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Jewish Guys Return for Holiday ‘Shtick’

Little Rock attorney Phil Kaplan and adman Leslie Singer will team up with KUAR FM 89.1 to present the 12th annual “Jewish Guys Chanukah Special” at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 27, at the Clinton Presidential Center. The show will be recorded before a live audience and broadcast on FM 89.1 on Monday, Dec. 10, at 7 p.m. and on Christmas Day at 1 p.m.

A reception, sponsored by the Clinton Presidential Center and the Clinton Museum Store, will kick off the festivities at 6:30 p.m.

The special celebrates cultural Judaism and features skits, music, and general shtick. Musical guests will include the Meshugga Klezmer Band and the Bauman Brothers. The featured guest will be Eli Evans of New York, author of “The Provincials: A Personal History of Jews in the South.”

“The Clinton Center is generously providing their Great Hall for the show, and the Clinton Museum Store is sponsoring the Jewish food, wine, and other considerations. We’re so happy and appreciative that they do that,” Singer said.

Admission is $4.99, and pre-paid reservations are required. Information and reservations are available at kuar.org or by calling 501-569-8485.

“It’s a great night of entertainment at a wholesale price,” Singer says.

Kaplan and Singer started identifying themselves as the Two Jewish Guys during KUAR’s semi-annual on-air fund drives more than 10 years ago. In 2001, the Two Jewish Guys and UALR Public Radio began producing an annual recorded Chanukah special that evolved into a live event. The “Jewish Guys Chanukah Special” has become a Little Rock holiday tradition for both Jews and gentiles and has sold out for the past several years.

“Interesting enough, at least two-thirds of our audience are not Jewish,” Singer said. “That really inspires me that they are interested in the religious and cultural part of Judaism. They enjoy a peek into another culture. And they like it.”