Chutzpah! Festival's opening and closing nights deliver laughs and life lessons, November 2 and 23

Opening night is a special presentation of The Debaters: Chutzpah Edition, and closing night features The Best of Israeli Comedy

SPONSORED POST BY Chutzpah! Festival

Charlie Demers.

Kate Davis.

Jacob Samuel.

Two must-see evenings of laughs and life lessons are on the way at this year’s Chutzpah! Festival—a special edition of Richard Side’s interactive comedy competition, and a program of some of Israel’s top stand-up comedians.

On opening night on November 2 at 7 pm at the Norman & Annette Rothstein Theatre, Chutzpah! Festival hosts a special presentation of The Debaters, the comedy debate format made famous on CBC Radio, starring Jacob Samuel, Charlie Demers, and guest moderator Kate Davis.

Toronto-based speaker and stand-up comedian Davis presides like Solomon as two bright lights of the Canadian stand-up scene engage in a verbal dust-up of biblical proportions. Will the Ten Commandments stand the test of time? Audiences won’t want to miss The Debaters: Chutzpah Edition, for they will get to decide the winner.

Davis is a 12-time nominee at the Canadian Comedy Awards who has hosted events for former U.S. president Bill Clinton, the late Barbara Walters, and many others. Samuel is a stand-up comic, cartoonist, and writer known for his clever and insightful comedy. In 2021, he won the Juno Award for Comedy Album of the Year. Demers, who has been a favourite on CBC Radio’s The Debaters since the show’s very first season, is a Juno Award-nominated comedian, and BC Book Prize- nominated author.

This production is not affiliated with CBC. A portion of ticket sales from this event will benefit the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver’s inclusion programs.

Benji Lovitt. Photo by Yosef Adest

A closing night special event, The Best of Israeli Comedy, features a lineup of Israeli comedians on November 23 at 8 pm at the Norman & Annette Rothstein Theatre.

Curated by Tel Aviv-based comic Benji Lovitt, and hosted by Vancouver’s Kyle Berger, some of Israel’s top stand-up comedians—including Yossi Tarablus, Dana Perry Segal, and Deborah Kaye—will bring comic viewpoints and stories of day-to-day life in Israel to the stage, performed in English.

With a range of diverse perspectives from Israeli-born comics to newcomers from the U.S. and Australia, these comics keep it real and will have audiences laughing and learning. Chutzpah! Festival programming of Israeli artists is supported by the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver.

Tickets to both events can be found here.

Post sponsored by Chutzpah! Festival.