Lisa Geduldig thinks of Kung Pao Kosher Comedy as her baby. After all, she created the annual laugh fest/Chinese feast for Bay Area Jews feeling left out at Christmastime.

But with her baby about to celebrate its "bar mitzvah," Geduldig has been wondering just how adolescence will play out.

"I'm not looking forward to it," she jokes. "I can picture myself saying 'You took the keys to the car? Go to your room!'"

Up until now, Kung Pao Kosher Comedy has been a nearly perfect angel. The event has become a Bay Area institution, selling out every show and drawing top Jewish comedy headliners.

Kung Pao Kosher Comedy runs twice nightly at the New Asia Restaurant in San Francisco, Dec. 22 to 25. This year's line-up includes Berkeley comic Betsy Salkind, former co-star of "The Nanny" Gregg Rogell and the perennially popular Wendy Liebman.

Geduldig, as always, serves as lesbian-of-ceremonies.

Even after 12 years, Geduldig still loves putting together the event and seeing the regulars come back for more laughs (as well as for the orange-glazed chicken).

"It's definitely mishpachah," she says of her patrons and comedians. "We're like old army buddies, only nobody died. There are all these people who know each other through Kung Pao."

With this milestone year, Geduldig has been looking back fondly on Kung Paos past. That includes the moment she dreamed up the concept in 1993 after accidentally walking into a Chinese restaurant in Massachusetts thinking a comedy show was about to start there.

Some of the luminaries to grace Geduldig's stage over the years include Carol Leifer, Cathy Ladman, Charlie Varon, Josh Kornbluth, Jeffrey Ross, Marc Maron and even the legendary vaudevillian Henny Youngman, then 91, whose very last performances were at Kung Pao 1997.

"I thought I was going to cry on stage," she remembers. "I'm about to introduce Henny Youngman, who's been performing twice as long as I've been alive. I got so choked up."

Though the comics are invariably Jewish, Geduldig always makes sure the acts feature Jewish content, not just Jewish surnames. However, in 1994 there was one exception.

"Margaret Cho showed up as a surprise guest," recalls Geduldig. "She said 'I'm the kung pao portion of the evening.'"

Most of the comedians she books are either friends of hers or become friends by the time the event wraps up. "It's four days of Jewish comedy boot camp," she says.

One would think some snafus must have occurred, but Geduldig says things have hardly ever gone wrong beyond the occasional dropped platter.

In 1996 "Sherry Glaser was doing a snippet from her one-woman show about the Last Supper," she recalls, "and she mentioned a waiter named Miguel. One woman in the audience thought this was racist, stood up and shouted at me, 'Lisa how can you allow this to happen?' About 10 people left and Sherry was upset."

Beyond that, the only kvetching she receives is the odd email saying "The food sucked," or, "I didn't find so-and-so funny." Most patrons have been satisfied with the humor and the food, she says.

One year a couple in attendance felt so good, they snagged a cantor they saw sitting at the next table and had him marry them after the show.

Another gratifying aspect for Geduldig is being able to raise money for charity through Kung Pao. Beneficiaries in the past have included the Bay Area Jewish Healing Center, the Women's Cancer Resource Center, Shalom Bayit and the Jewish Coalition for Literacy.

This year's beneficiaries include Clowns Without Borders and the Jewish Home's Esther Weintraub Comedy Clinic, named for the Home's late resident who did standup comedy on the side.

To date, Kung Pao has raised more than $75,000 for charity. "My mother would say 'Why didn't you buy a house?' But I like the social responsibility aspect," she says.

Beyond that, "It's fun to have created something that gives our people a sense of belonging on the one night of the year when we feel we got off at the wrong exit," she says. "There's a sigh of relief in there on Christmas Eve. It's somewhere we feel safe."




Kung Pao Kosher Comedy plays 6 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. Thursday-Saturday, Dec. 22-24; 5 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 25 at New Asia Restaurant, 772 Pacific St., S.F. Tickets: $40-$60. Information: (415) 925-275-9005 or www.koshercomedy.com.