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Kasher If You Can
Comedian finds the humor in a very misspent youth with published memoir
By Michael Shashoua / Jester editor-in-chief
Stand-up comic Moshe Kasher takes readers through altogether
different territory than comedy in his recently published memoir,
“Kasher in the Rye,” covering his extreme juvenile delinquent past
in the Oakland, Calif. area.
All before age 16, Kasher abused copious amounts of marijuana,
whippets, cocaine, acid and alcohol; became a regular vandal and
graffiti artist; shoplifted on a regular basis; dropped out of a few
schools and a couple rehab facilities; and aged his single mother
years in the process. In the book, he tells all these tales with
loads of dark comedy. This reviewer isn’t yet familiar with his
stand-up material, but with this history, it’s got to be dark as
well.
It’s incredible Kasher didn’t suffer some fatal misadventure in all
that he did, or end up locked up for life, or well on the way to
that. But since he survived and eventually turned the corner to
treat his addictions and stop committing crimes, he’s certainly got
more than enough surreal and darkly comic true stories to fill this
book and probably a couple more. Kasher is clearly skilled as a
comic writer and his experience since as a stand-up has probably
honed the focus he shows in telling these stories.
For all the corrosiveness of his behavior and the hostility it
engendered toward him in his past, Kasher displays an understanding
about himself that is certainly evident in the later stages of this
memoir. Without that perspective, “Kasher in the Rye” couldn’t
possibly be as entertaining with these sorts of life experiences for
subject matter as it is.
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© 2005-2018 Michael Shashoua