Truth and Tinsel

 - By Tom Phillips

If you want to test the authenticity of a performing artist, a good place to look is the cutting room floor — in the outtakes. There you see how an artist works, and what they're aiming for.  Outtakes are the raw material for a deep and funny dive into he world of performance, about to disappear from view at the tiny Tank theater in midtown Manhattan.   

What Would Kahane Do?

 

Back in the Day, I worked in a New York TV newsroom where “if it bled, it led.” During the late Sixties and early Seventies, one of our most reliable sources of organized mayhem was the Jewish Defense League, led by the ultra-Orthodox rabbi Meir Kahane. He preached a violent form of Zionism, and sent black-clad young thugs out to attack opponents of Israel. I vividly recall one incident when JDL members broke up a small pro-Palestinian march near the UN, screaming “There is no Palestine, Arab dog!”