CounterPunch Exclusives

CounterPunch Exclusives

Donald Trump as a Failed Borscht Belt Performer

The rail network in the Catskills with summer resorts, ca. 1901 – Public Domain

Several weeks after the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, I finally sat down to watch Trump’s performance. The Dinner is one occasion when the President is expected to be entertaining as well as presidential. What I saw was a very poor imitation of Borscht Belt comic performers like Sid Caesar, Rodney Dangerfield and Henny Youngman. While many psychologists have analyzed Trump’s behavior, the Catskills’ comedy tradition offers another way of understanding him as a failed performer.

The Borscht Belt was a region just north of New York City in the Catskills Mountains. In its heyday, it was a retreat for up-and-coming Jews from New York City as well as the incubator of famous comedians like Jerry Lewis, Jack Benny and Don Rickles and singers like Barbra Streisand, Tony Bennett and Eddie Fisher. Like many young New York comics of his generation, Woody Allen also worked the Catskills circuit in the 1960s. For decades, Grossinger’s and the Concord were the place to be for a very special clientele. (My uncle, Dr. Ben, took me there twice.)

All of the famous comedians who performed there had a special flair; New York wise-guy Jewish humor. There was the precision of Henny Youngman, often mixed with self-deprecating Rodney Dangerfield or the stinging aggression of a Don Rickles. It was all very New York; it was all very in with a certain in-crowd.

Donald Trump was not part of that crowd. I doubt if he ever spent a Singles Weekend at Jennie Grossinger’s retreat in Sullivan County. Yet Trump’s public style borrows many of the rhythms of that........

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