Funny tales of modern-day life — for Yiddish ears only

Most people in their mid-60s have already retired or are on the verge of retiring. Sam Hoffer of Toronto is one of the exceptions to the rule and is on his way to a new career as a stand-up comedian.

A Yiddish stand-up comedian.

Not that he actually planned to become an entertainer. Like so many things in life, it just happened.

While many Ashkenazi Jews of his generation grew up hearing their parents or grandparents speak Yiddish, Hoffer not only heard the Mamaloshen, but actually spoke it fluently. In fact, the Romanian-born Hoffer spoke only Yiddish for the first seven years of his life.

At age 7, he migrated with his parents from his Romania to Hoffer, Sasketchewan — a Jewish farming community on the Canadian prairies founded in the early 1900s by distant relatives of the same name.

Although everyone in the community knew English, they spoke Yiddish among themselves, which gave the young Hoffer ongoing exposure to and familiarity with the language.

When some of the farmers and their wives gathered at the Hoffer family farmhouse on Saturday nights, his mother would serve salami sandwiches and the guests would listen spellbound as his father read the latest chapter of a novel that had been serialized in one of the Yiddish newspapers.

Hoffer took all this in, and developed his own humorous slant on life. But it wasn’t until a couple of years back, as he was watching “From Lodz to Carnegie Hall,” a film about the famous Yiddish vaudeville comedy team of Dzigan and Shumacher, that he was inspired to take his own leap forward.

He’s bringing Yiddish humor into the cyber-space era, replete with the problems and frustrations of the day.

His delivery is in a Romanian accent (with Canadian overtones) — especially when using universal words such as “computer.” Hoffer pronounces the word as he would in English rather than saying “compyuter,” which would be closer to the Yiddish pronunciation.

Hoffer recently released a CD titled “S’helft Nisht Keyn Krekhtsn!” with the English subtitle “There’s No Use Complaining!” This in itself is indicative of the nuances involved in translating Yiddish. To krechts is more than to complain — it’s to whine or to whinge.

Although the project was two years in production, with no particular target in mind, it was not until Hoffer had the first track, “Meyn Kompyuter,” broadcast on Yiddish.forward.com (an Internet radio show) that he made up his mind to produce a CD.

The recording was not made with the participation of a live audience, thus there are no chuckles, bursts of laughter or applause. Without such, Hoffer sounds a little flat.

In an interview, Hoffer acknowledged that the recording would have been better with a live audience. “But that was not my focus, and frankly I wasn’t ready for it,” he said. “This began as a creative experience that I thoroughly enjoyed with the limited number of people with whom I initially shared it. The notion of performing before a larger audience did not even occur to me and became a prospect only later with the response that I got to the CD.”

At this stage of the game, Hoffer doesn’t know whether there will be follow-up CDs or not. What he does know is that he’s been asked to do live performances.

“Performing live involves a whole new skill set,” he said. “I’d like to test myself to see how I like it and go from there.”

Hoffer said he is heartened by the number of individuals who have sent him e-mails, saying things such as “Bubbe loved it” or “My mother listens to it over and over again.”

The CD includes an introduction and five stories, each between eight and 13 minutes. “Meyn Kompyuter” is about the trials and tribulations of a first-time computer user. “The Bureaucrat” presents a picture of the hardships involved in working for the government. “The Washroom” is about coping with calls of nature when you’re at the theater. “The Customer” is about the frustrations of trying to find both the right department and a sales person in a department store. And “My Dear Neighbor” is yet another take on the old grass is greener on the other side syndrome.

All in all, the themes are universal rather than specifically Jewish, but in Yiddish they take on a Jewish identity.

“S’helft Nisht Keyn Krekhtsn!” (“There’s No Use Complaining!”). $14.99, download for $9.99, individual tracks 99 cents to $1.99. Available on iTunes, http://www.cdbaby.com and elsewhere.