Meet Modi, the New York comedian charming Jewish mothers all over the world

It’s 10am in New York, and Modi Rosenfeld just woke up.

The Israeli-born, Long Island-bred stand-up comedian, known to his fans simply as Modi, probably deserves the lie-in. He’s been touring his latest no-holds-barred, uber Jewish stand-up set ‘Pause for Laughter’ across North America, the UK and Europe, performing his regular gigs as a mainstay on the New York City comedy circuit and hosting his podcast ‘And Here’s Modi’ with husband (and manager) Leo Veiga. When I catch Rosenfeld for a Zoom call in late April, he’s on the cusp of departing for a new leg of his European tour in, of all the places to do Jewish-themed comedy, Poland and Germany.

“I call this part of the tour ‘the Reparations Tour,’” Rosenfeld says. “As soon as any Jew hears the word ‘Warsaw’, the next thing that happens in your head is: ghetto. And here we are with a comedy tour, coming through Warsaw.”

It’s not his first time touring in formerly Nazi territory; he was the headliner for the 2023 Jewish Cultural Days festival in Berlin, a city whose ties to the Holocaust need no explanation, and has performed sets in Dusseldorf and Frankfurt. For Rosenfeld, whose 2024 debut stand-up special ‘Know Your Audience’ addressed rising antisemitism through good old-fashioned humour, performing in such places can be something of a palate cleanser.

“It's amazing - here we are some 75 years later and it's like, there's no Nazis, but the Jews are having a comedy night. It's a great feeling,” Rosenfeld says.

Such is the energy he intends to carry forth on the upcoming leg of his aptly named, post-October 7 ‘Pause for Laughter’ tour, which will begin in Warsaw before making a stop at the Albert Hall in Manchester and then on to Munich, Frankfurt, Geneva and Antwerp.

Because the 55-year-old comedian, whose family emigrated from Tel Aviv to Long Island when he was seven years old, knows better than most that Jews could use a laugh right now. In 2023, Rosenfeld and his husband were in Israel for Sukkot, midway through a tour, and were scheduled to fly out that day for a show in Paris on the following Monday. And then October 7 happened.

They left on one of the last flights departing Ben Gurion Airport, their phones constantly pinging with news of more and more of the day’s atrocities.

“We had to make a decision - do we still go ahead with the show?” Rosenfeld says. Ultimately, “it was a resounding yes.”

This decision “set the pace for the rest of the tour,” solidifying for Rosenfeld his purpose as an entertainer for mostly Jewish audiences.

“Here we are on the Monday after the war breaks out and all you see in the audience before the show starts are people just doom scrolling and sending messages, and all of a sudden the lights go out - and everybody just laughed for an hour,” he says. “Since then, I’ve been singing Hatikva at the end of every show, so I do address what’s happening in the world, but not until I’ve given everybody a nice big pause for laughter.”

Comedian Modi is touring 'Pause for Laughter' in Europe this month. (Photo: United Talent)[Missing Credit]

That first show in Paris after October 7 inspired the title of his latest stand-up set, which aims to give Jews and their friends a break from the relentlessly gloomy news cycle.

Like in his previous shows, Rosenfeld manages to dispense observational comedy about all things Jewish with simultaneous tact and waggishness, enough to bring even the most goyishe audience members in on the joke.

But chief among those in attendance at ‘Modi Live’ shows are always Jewish mums, who seem to bear a love for Rosenfeld that even he does not quite understand.

“That's just a gift that God gave me. God gives people gifts,” Rosenfeld says. “And it's kind of a nice stamp of approval to have.”

His own mum is always able to skip the queue outside his mega-popular gigs, something which similarly aged Modi fans cottoned on to during his stint performing at the 3,000-seat Beacon Theatre in New York last year.

“Every woman that was about my mom's age would go to the front of the line with their tickets and be like, ‘I'm Modi's mom,’” Rosenfeld says.

“After the first night, the people checking tickets are like, ‘a lot of your moms are here tonight.’ But we’re not going to send an 80-year-old woman to the back of the line so, I guess they're all my moms for the night.”

Jewish comedian Modi Rosenfeld is taking his stand-up show 'Pause for Laughter' to Poland, Germany and Belgium this month for the so-called 'reparations' leg of his tour. (Photo: Daniel Landesman/Facebook)[Missing Credit]

For Rosenfeld, who co-founded the annual Jewish stand-up festival The Chosen Comedy Festival (making its London debut next week), this benevolence is central to his shows, especially post-October 7.

After doing stand-up for some three decades (largely whilst still employed as a Wall Street investment banker), Rosenfeld has honed what he refers to as “moshiach energy,” a kind of intangible feeling of togetherness he aims to bring to every audience.

“It’s the feeling of being in a theatre with 3000 people all laughing at the same time, or when you’re at a concert and everybody's on the same beat, everybody's in the same headspace,” Rosenfeld says. “That’s Moshiach energy.”

It is likely to be found in abundance at Rosenfeld’s shows, where predominantly Jewish audiences can laugh away some of the tension that seems part and parcel of being a Jew nowadays. At least for an hour. At least, as his latest tour implores, for a solid pause.