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Jan. 17, 2024 - Blood Money
42:19
Jewish Comedian for a Free Palestine with Comedian Jonathan Randall
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Alright, welcome to the latest Blood Money episode.
Today we have a very special guest, comedian Jonathan Randall.
Jonathan, how are you doing today?
I'm doing very well. Thank you so much for having me on the show.
I appreciate you reaching out.
Yeah, man. Yeah. So, you know, we're talking before the podcast about my feelings about the role of artists in our world, right?
Artists have always been tasked with, throughout history, speaking truth to power, right?
And not being scared and using their special skills.
I mean, we hear about artists traveling all different cross sections of society.
It's pretty much The only profession where you could meet the poorest of the poor, the richest of the rich, and really get to know a lot of cross-sections of society.
So I believe as an artist, we're tasked with saying the truth, you know, talking about what is happening in history.
But Jonathan, we haven't been seeing that a lot, right?
In terms of what's going on in the world, it seems as though the world of art, at least for the last few years, has been stricken with fear, has been stricken with Ideologies as opposed to artists living within their free soul.
But you are not like that, sir.
And that's what was so impressive about what you've been doing.
Could you please bring the viewers that don't know what you've been up to, up to speed on your career, your talents, and more so what has been happening politically right now in terms of you speaking about what you're witnessing happening in the world right now?
Well, first of all, thank you for your kind words.
I really appreciate it.
That's really nice of you to say and really nice of you to hear.
I am a comedian and an actor and a writer and a podcaster, a voiceover, overall, you know, creative performer.
I have been speaking out for quite some time as a Jewish person.
Against Israel's flagrant human rights violations against the Palestinian people.
Of course, you know, since October 7th, that has been amplified by not only myself, but others in the world.
And I have seen, while there are many artists that unfortunately aren't speaking out, there have been many that are.
You know, The Weeknd donated lots of money to Gaza.
We've seen people like Susan Sarandon speak out.
Macklemore did this amazing poem in one of his performances, and he's been speaking out.
So there are artists across the world.
And there's many more that I didn't name that are speaking out and that aren't going to Be silenced by fear of a backlash from their careers or something like that.
I have been feeling a backlash for speaking out when it comes to my career.
I've actually been considering posting something on Instagram asking for help if anybody knows gigs or anything like that because it seems, you know, the more I speak out, particularly since October 7th, against,
you know, the war crimes, against Israeli settler violence, against what's happening in Gaza, like the harder I'm having getting booked at comedy clubs, getting acting gigs, and getting such.
So I guess that's why a lot of artists Are fearful, but for every artist that's fearful about speaking out, there are tons that are speaking out and being true to themselves because I totally agree with you that, you know, that is what the job of the artist is and the artist should be promoting change and raising awareness to issues that desperately need more people to know about and to stand up for.
What inspired you?
Because a lot of people do live in a place of fear.
And by the way, what you just said, we've seen funding pulled.
We've seen slander, defamation, attacks, you know, calling people anti-Semites.
Now, why is it that you've been inspired to speak the truth?
Unfortunately, it's absolutely true what you say.
You know, I know there's a lot of people now that like, you know, they're so eager for you to condemn Hamas.
And yes, Hamas may kill you, but it seems like supporters of Israel will go out of their way to ruin your life very venomously.
They'll attack your family.
They'll attack the things that you care about.
Which is very unfortunate and very sad.
Like, I don't see people losing their jobs for saying they stand with Israel, but there are people and many people losing their jobs for saying they stand with Palestine and supporting Palestine.
It's unfortunate. You know, I just started speaking out.
I'm a comedian. I've always been very opinionated.
I've always spoke my mind and said what I wanted to, not being worried about the repercussions.
I feel like I've always been a bit of an outsider, even growing up in a religious community and not believing, really, in that religion.
And I think that the more I learned about the subject, And the more I realized that, you know, I've been lied to my whole life, which was very upsetting for me.
And, you know, honestly, I feel like my connection with Judaism deepened through my advocacy for Palestine because I, you know, I can't stand it being done in the name of Judaism when I believe that Zionism It's somewhat an affront to Judaism.
I believe Zionism has taken over the actual religion of Judaism.
I think Israel has become this modern-day golden calf where people are just oblivious to the true values of Judaism and are now worshiping this state.
One thing that, you know, I guess really changed for me was just all my life I had heard about, you know, Palestinians being killed by Israel because they were being used as human shields.
And it just got to a point where it's just like this seems more like an excuse to me than a reality where I was hearing it so much.
And, you know, Israel, who has one of the most advanced militaries in the world who have, you know, killed Iranian scientists with drones, like, they can do better.
They could find a way to, you know, protect themselves, you know, have self-defense without murdering children, you know, so frequently.
Wow, wow. Now, you said, I've been lied to my entire life.
Could you please elaborate on that?
Sure, you know, I pretty much was brought up to believe that all Palestinians wanted to kill me just because I was Jewish, just for being Jewish, which is absolutely not true.
You know, I was told things growing up, like, you know, Israel was a land without...
Israel was a land without a people for a people without a land, which obviously wasn't true.
I was told lies about the Palestinians being the only ones that were in the way of peace.
I was told many lies about the actions of Israel, what is happening, lies about not only Palestinians, but Muslim people.
Towards their views of Jews.
And I also want to say, well, I appreciate you calling me courageous.
Like, I don't think I still am.
I live in the comforts of New York City.
You know, while I do wish for better things in my life, certainly with my career, I have it very well, especially compared to the people of Palestine and the hardships that they go through every day.
I think that they are the ones that have courage, that are able to live through the occupation, to live through The brutality that they face by the hands of, you know, Israeli settlers, the Israeli military, and still persevere.
And, you know, still, I see many videos where they still have smiles on their faces.
They still, you know, will comment on my videos sending love and appreciation when, you know, they're the ones that are really going through the hardship.
And, of course, it sucks to not get booked at clubs or for people not want to have me on their shows or, you know, for To lose acting gigs because, you know, they noticed my social media, but all that pales in comparison to, you know, what the people of Gaza are going through right now and what the people of Palestine have been going through for decades.
Wow, wow. You know, we talked a little bit about the Orthodox community within Judaism, right?
For somebody that's an outsider in terms of Judaism and the Jewish community, is there more Orthodox people that happen to want peace?
You know, there's, you know, Orthodox means a lot to different people, and there are different levels, of course.
So it's hard to really talk, you know, in general about the whole group, but there are plenty of Orthodox people.
You know, the Naturi Karta, very religious.
They're very outspoken about Palestinian human rights.
And there are many very religious Jews who do believe, like I mentioned before, that kind of the state of Israel in its current incarnation is an affront to Judaism.
And that the Jews aren't supposed to really have like their own state until, you know, God decides that it's the time.
You know, the Messiah comes, the Jewish Mashiach comes, and that'll be the time.
And there are, you know, that, you know, in the Torah kind of states that the Jews are supposed to be displaced among the world and that they're only supposed to return when, you know, God brings them back to the Holy Land.
If their return to Israel involves committing violence or doing any of the things that are against the Torah, against the Ten Commandments to other people, then obviously it isn't the time.
And a lot of people believe that.
A lot of people believe that the state of Israel is an affront to Judaism in its current incarnation.
A lot of Orthodox religious people do.
And there are plenty of Orthodox religious people that don't feel that way.
That believe, you know, that, you know, Israel is amazing and the Jews need Israel.
And, you know, it's important for Jewish safety.
Personally, I think Israel is the most dangerous place to be Jewish and for Jews.
I don't think it makes any sense.
When you have something valuable, you don't put it all in the same place.
And I think the state of Israel is really an extension of anti-Semitism.
A lot of people think that I know this is getting a little bit off the question that you asked, that the Jews got Israel because of the Holocaust, but the Balfour Declaration, the Peel Commission, these all happened before,
and it was more about these were anti-Semites who wanted to solve the Jewish problem by getting rid of the Jews, and not only doing that, but using the Jews to disrupt the Middle East, to have a Western outpost in the Middle East, And the Jews are too busy worshiping the golden calf that is Israel to realize that they are being used by anti-Semites.
And of course there are the many, you know, Christian Zionist evangelicals who believe in the apocalyptic prophecy will only come after there's a holy war between Jews and Muslims where we're all, we will all die and go to hell and then they'll have Jesus come back and You know, everything will be hunky-dory for them.
And that's fueling a lot of, you know, funding going to Israel.
and it's really crazy to me that Jews can't see that we are being used.
Basically, Christian Zionism sounds like, and you tell me from your point of view as a Jew, it sounds like it's the most anti-Semitic thing, like let's take all these Jews, stick them in Israel so prophecy could come forth, which is that two-thirds of them are going to be killed, they're all going to be blown up, and then Jesus comes back.
So it seems like Christian Zionism on one hand is supporting the state of Israel, but on the same token, they're wanting Jews to commit suicide more or less.
But you tell me if I'm incorrect.
Oh, absolutely. It's 100% anti-Semitic.
And, you know, that's where the, you know, conflating, you know, anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism is absolutely insane.
And I think it's crazy.
And that's part of the reason why it actually is, because there is these Christian Zionists where their Zionist beliefs are rooted in actual anti-Semitism, being against the Jews, wanting the Jews to all be dead.
So, you know, Jesus could come back.
It 100% is anti-Semitic.
But it serves some interest of the Jews, so it seems like they want to look past that.
But, you know, anti-Semitism is a very real thing.
And I feel like, you know, conflating criticism of Israel with it waters down anti-Semitism.
And this thing now where people want to weaponize anti-Semitism and, you know, cause harm to anyone that's speaking out is a very dangerous thing for Jews because anti-Semitism is a very real thing.
And we can't, you know, be calling things that aren't anti-Semitism anti-Semitism.
We got to be vigilant for the real anti-Semitism.
Totally, totally, man.
You know, let's talk about Jews not feeling safe in different countries, right?
So the thing I'm seeing right now happen is that because of this controversy, now you have Jews being attacked in England, in France, in Germany, by people that are angry at what's going on, and it seems as though that is like a very incorrect target, first of all, that is causing a lot of division and strife, and doesn't seem to be good for Jews out of anywhere but Israel.
Ah. 100%. First of all, do not do that.
Not all Jews represent Israel.
The actions of Israel are not a true reflection of all the Jewish people.
You don't know what those individual Jewish people do.
Do not spread hatred or anti-Semitism towards Jewish people just because what's going on in Israel, but it's absolutely true.
It makes no sense to me how for 75 years the Palestinian people have been dehumanized, subjugated, oppressed, murdered, and that's what led to the events of October 7th, which actually proved also that even in Israel the people aren't safe.
Those are the most Jews that have died since the Holocaust that happened And it's also a poor reflection for Jews everywhere because Israel continues to want to conflate Judaism with Zionism.
And it's really sad.
It's really unfortunate. Yeah, unfortunately, it does reflect poorly on Jews.
It is putting Jews in danger.
It shouldn't.
You know, please do not.
You know, take out your aggressions on the state of Israel, on just Jewish people.
Because when you do that, too, it also reflects poorly on the Palestinian cause.
And it gives, you know, Israeli supporters fuel to be like, oh, you see, this is why we need Israel.
This is why we're doing what we're doing in Israel.
Because of this stuff that, you know, these Jew haters that are going on all around the world.
You know, it has negative effects on so many levels.
And, you know, we gotta spread love.
I know it's hard. Yeah, yeah.
I mean, what you're saying, I just want to throw in a word here.
I mean, what you're saying in terms of the attacks on Jews in countries outside of Israel, I mean, that is the exact same thing that what you're saying Israel is doing to the Palestinians right now, which is that it randomly You're not even targeting the bad guys.
Yeah, if it was all terrorists and drones that were taking out these terrorists, I don't think there's anybody that would necessarily make a big deal out of it.
Even though some argue that they're not terrorists, they're really freedom fighters, whatever, that's a different discussion, right?
But it seems as though if it was more targeted, then most people wouldn't have issues with it.
And the same thing could be said with these random acts of violence, random Jews...
Oh, absolutely. And, you know, any of those attacks are absolutely horrible.
But also, of course, to mention that there have been attacks on Muslim people.
There was a child, I believe, in Chicago that was killed by his landlord.
There were college students that were shot.
One of them Is going to be crippled for the rest of their lives, just for being Muslim, just for being pro-Palestinian.
And there are thousands of Jews everywhere that are against the occupation, that do not support what's happening in Gaza.
They want a ceasefire. And Israelis, too!
There are organizations like Breaking the Silence, former Israeli soldiers that speak out.
They truly believe that Palestinian freedom is tied to Jewish safety.
Organizations like If Not Now, Jewish Voices for Peace.
There's a young Israeli boy that's now getting arrested because he refuses to serve in the IDF. Plenty of Israeli advocates.
That are fighting for Palestinian freedom and want an end to the occupation and do not want to see Palestinians have their human rights violated.
So, of course, we cannot, you know, sum up anybody in one group.
We cannot treat somebody away just because they're Jewish or they're Muslim or they're Israeli or they're Palestinian or they're American.
We got to look at everybody as people and find ways to come together, not to, you know, be divided.
So, Jonathan, let me ask you, could you talk a little bit about your relationship with God, Orthodox and everything?
Could you talk a little bit about that?
Well, I was raised in a modern Orthodox community, but I never really believed.
I was always an outsider.
I would always kind of be at, you know, the prayers that I was forced to go to, you know, sometimes three times a day.
And be like, what is wrong with all these people?
So I'm not a religious person at all.
I'm not Orthodox currently at all.
I consider my connection with Judaism more culturally than one spiritually.
I'm proud to be from a people who have been hated and oppressed throughout history.
And not only have we survived, but we have thrived.
I think that's incredible and amazing.
But, you know, I consider myself more an agnostic.
Let me ask you, in terms of culture, right, I took some classes back in college on Shalom Aleichem and some of the writers during the pogroms with the Jews, right?
Is there any source of inspiration that you derive from Jewish literature, Jewish art, Jewish theater?
Well, I mean, a lot of amazing comedians, of course, and filmmakers are Jewish.
I also, you know, as someone who has been to Auschwitz, the concentration camps, you know, I do have a lot of strength knowing that my people endured that and we survived.
So, you know, There are so many Jewish artists that I have admired and been an inspiration to me.
Some of them I don't agree, of course, with their current stance on what's happening with Israel or other things that happened in their lives that I'm against.
But yes, I mean, there are so many incredible Jews that have, you know, Contributed so much to society, whether it's in art, whether it's in medicine, film, music, comedy, so many things.
And what is it?
I mean, I've always been curious about that.
Why is it? Because you do have, I mean, what is not lacking amongst the Jews is cleverness, right?
The cleverness, the intellectual aspect, the artistry, right?
You have a very high percentage of Jews that end up within the arts, end up in that world.
What is it about Judaism, Jewish culture that seems to breed this level of creativity?
Wow, that's a really great question and I'm not sure I have a really great answer for it, but I definitely think it has something to do with the oppression and the hatred that we have faced and we had to find creative ways not only to survive, But to belong and be a part of society.
So I think, you know, that has really helped us.
And, you know, wanting to make better lives for ourselves.
What do you see as the future of Israel?
Where do you think this whole thing is going to go?
I would like to see Israel be a state for all people and not just a Jewish state.
I believe that that land is very important to, you know, people of the major three Abrahamic religions, Christians, Muslims, and Jews.
And I think that We should all hopefully be able to live in peace and harmony.
I want there to be a Palestinian state too.
I want Palestinians to have self-determination.
And I am fully aware that there are Israelis who have been born in Israel over the last 75 years.
That is the only home that they know.
I don't think they did anything wrong by being born there.
And there are plenty of Jewish people that are living in Israel that have been expelled from Muslim countries.
And they have no other place to go either.
And that's the home that they made and that they created for themselves.
And I don't think that, you know, they're horrible people for going to Israel after being expelled from their lands and that they need to be expelled again.
I want, you know, I want A peaceful and prosperous coexistence for all people.
I don't see how things are going to be good or Israel will ever be safer if it continues down the path that it's currently on, that it has been for the last 75 years.
I think that the current government, particularly Benjamin Netanyahu, have to go.
And I think there needs to be a fundamental change.
In the state of Israel, if it has, if it's going to have a future and we're not just going to be, you know, I feel like Israel's like one of these, you know, like places that has one of these signs that it's been like this many days since Mm-hmm.
And I'm all for resistance, and I understand resistance, but, you know, some of the brutality that we saw from the resistance, some of the methods of the resistance, I do not support.
I do not support the killing of children.
I do not support the random killing of civilians, you know?
On either side, you know, I've been speaking out for years against that happening to the Palestinian people.
And I certainly don't want it to happen to the people of Israel, to my fellow Jewish people.
And I feel like, you know, changing Israel's ways, ending the occupation, prioritizing Palestinian fundamental human rights, recognizing the Nakba and all the suffering that the Palestinian people have faced over the years is essential for Israel to move forward.
Yeah, and you know what's shocking to me is like, just as an observer from the outside, the similarities between Jews and Israelis, Palestinians, Jews and Palestinians.
I mean, this is the place where I feel like as human beings we fail, right?
If you look at the major religions, 99.9% of the message is similar, right?
But human beings tend to focus on the 0.01% and make...
We all know war is a racket.
We all know the weapons manufacturer.
I mean, it's all about profit. It has nothing to do with...
I don't know when the last war, at least the United States of America launched, that was actually a just war.
I mean, World War II, maybe.
We all know Vietnam was a sham.
We all know the Iraq War was a sham.
It's a sham, sham, sham. Hitler was probably the last real bad guy that we had to take down, right?
But this seems to be...
Osama bin Laden. Yeah, Osama bin Laden.
There you go. You know, and you could argue Saddam Hussein was a bad guy too.
I don't know if we needed to destroy all of Iraq and potentially kill like a million civilians for it.
But, you know, none of these guys are good people, you know.
Is it like...
What do you think humanity has to learn?
And I know humanity has a hard time learning lessons, but what do you think is it that we have to learn to become better, to rise to higher frequencies?
You know, people say, you know, there's a Christ conscious where, you know, what Gandhi experience in terms of having this really peaceful mindset.
What do you think has to happen for humanity to arrive to that juncture?
Well, one thing that I think we have to realize is that we're all human beings.
We're all on this earth for a limited time.
This earth was here before us.
This earth will be here after us.
We're probably gonna, you know, hopefully we won't ruin it too bad.
But we gotta stop thinking that we have such ownership and entitlement to this land.
It's all our land. We gotta learn to work together.
Like you had mentioned, yes, you know, Jews and Muslims, Israelis and Palestinians, we have so much in common.
You know, if you want to even go to the Bible, Abraham had two sons.
One was Isaac, one was Ishmael.
The descendants of Ishmael, you know, are like the Arab people, descendants of Isaac.
Uh, was Jacob and the 12 tribes of Israel.
Of course, another name for Jacob was Israel that God gave him.
Uh, this is like, you know, if you want to consider the Bible, this is like the longest family feud ever.
And it needs to come to an end.
You know, I like to, I have in my act, I like to talk about how we have so much in common.
You know, we both don't eat pork.
We're both obsessed with the same area of land.
Uh, we both have very aggressive mall perfume salesmen.
The women, honestly, I can't say.
Like, a pretty Israeli versus a pretty Palestinian woman.
Like, I mean, it's like I can't even tell the difference most of the time, really.
Oh, I can't tell the difference between, like, Mizrahi, Israeli...
Mizrahi Jews, Israelis, and Palestinians and Arabs.
We are literally the same people.
And like I mentioned, I'm not a religious person, but from what I understand of the prophecy of the Mashiach, I can't understand how it would ever come until everybody, all of God's children, are living in peace in the Holy Land and we're helping each other have better lives.
If anything, I feel like that's what God's waiting for.
We might have different We might know him by different names, but he is one being.
And still, all of his children come together and unite for the better of humanity and the world.
We will never know the grace that's possibly waiting for us.
Totally. And I joke where it's like, we're never going to join the intergalactic federation unless we get our shit straight.
You know what I mean? And, and I, and you know, this might be crazy, some of the viewers, but I do believe that there's other beings around, around the universe that there are much more evolved.
And I would imagine that they're looking at us going like, what the hell are those barn animals up to?
Like, when are they going to rise to a higher frequency and stop doing this stuff to themselves?
Yeah, it might take them showing up for us to unite, unfortunately, and then be against them.
But there's something inherent in human nature, it seems, about hatred, hatred for the other, about what we started talking about, about fear of the unknown, fear of people that are different.
And unfortunately, as evolved as we are becoming, we're not evolving past that.
We really need to, and particularly with the way we've advanced in technology, and we really should be, you know, using this more as ways to, like, bring us together, but people are so quick to just, you know, that's one of the things, one of the reasons why, to point fingers at the other side, you know, why I speak out as a Jew and it's so important to me is because I feel like we gotta point fingers at our own side.
We gotta be like, We gotta work on being better ourselves instead of constantly just pointing fingers at others and what others are doing bad.
We gotta look at ourselves.
And when we start improving, and God knows I have a lot of improvement to do myself.
There's a lot I don't know.
I have a lot to learn about the world, and I think we all need to do that.
In Judaism, we have a concept called Tikhan Olam, which is repairing the world and, you know, trying to make the world a better place.
And for some reason, this concept has been, like, forgotten when it comes to the state of Israel.
But this is something that I feel like a lot of Jews do feel strongly about, and more people do We got to work together.
We got to help those that are less fortunate.
We got to always want to lift up our fellow humans instead of putting them down for whatever reason, our own judgments, our own fears, our own insecurities, our own selfishness.
But I think it's not a Jewish concept.
I think it's an overall concept that a lot of people will admit that they often feel better When they do things for other people than when they do things for themselves.
Exactly. Yep. You know, one thing I wanted to also mention, this is a different perspective, because usually what you hear from the mainstream media is like, if you're even commenting upon, you know, like, hey, Palestinians deserve a land, there's all these names thrown, like anti-Semitism, all that kind of stuff,
right? The idea that I like to propose, based upon some interviews we've done in the past, that really what happened with history is that the British basically promised this land to both the Jews and the Palestinians in World War I, so they could use them to win World War I. Which, by the way, Miserably losing against the Germans.
If they didn't do certain moves, they would have lost that war, right?
Some people that we've spoken with say that this is basically a glorified intelligence operation, meaning the influence that the British have upon Israel and, you know, how it is used essentially as an intelligence outpost, because they're all sharing information in terms of the MI6, MI5, CIA and Mossad, right?
They're all within the same kind of mindset.
They're all allies, right?
But a lot of individuals that know about how the intelligence community works always blame the intelligence apparatus for pushing Jews, Zionism within Israel to do certain biddings that they want to be done with in the Middle East.
And it's really that crutch that has created so much problems for Israel.
Do you have any comments upon that topic?
Well, yeah, exactly.
Like I mentioned before, with the Balfour Declaration, I believe the Jews are being used because not only to disrupt the Middle East, to have Western influence in the Middle East, of course, because many people in the West have a fear of Islam and Muslim people, and we want to spread our values there.
And of course, The enemy of my enemy is my friend.
So why not put, you know, if the Jews are our enemies and the Arabs are our enemies also, it's like, we'll have them be against each other and, you know, they'll fight against each other and we don't have to worry about it.
Yeah. Yeah. And a little bit of that is like, you know, well, a lot of that comments I've heard is that, you know, just like there are claims that, you know, fundamentalist Islamic groups use human shields in a way that elite of, you know, The community in Israel, the elite of the community within the British Royals, all really seem to be an elite versus like a we the people like we are over here.
I mean, what do you think about that topic?
I mean, there are elites that I feel like do not have the best interests of the people at heart.
They're greedy, they're after greed, they're after power, and they are using the Jews as pawns to do that while trying to trick We're good to
go. You know, rounding up all the Jews and putting them in one of the most dangerous places it's going to be for them is almost, you know, people say Gaza is a concentration camp.
It's almost like the whole state of Israel is a concentration camp, you know?
And it's very unfortunate, but, you know, there are religious zealots in the Jewish community who think That, you know, this is God's right to us.
That we're God's chosen people.
And that, I feel like, has ingrained in Israelis this horrible sense of entitlement that they not only have against the Palestinian people, but they bring everywhere around the world that they go.
And it's unfortunate. I've met a lot of great Israeli people I know a lot, but I've also experienced a lot of Israeli entitlement, and I think it comes from this belief that, you know, you're God's chosen person and you deserve something.
You deserve this land more than other people who have been living here.
For generations. Yeah, yeah.
And there's a lot of things in biblical tradition and in the Torah that would signify otherwise.
It's funny how humans tend to kind of, you know, pick the things that are beneficial to their political crusade versus, you know, what is actually the Word of God.
You know, let's talk a little bit, you know, in closing here, let's talk a little bit about your comedy, Jonathan.
What have you been up to in the comedy world?
Could you tell the viewer a little bit about, you know, what you do, where you get your inspiration from, and how things have been going for you?
Sure. Well, things have not been going that great, so if anybody has any gigs out there for me, please hit me up.
You can slide into my DMs.
Jonathan Randall.
You know, I am a comedian.
I love performing stand-up comedy.
I'm an actor.
I'm just, like, an overall creative.
Stand-up comedy has definitely been My huge passion over the years, my inspiration comes from different places, whether it's my activism, whether it's from my dating life, my family life, just the way I see the world,
current events. There are a lot of Jews in the entertainment business, a lot that don't agree with my stance, with me being so outspoken.
So it has become more and more difficult for me to be getting gigs, particularly since October 7th.
But I love comedy.
I love performing.
I love You know, being a creative and I'm going to continue to do so.
And I am putting myself out there more looking for opportunities.
Amazing. Amazing. So let's do this.
If you could send us some links of, you know, your routine, I would love to post it on the bottom in the descriptions for the viewers to be able to find what you've been up to and to support you.
I appreciate that.
You know, I definitely want to encourage people to come see me do my bits live at a live show.
But, you know, you can check out my website.
It's that jonathanrandallguy.com.
You could check me out, of course, on Instagram, at jonathanrandall.
I'm the same on TikTok, too.
TikTok is really suppressing my content.
I have over 130,000 followers there, and my videos are getting, like, 500 views.
I recently posted a video on Instagram that has, you know, almost a quarter of a million views.
And on TikTok, it has like 500.
So it's obviously that it's being, you know, being suppressed.
So definitely come out, you know, see some of my shows.
I would greatly appreciate it.
Yeah, I'm performing tomorrow night at the New York Comedy Club on West 4th, an amazing show called Nice Try, where it's a show of all brand new material.
So it probably won't be my funniest performance, but I love doing shows like that.
Where I'm experimenting with new things for the first time.
I think that's really exciting to come see.
So you can check that out.
I'm at Pete's Candy Store in Brooklyn on the 17th.
That should be a really fun show.
It's hosted by Gay Pachenko, an amazing comedian who's also very pro-Palestine.
So definitely come support that show.
And yeah. Man, Jonathan, this is awesome.
We're going to definitely follow up on what you've been up to.
We're always blown away when individuals like you go against the grain.
We know how hard it is.
You know, it's funny that you were talking about, you know, some of the censorship and, you know, they're stopping you from doing certain things.
I mean, we've seen that sort of thing within our mainstream media, within our culture.
It's not very indicative, I think, of the best values of this country because nobody should be punished for their speech.
And, you know, really a lot of credit to you, sir, for standing up for what you believe to be true.
Thank you, Bem, so much for having me.
All your kind words, and I would be so grateful to come back anytime.
Amazing, brother. Amazing. For the viewers out there, make sure you check out the America Happens website.
Make sure you drop your email address so you can subscribe to our network so we get you all the great information that is coming down the pipeline.
Thank you so much for joining us for this episode of Blood Money.
I will see you on the next episode.
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