Media

Dr. Robert A. Alper
Rabbi / Author / Stand-Up Comic

A Rabbi AND a Full-time Stand-Up Comic?!

... Bob Alper Will Have Your Audience Rolling in the Aisles

Bob Alper is the world's only practicing clergyman doing stand-up comedy intentionally. He performs internationally, from The Hollywood IMPROV to London theatres, has appeared on Comedy Central, Good Morning America, and Showtime, and was featured on T.V.'s EXTRA, immediately following a segment on the size of Jennifer Lopez's buttocks. Bob is the author of a warm, poignant book, Life Doesn't Get Any Better Than This, which The Detroit Free Press awarded four stars and called a volume of spiritual gems.

Bob (and please call him "Bob" or "Rabbi Alper" anything other than "Rabbi Bob," which, he says, is "too nauseatingly cute") earned a BA, rabbinic ordination, as well as a doctoral degree, and served congregations for fourteen years. All of this, naturally, prepared him for a successful career as a stand-up comic.

Bob lives in rural Vermont with his wife, Sherri, a psychotherapist.

Interview questions for Bob Alper:

• Why does a distinguished rabbi with a doctoral degree become a stand-up comic?
• Explain why some chapters in your book begin:
  • My father used to take showers with the lady next door.
  • It's a good thing that sexual harassment awareness wasn't around in 1954, because I would have been in big trouble.
  • The .38 caliber snub-nosed revolver pointed straight up, one or two inches from my right ear
• When and why did you perform for the archbishop of New Mexico?
• What is the source of your stand-up and book material?
• How does a rabbi handle hecklers?
• What do members of your family think of your career?
• Did you ever use humor at a funeral?
• Do London audiences get your humor?
• Describe your new dual show with an Arab-American comedian.