Bryan Fogel and Sam Wolfson struck an obvious nerve when their play “Jewtopia” debuted in West Hollywood in 2003.
Although the comedic production dealt with with one gentile’s quest to marry a Jewish girl, it resonated with diverse audiences. A year and a half later it became the longest-running original comedy in Los Angeles theater history.
“Some nights the audiences were 20- and 30-somethings, then at Sunday matinees we’d get the walkers and wheelchairs,” said co-creator Fogel, a Denver native. “As the show stayed open, it just became all ages. Everybody was laughing at the same thing. What we really found was that people were like, ‘Oh jeez, that’s my family.'”
Buoyed by their success, Fogel and Wolfson opened the show off-Broadway in New York in 2004, eventually staging 1,200 performances over three years and retiring it in April.
Now Fogel and Wolfson have several “Jewtopia” shows running simultaneously across the U.S. and Canada. The pair are also touring in “World of Jewtopia,” which takes elements of the play and mixes in stand-up humor, multimedia and excerpts from their book, “Jewtopia: The Chosen Book for the Chosen People.”
We talked with Fogel and Wolfson about the show, which visits the Paramount Theatre Saturday, over the phone from Fogel’s home in Malibu, Calif.
Q:How did you two first meet?
Wolfson:We were both stand-ups in L.A. in our late 20s and failing miserably. We met through a mutual friend — a gentile — and wrote a 10-minute funny scene for this festival about a gentile who wanted to marry a Jewish girl so he’d never have to make any more decisions for as long as he lived. That scene became the first 10 minutes of the play “Jewtopia,” and then it turned into this two-hour thing.
Q:Did the subject matter come from anywhere or anything in particular?
Fogel:We just wrote what we knew. I came from a religious household but haven’t been to services in 10 years, and Sam came from a reform house. When we sat down to write it we realized it was all the same. But we never set out to write a “Jew-y” show. It was just that this 10-minute scene got such a wild response in an audience that was probably 30 percent Jews.
Q:What’s the makeup of your audiences now?
Fogel:On any given night our audiences are 50-50 or 40-60 Jewish. We never set out to write it in the vein of Jackie Mason or these comedians of the past. Our biggest fear is becoming Jackie Mason now!
Q:What question do you get asked most?
Wolfson:“Are you single and would you like to date my daughter?” We get that at the end of the shows.
Fogel:We also get asked if people are offended by what we do.
Wolfson:And the truth is, not really. There’s no organized scrutiny. Every once in awhile we’ll get an e-mail from someone, but look, if you don’t like what we do you’re really not going to like “Seinfeld” or “Curb Your Enthusiasm” or “The Producers.” If your constitution is that sensitive, it’s not us. Our show isn’t dirty or offensive. It’s just the fact that somebody would make fun of your religion at all that (offends) some people.
Q:What was it like growing up Jewish in Denver, Bryan?
Wolfson:Early on, I actually encountered quite a bit of anti-Semitism. I grew up in Hilltop around First Avenue and Colorado Boulevard and went to Hill Middle School, then Manual, then East High School. Strangely, sometime around seventh or eighth grade I became very aware that I was Jewish and always kind of scared to tell people whether or not I was Jewish. But over time that became nonexistent, and now I think culturally it’s a lot more like “who cares?” in Denver.
“World of Jewtopia”
Comedy/Theater. Paramount Theatre, 1621 Glenarm Place, 8 p.m., Saturday. $34.50-$49.50. 866-461-6556 or .
John Wenzel: 303-954-1642 or jwenzel@denverpost.com
