Yisrael Campbell in "a new comedy on the cutting edge." Ouch. (photo © Carol Rosegg)

Only in New York would you find a thrice-circumcised Irish Catholic-turned-Orthodox-Jew, kvetching about everything from terrorism to hard-core drugs to Baby Gap on an off-off Broadway stage behind a deli.  That’s why, perhaps, the audience of Yisrael Campbell’s (formerly known as Christopher) one man comedy show, Circumcise Me, seems to be at least half tourists, hailing from places as far flung as Russia, Israel, and Alaska.  But regardless of where they come from, they are all invariably Jewish.

This creates a warm tribal feeling in the tiny black box theater;  there’s plenty of pre-show schmoozing, food-sharing, and offers of travel advice from the locals to the visitors.  By the time the show starts, it feels a bit like a hipster Jew convention. Only in New York.

Yisrael takes the stage and begins to tell his story, starting with his drug-addled Philly childhood with his aunt, the nun, through his time in California conning people via phone to purchase $200 copy toner, to his spiritual awakening, to his pilgrimage to Israel, to the birth of his six-month old daughter.

He is aided by a series of tongue-in-cheek slides projected onto the screen behind him, so you get to look at a photo of the clean shaven teenager drinking a beer while listening to the man in the yarmulke and the beard that he grew into.  As with all true stories of growth and transformation, it’s deeply weird, and deeply arresting.

Each episode in his life is narrated with zest and good humor, and the show is full of terrific one-liners that will have Chosen People rolling in their seats, though they might be lost on fore-skinned folk.  There is not only comedy here though;  his recollections of friends that were killed in suicide bombing incidents in Jerusalem were powerful and heartbreaking, and there’s an awareness, even during the funny bits, that behind all of his levity is a deep inner sadness that was the cause of his epic search for meaning.

I highly recommend it, if this sounds like your thing:  extremely unique, hilarious and thought provoking.  Plus, when you’re done, you can pick up a schnitzel at the deli outside.  Only in New York.

Circumcise Me, Starring Yisrael Campbell. Directed by Sam Gold. At the Bleecker Street Theatre, 45 Bleecker Street.  Extended run through May 16.