Craig Sharf

Today I am interviewing Craig Sharf, a comedian from Philadelphia, PA who has been doing comedy for over six years. To find out more about Craig, please visit his website.


Why did you start doing stand-up comedy?

I started writing and selling jokes when I was in grad school. It was a good outlet for creativity. No rules, open-ended, constant challenge of creating new, and funnier jokes. I started performing when I was unemployed, about 10 years later. Gave me something to do. Tepidly funny.

How did performing stand-up comedy change you?

Performing gave me a better outlet for saying things than at work and at home, where my humor can be misconstrued. On stage, it is better construed. Except by the masses. Setting can make all the difference. Sometimes. Basically, there is 1 person in the world who finds me funny. I am working on cloning her 1,000,000 times. Sad-funny.

Can you talk about your favorite joke and describe how you wrote it and why it is your favorite?

My favorite joke is: "My friend Slava is half-Jewish. You can tell, cause he only has 1 horn." It came to me one-day when I was asked to write some jokes for the Elders of Zion. (I am currently a Young Adult of Zion, paying my dues.) They are trying to break into the humor market, as bigotry isn't selling as well as it used to in the bad old days.

It is short, makes fun of stereotypes, and paints a funny picture- where is the horn? On one side? The center? It also begs the question: which friend Slava is he talking about? BadSlava? No, cause Bad Slava is half-Jewish and half-Jewish. Must be another Slava. Or a hypothetical Slava. Makes people want to come back again to find out more about this mystery Slava. That joke is a helper joke, it helps out a fellow comedian. It is also a great example of a flexible joke. Can change it to: My friend Dave is half-Jewish. Or my friend Jim is half-Catholic. The priest only fondled him above the waist. Half-funny.

Thanks again. Feel free to email me interviews for other people too. I'm good at making stuff up.