YISRAEL CAMPBELL BIO

Yisrael Campbell -- now widely regarded as the premiere standup comedian in Israel -- is an original and erudite comedian who lives in Jerusalem. However, the journey that led Yisrael to The Holy Land began a long time ago in a place far, far away: he actually was born “Christopher Campbell,” raised Catholic, and grew up in Philadelphia.

As Yisrael describes it: “I’m the first-born son a manic-depressive Italian woman and a pathologically silent Irishman. This makes me wildly emotional … in a very quiet way.”
Although he attended Catholic school as a boy (his aunt was a nun and his mother was in the convent for a while), Chris was destined to leave the Church. As a teenager, his recovery from substance abuse led him to the spiritual path. (Over 25 years later he remains sober.) This spiritual path led him to seek out a variety of religious and spiritual experiences, ultimately leading him to the cultural and religious richness he found in Judaism.

Along the way, Chris studied theater in New York City at Circle in a Square Theater Company and began performing standup comedy. As he began telling the story of his recovery and discovery of the spiritual path, a unique voice began to emerge in his talks that was at once both familiar and highly original: it was a mixture of traditional storytelling and “spiritual standup” comedy. Audiences began relating to Chris’s lifelong struggle to have a relationship with God and this gave a unique kind of depth and substance to his comedy. Chris performed a series of one man shows (including “Einstein Was Right” and “It’s Not In Heaven”) while undergoing his conversions (three in all) to Judaism: from Catholic to reform, from reform to conservative, and from conservative to orthodox. Upon moving to Israel, Chris changed his name from Christopher to "Yisrael.”

Recently, Yisrael’s unique story has attracted considerable media attention, leading to television appearances on CNN and ABC World News Tonight. The Jewish website Aish.com now features Yisrael with his own recurring news segment entitled "The Jews Report." Yisrael also tours with The Palestinian-Israeli Comedy Tour, a group of comedians bringing awareness to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and seeking peace through comedy. Most recently, a documentary film has captured Yisrael’s unique story and chronicles his life in the soon-to-be released film “Circumcise Me.”

Yisrael is frequently sought by Jewish organizations, conferences, temples, comedy clubs, and theaters around the world to perform. His new one man show “You Can Never Be Too Jewish,” opens Off-Broadway in New York in 2009.