\u201cSo you inherited your father\u2019s business?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI like<\/strong><\/span> to say I wasn\u2019t<\/em> born on third base.\u00a0 I was born at shortstop.\u201d<\/p>\n Billy, holding a beer and looking somewhat glassy-eyed, said, \u201cMy dad was a drug addict and felon.\u00a0 He left me when I was six. He went to Florida.\u201d<\/p>\n Another wedding guest — a truck driver — chimed in, \u201cMy dad paid the bills but wasn\u2019t there for me.\u201d<\/p>\n A woman<\/strong> <\/span>walked by.\u00a0 She said, \u201cYou guys having a man talk?\u201d<\/p>\n “No,” I said, “we\u2019re talking about our fathers. I\u2019ve never had a conversation like this before.\u201d<\/p>\n Billy said, \u201cLet’s see your hands.\u201d I held out my hands. “You ever work with your hands?”<\/p>\n \u201cI play clarinet!\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI cook,\u201d<\/strong><\/span> he said. \u201cI’ll have you over and we’ll cook.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSounds good.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cDon\u2019t put me on! I\u2019m serious.”<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m not putting you on.\u201d<\/p>\n He put<\/strong><\/span> his arm around my shoulder.\u00a0 It was either that or punching me.\u00a0 He didn’t like me.<\/p>\n —-<\/p>\n SIDE B<\/strong><\/span><\/big><\/p>\n KLEZ CLOTHES<\/strong><\/big><\/big><\/p>\n A lot <\/strong>of <\/span>bands wear all black. <\/span><\/span>Yiddishe Cup doesn’t do that. It’s too East Coast trendy.<\/p>\n In Toronto I once saw the Flying Bulgars<\/a> in what looked like clown suits.<\/p>\n Yiddishe Cup dresses somewhere between the Flying Bulgars and black.<\/p>\n We have <\/strong>five looks:<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Steve Ostrow 1. The tux with colorful hand-sewn lapels. The downside to this look is everybody knows when we’re shnorring at the hors d’oeuvres table at weddings because we don’t blend in.\u00a0 All-black tuxes would make us invisible.<\/p>\n 2. Blue undertaker suit. Keeps the focus off us and on the bar mitzvah boy.<\/p>\n 3. Solid-colored shirt with colorful tie.\u00a0 This is our middle-school art teacher look.<\/p>\n 4. Hawaiian-style shirt. A costume designer made these shirts. A real show-biz shirt. When we played 13 gigs in six days in Florida, the quick-dry feature came in handy.<\/p>\n Irwin Weinberger (L), Bert Stratton and Don Friedman Yes, Florida <\/strong>in January . . . <\/span><\/span> I wish Yiddishe Cup would land another run like that. But the mega-condo booker in Florida won’t re-book us.<\/p>\n Was it our lyrics?<\/p>\n You judge.\u00a0 Yiddishe Cup’s “Tumbalalaika”:<\/p>\n What can grow, grow without rain?<\/em> What can burn, burn for many years? <\/em> A comedian, <\/strong>Stu, was our last booker<\/span><\/span> in Florida. I should have known he was bad news because his email address was Suntanstu@, and his website had photos of him with Engelbert Humperdinck.\u00a0 Stu’s idea of a joke was not paying for our sound (speakers, mics) and backline (instrumental rental) after I bought airplane tickets to his showcase in Florida.<\/p>\n One final Yiddishe Cup look:<\/p>\n Alan Douglass 5. T-shirt with the Yiddishe Cup logo.\u00a0 We wear these when we play summer park gigs.<\/p>\n Our singer, <\/strong>Irwin Weinberger, wears <\/span><\/span>the Yiddishe Cup T-shirt around town too. The rest of us don’t wear our shirts much off stage. Do you see LeBron in a Cavs jersey at the grocery store?<\/p>\n The cool thing is to wear shirts from festivals you played. At KlezKamp<\/a> I saw a Klezmer Conservatory Band<\/a> musician in a Montreal Jazz Festival T-shirt.\u00a0 I wear T-shirts from the Concert of Colors (Detroit) and CityFolk (Dayton, Ohio).<\/p>\n![\"soft](\"http:\/\/www.yiddishecup.com\/blog\/home\/yiddis6\/public_html\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/soft-hands.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>
Cleveland Heights, 2001<\/p><\/div>\n<\/a>
Boca Raton, 2011<\/p><\/div>\n
\n“This,” says our singer, grabbing his crotch.<\/p>\n
\n“Hemorrhoids,” our singer says.<\/p>\n<\/a>
Middletown, Ohio 2008<\/p><\/div>\n