It Was Comedy Camp

The Borscht Belt, located in New York’s Catskill Mountains, was the cradle of much of post-World War II American comedy. A squad of Catskills-style comics arrived in Beverly Hills Tuesday, when “Catskills on Broadway” began a two-week run at the Wilshire Theatre.

Presiding over the evening is Freddie Roman, a veteran comic who’s also the dean of the New York Friars Club, home of the famous celebrity roasts. Roman created “Catskills on Broadway” 10 years ago. An earlier version played the Wilshire in 1993.

In addition to his early experience in the Catskills, Roman worked a stint selling women’s shoes before he was invited by Totie Fields to join her on a nationwide tour. Roman’s son, Alan Kirschenbaum, is the co-creator and co-executive producer of the CBS series “Yes, Dear.”

Question: When did you get started in the Catskills?

Answer: My uncle had a little hotel, the Crystal Springs, in a little town called Youngsville. When I was 12 or 13, I did odd jobs in the hotel. When I was 16, he allowed me to become the emcee. That gave me my training.

Q: And your first professional job outside your uncle’s hotel?

A: In 1963-64, I worked at a place called Homowack Lodge. It was named after a tribe of Indians who were there 200 years ago. The first couple of seasons I was on the social staff, so I helped with guest activities during the day and performed at night.

Q: What was your material like back then?

A: Quintessential mountain jokes. For example, the one about the lady who’s complaining about the hotel: “At this hotel, the food is poison . . . and such small portions!”

Q: Had you already changed your name from Kirschenbaum to Roman?

A: In that era, everyone did it. It was the thing to do. Ethnic wasn’t fashionable. Now it is.

Q: How has your material changed over the years?

A: As I developed my own material, the bulk of it was about my family. First my children, and then my grandchildren.

Q: Do you still joke about your son, the TV producer?

A: Not per se. But I joke about him being a father.

Q: Do you still play the Catskills?

A: There are only four main resorts left. I do play each of them once or twice a year. They had hoped for the advent of gambling, but it never came. The smaller ones started closing. A lot of the bigger ones didn’t modernize.

Q: And there was a lot more competition as the years went by?

A: Yes. When the jet plane came into prominence, people realized they could go to Florida, the Caribbean or even Europe in a few hours. When you drive up to the Catskills now, you drive by all the shuttered properties, and it’s depressing. Still, a lot of young families come up. If you go up there with a couple of children, there are a lot of activities everyone can enjoy. The entertainment is only a small portion of it.

Q: In a sense, your own show “Catskills on Broadway” provides competition for the Catskills resorts.

A: Yes, in a sense. But when we did the show originally on Broadway in 1991, seven of the Catskills hotels became investors in it. They thought the prominence of the word Catskills made it worthwhile.

Q: What replaced the Catskills as the comedy breeding ground?

A: The comedy clubs. That’s where this generation has come from.

Q: And of course, TV provided competition too.

A. Yes, but that has flattened out somewhat. For a while there were so many stand-up shows on TV and cable. It became overkill, it became boring. Now there aren’t as many.

Q: If people can see so much comedy on TV, why should they see your show?

A: We’re four funny people, all middle-aged, doing material you don’t see on television. We started in the Catskills, but we came along at the wrong time for TV. We were too young for the variety shows, and too old for today’s sitcoms. All of us have done “The Tonight Show” and Letterman, but TV was not a basic part of our careers.

Q: What’s the average age of your audience?

A: The bulk of it is between 35 and 70. But in New York, we kept a couple of rows for low-priced tickets for college students. We got some wonderful letters from kids who had never seen this kind of comedy before.

Q: And your audiences aren’t as heavily Jewish as they used to be?

A: They’re of every ethnic persuasion. Even in the Catskills, some of the hotels are now non-kosher, so they’re attracting other people as well.

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* “Catskills on Broadway,” Wilshire Theatre, 8440 Wilshire Blvd., Beverly Hills, Tue.-Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 7:30 p.m.; Sat.-Sun., 2 p.m. Ends May 13. $27-$52. (213) 365-3500.