organization. It gave us a lot of visibility and credibility.

It was a mixed bag. I beat a guy from my hometown who gave away a kidney, and that made me feel really great. Although for the record he was unwilling to do it twice whereas I volunteer almost every Sunday. The Federations like consistency - that is the message here. If you are going to give up a kidney, don’t be a quitter.

Q: You are also CEO of a company called 12gurus. Can you tell us about it?

A: “12gurus” helps organizations start ventures. We have a few start ups of our own…and then we are hired by organizations, foundations and companies that want to launch a venture and make it popular and successful. We help them do it…It is very much an innovation process that from the very start of a venture helps shape it.

Q: So you do a lot - you are a CEO, a volunteer and a comedian. How would you describe yourself?

A: Poorly focused.

I guess I try to get a lot done in a short amount of time so I can spend the rest of my life doing nothing - the American dream. ]]> http://teman.com/teman/92/interview-with-jewish-ledger/feed/ http://teman.com/teman/90/jcorps-you-say-goodbye-i-say-hello-jcorps-first-staff/ http://teman.com/teman/90/jcorps-you-say-goodbye-i-say-hello-jcorps-first-staff/#comments Mon, 12 Apr 2010 20:39:08 +0000 admin http://teman.com/teman/?p=90 Reposted from http://global.jcorps.org

Ari’s Thoughts : From our Founder

Today brings a big change for JCorps.

JCorps's 50th Event

Ari at one of JCorps' first events

I started JCorps with big goals, it’s legal name from Day One was “JCorps International, Inc.” . We started in New York City in December of 2006 and quickly expanded to Jerusalem, Montreal, and are now open in cities as far as Russia and the Ukraine. We’ve had thousands of volunteers from over 180 schools, 450 companies, and 20 countries. Every year, we feed over 21,000 meals to the hungry, beautify acres of parks, and visit hundreds of sick children and elderly around the world.

One of my goals from the outset was to prove we could build a great organization with just volunteers. By designing a simple franchise system with clear rules and guidelines, the JCorps model could be replicated and grown with little reinvention. Our model was Wikipedia, which was built by a team of uber-dedicated volunteers. However, like Wikipedia the scale and scope of JCorps has grown to demand full time staff. When JCorps hit three cities I started to feel my time limited. Now we’re opening in eight.

The potential for JCorps demands full time staff. And in the spirit that “A Players Hire A Players”, I’m excited to announce our first full-time staff person, a Chief Operating Officer who will support our volunteer Division Leaders and Team Leaders as well as built our presence around the world.

We’re happy to welcome Giselle Mazur to JCorps as COO.

Giselle volunteering

Giselle was a star player working at the UF Hillel, and recently worked with a rising startup company. In JCorps, she says, she has found her dream job, engaging and connecting the Jewish community through service.

Our goals are only getting larger and our reach is growing broader every day. Stay tuned for announcements of JCorps in new cities in the USA and around the world, as well as internship programs, training programs, and nighttime First Responder and CPR classes that will enable thousands of JCorps volunteers to respond to crises and save lives.

People have asked, “What’s Jewish about JCorps?” I believe one of the greatest contributions Judaism gave the world is the idea that people can repair and grow themselves and that perfection is not an ideal; struggle is. Included in that is the idea that the path to true happiness and meaning in life is in helping others, which is one way to improve yourself. None of our heroes are perfect. Their heroism is that they persist in improving themselves. JCorps has always been a selfish endeavor, for it is about helping others with the aim of improving yourself.

Ari Teman

I’ll be alongside to see JCorps into its next phase, and then I’ll leave it in Giselle’s trusted hands. JCorps has been an amazing ride, and I feel like I’m putting my child up for adoption. (That’s probably a good analogy, since sometimes I feel like a bad parent.) I’ve learned a lot, met thousands of amazing people, and even gotten invites to the Mayor’s house and the White House. I’ll be forever indebted to the kindness you have all shown, and so I’ll be forever available to help JCorps.

It’s amazing what we can build with $300 and a big idea.

Thank you, and let’s welcome Giselle.

Ari Teman,
founder, JCorps

Shabbat-related is speaking generously. It comes with a CD, presumably for the Sabbath Observant to set-aside for use as a Shabbat coaster (It his a nice metallic sheen on one side), instructions for slow-cooking a meat Chulent with a butter-coated (oops!) Jachnoon, a pewter kiddish cup from India, and this:

Shabbat-themed softcore cartoon p*rn.

This is great for the Birthright alum who wants to dress-up for the sabbath, but has never worn clothing before. That’s a lot of Birthright alumni, judging from their photos.

I also appreciate the Shabbat Bicycle juxtaposed with a Shaitel. I’m not religious, but I guess the Eruv is up, because she’s gonna be carrying a basket — while still showing a little cleavage, you know, to be fruitful and multiply. I’d cover that Challah before it gets jealous!

Now, don your favorite-vest-with-extra-flair and enjoy Shabbat!

Epic Fail.

Shabbat Softcore P*rn

Disclaimer: Birthright is a great organization (usually), and this is my personal blog, not the blog of JCorps (which has no opinions and is not political or religious).

To put it in perspective, I beat a father of nine who gave away his kidney to a stranger. (I think it’s because if they asked him to do it again, he’d say no. Donors like consistency. ) Then I was selected over people who work with thousands of special-needs kids, soldiers, imigrant workers, poor brides, and lost teens. In short, thanks to the wonderful people at the Jewish Federations of North America and their judges, I’m out of karma.

I walked around the Federation’s Assembly in awe of the thousands of Jewish leaders and volunteers who give their time, money, and passion to their communities in the pursuit of knowledge, peace, health, and meaning. There was a great positive energy there, with Jews of all backgrounds gathering to focus on the future. It was a gathering of thousands of heroes.

I’m humbled and grateful that they chose to highlight the work of the thousands of young Jewish heroes who are JCorps.

JCorps exists because committed people create it every day around the world with their actions. From the beginning, Rafi Farber, Barry Berkowitz, Eliana Bavli, Rebecca Saidlower, Ron Arazi, Shira Berenson, Jesse Nowlin, Leora Schanfield, Sara Cole, Doris Miriam, Jennifer Goldman, Jessica Leiter, Rebecca Gross, Oliver Josephs, Jennifer Citak, Steyer Reyhorn, Elad Blumenthal, Matthew Solomon, Nataly Gutflais, Gregg Alpert, and thousands more have contributed to the growth of JCorps, making events happen and getting people involved in making a difference. There would be no JCorps without them. Last year they fed over 21,000 hungry people, visited hundreds of seniors and sick children, and turned acres of unusable park into play-spaces for kids and families.

There are people who inspire and assist me every day. I would not be here without Peretz and Chanie Chein at Brandeis. This is their victory. I am humbled by their unconditional love for all people. They are part of my family, which is one that relishes and reveres out-of-the-box thinking, education, and community. We get that from our passionate and always-amused Grandma and Bubbeh. Mom, Dad, Alana, Mendy & Ariela, Israel, Bina & Tzvi, Elaine & Alan, Rachel & George, Debbie & Larry, Jesse, Danny, Daniel, Jill, Yodels & Bagels, Daniel, Aaron, Janelle, Arianna, Ilan, Max, Yoni, Avner, Mike and Elissa, have all taught me how to laugh and see the world differently. For a few years this resulted in medication, but I am still grateful.

I am grateful to my dear friends who have stood behind my crazy ideas, and supported me constantly. If you can judge a person by the friends they keep, maybe I’m not out of karma. Or maybe they are.

I’m also grateful to those along the way who recognized JCorps’ potential and gave us encouragement, and taught me some of the many things I need to learn. Tamar Snyder and the Jewish Week, the JTA, NATAN and Felicia Herman, Shawn and Joshua at Jumpstart, ROI and Lynn Schusterman and Sandy Cardin, Alan Feld, Blank Rome, Google, David Sarna, Graham Hoffman at Hillel, the Birthright teams, my home town of Teaneck and its neighbor Englewood, Mayor Bloomberg’s  Volunteer Team, and to folks like Seth Godin and TED for priceless, practical wisdom. A special thanks to Andy Neusner and his team at JFNA who shined 500,000 candles on the service done so many great people.

Every night, I get to step into a real-life dream as a comedian, and one of the biggest perks is the people who share that world. It’s a world of artists and writers and performers and professionals and fans. The comedians I work with are some of the nicest people you’ll meet and they encourage and inspire me every night. It’s the best part of my life, and I hope you’ll visit us at a comedy club soon.

I am humbled to even be considered among the true heroes that are Finalists Rabbi Levi Shemtov, Devorah Benjamin, Shmuly Yanklowitz, and Rabbi Yonah Bookstein. I am jealous of them because each is truly dedicated to the Jewish people and if you want to see passion and success ask them about their causes. In my head I have the voice of Wayne and Garth, “I’m unworthy. I’m unworthy.” And the fact that I just quoted Wayne and Garth proves it.

I’m sure I’m missing a lot of people that deserve credit and thanks. Oh well, it doesn’t matter. Now that I have this award, I don’t have to help anyone ever again.

Thanks.

Ari

Join JCorps: http://jcorps.org
Comedy: http://ariteman.com

The Video from the Federation:

With Natan Sharansky (a real hero)

Still, it was amazing to see hundreds of New Yorkers in a rainbow of volunteer tshirts gather to celebrate their (non-government-mandated) service.

This amazement was topped only by seeing hundreds of volunteers exit the arena, enter the subway station, and walk right past a homeless man asking for change.

Thanks to the folks at New York’s Mann About Town for featuring me in their January 2009 issue. It’s really a very nice article and you should subscribe to their magazine. Subscribe twice because some articles are worth re-reading.

Here’s the text of the article. Photos and more here.

Helping from the Heart

It’s fifteen minutes past midnight and a steady flow of fans exits Manhattan’s A-list Broadway Comedy Club. “Thanks for coming,” says a dapper 26 year-old with a dimpled smile and a bright glint in his eye. “Oh, man, you were great, do you ever travel?” says a fan, the fiftieth-or-so to repeat this in a row, this one with a British accent. “Thanks, if you’d like, join my fan list and I’ll let you know when I’m coming to your town.” And so Ari Teman’s fan list is filled with the names of fans who have gotten to know him through his refreshingly clever, personable and insightful act.

However, they only know a fraction about Ari Teman. In a typical day Teman acts as CEO of a hot startup company, the head of an international volunteer organization, a writer, blogger, inventor, and artist. He has seven email addresses, three phone numbers, and every social networking tool out there. Pick a career that would overwhelm anyone, and Teman does five of them. And he’s just getting started.

Two years ago, Teman founded JCorps, considered the world’s first “social volunteering” network. JCorps (http://JCorps.org) is a non-denominational network that groups Jewish adults ages 18-28 to volunteer. Starting with $300, Teman built it into an organization with thousands of members, operating in New York, Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Montreal, and Toronto. In a typical year it feeds 21,000 meals to the hungry, comforts hundreds of seniors, and visits many children in hospitals. If you’re enjoying the park, there’s a good chance a JCorps volunteer helped clean it up. The amazing thing is, Teman runs JCorps as a volunteer.

While charities around the world are complaining about decreasing donations, JCorps is entirely volunteer-run and continues to grow rapidly. Using the latest technology and empowering Team Leaders to make decisions within set guidelines, JCorps grows as fast as volunteers want it to grow — which it turns out is very fast. JCorps is about to open in two more US cities.

JCorps has also been studied by Hebrew University and the Cohen Center at Brandeis University. It has received grants from Google, and counts companies like Verizon and McGraw Hill as donors.

For all this, Teman was named to The Jewish Week’s “36 Under 36″, recognizing the top innovators in the New York community. Teman is also deeply involved with other New York charities and events, and is often asked onto committees. Last year Teman was lauded in area papers for his use of psychology and high-technology to help the Sensi charity dinner raise almost half a million dollars online.

Teman is also the CEO of 12gurus, an award-winning innovation startup with a series of recognized services. One, GatherGrid (http://gathergrid.com ), was just called “the most useful interface I’ve seen to-date” by CenterNetworks, one of the worlds top technology magazines. It helps find you the ideal meeting or call time for a group of people, and it’s 100% free with no registration required. In keeping with his charity theme, GatherGrid even donates 10% of revenues to a charity you choose. Teman’s second startup, Contempe (http://contempe.com ), is poised to revolutionize the way you email, it will save firms millions of dollars a year in wasted time, and can increase email marketing response rates by double. But other than that, it’s a stealth company, so you’ll have to wait a few months to see its magic — or get in as an investor.

If you want to make things happen, you go to Teman. Last year Teman, who jokes with audiences, “I’m a Republican — It’s not a political thing. I just don’t like helping people.” invented a web-based system to connect and track political lobbying calls over the Internet. It was used to help rally on behalf of Jerusalem. The campaign, and the system it used, PhoneLobby (http://phonelobby.com ), also a 12gurus product, was covered by the Washington Post and Salon Magazine. For three days, the White House, State Department, and Israel Embassy call centers were overwhelmed and unable to handle the volume of callers Teman’s system drove their way. Both governments abandoned talks about dividing Jerusalem.

When Teman isn’t on stage or at some charity function, you can catch him speeding around Manhattan on his bike, hitting the latest restaurants with friends, or touring museums. Not one just to observe, Teman is an artist who sold a print last year at an auction by the renowned Simon dePury. Teman holds honors degrees in Studio Arts and Psychology from Brandeis University and will be honored at a Brandeis student dinner this year for his contributions as a student and alumni.

If there’s something magical about Ari it’s that you’d never suspect he had ten million plates spinning at once. Laid back and jovial, Ari will connect with you at an intense level and you’ll rapidly find yourself smiling and laughing. The fact that he’s got Edison’s brain cranking our solutions to your problems doesn’t hurt, but what’s reassuring is that no matter how difficult the problem is, Ari’s got a joke to help you smile about it.

And jokes he’s got! Ari is a regular at some of the country’s top comedy clubs. In New York, he’s a favorite at the Broadway Comedy Club (53rd and 8th Ave) and Stand~Up NY (78th and Broadway) and you can see him on the line-ups among comics from the Tonight Show, Letterman, Conan, SNL, and Comedy Central. He’s also a favorite at private events. After a recent performance at NYU, the vice president of the student organization that booked him called Teman, “comic genius”, and promised to have him back. Teman is a Jewlarious Magazine featured comic – putting him among Jerry Seinfeld, Larry David, Richard Lewis, Modi, Avi Liberman, and Robert Klein.

Teman’s style is endearing and mischievous at the same time. He can talk about racial and political topics and dance on the edge of the line and you’ll love him like a kid with his hand caught in the cookie jar. He’s clean and innocent, and yet he’s got this inherent naughtiness to him that you notice as he walks the audience into realizing and laughing at their own biases. He’s Richard Lewis-meets-Lewis Black-meets-Larry David and he’s something entirely new. He has you laughing at the setups to his jokes and dying at the punch line. He’s strikingly intellectual and always five steps ahead of the audience. If you think you see it coming – you’ll always be pleasantly surprised. Amazingly, you leave the club after watching Ari, full of hope and wonder. Like the comic himself, you begin to see the world differently, and you smile.

Teman brings all of his passions together hosting charity comedy shows for organizations like BigBrothersBigSisters, the One Family Fund, and even JCorps, raising thousands for charities through laughter.

See when Ari is performing near you and connect with him at http://ariteman.com/schedule.

To learn more about JCorps, visit: http://jcorps.org

People who worry about looking silly look silly!

I’ve found that success only comes from running into the immense possibility of failure. Everything great in life takes risk. My greatest regrets are not the failures — those are easily forgotten or corrected, and often admired — they are the times I didn’t go for it. They are the times I didn’t ask for something, the times I didn’t speak my mind, the times I didn’t kiss the girl. I am kept up at night by the times I held back, in action, or words, for fear of looking silly.

Committees are cesspools for breeding the lowest common denominator. The second you put a group into a circle and require a vote you get everyone held up by the dumbest person in the room, some tool that joined the committee because he or she “wanted to make a difference”, when anybody who’s ever made a difference knows you don’t do it by committee.

With JCorps, and all ventures, you give individuals responsibility, you and they know they’re accountable, and you and they know what happens if they drop the ball. There is no possibility for blaming a partner or co-worker: it’s all your fault.

It’s also incredibly freeing and inspiring: You can do whatever you need to do, within certain broad guidelines, to get the job done. You are in-control. You are the leader of this initiative.

On the contrary, nobody has ever walked into a committee meeting and thought, “Wow, this is going to be productive!” I go to committee meetings rarely, and only for free food (I count a meeting with sushi as “highly productive”), comedy material, and networking. Nobody’s really there to get anything done. That’s the job of individuals.

—
Although, if you still insist on meetings, spare everyone the back-and-forth of finding a meeting time, and coordinate with GatherGrid.