'It’s Impossible to Reduce Me'
March 30, 2021 6:29 AM Subscribe
Noam Shuster-Eliassi isn't what you think she is Recently, comedian Noam Shuster-Eliassi gave one of her most fraught standup performances, in East Jerusalem, before an entirely Palestinian audience. After the standup comedian who had invited her there, Amer Zahr, introduced her to the audience (“Today for the first time we have a Jewish sister with us”), the tension reached a peak, she says. “I go up, in front of an audience of 300 people, and in front there are two guys sitting with their arms crossed, looking at me angrily. I looked straight at them and said: ‘Don’t worry. I’ll be here for seven minutes, not 70 years.’ That broke the ice immediately. I left the stage in tears – I hadn’t expected such love.”
The topics dealt with in the 31-year-old Shuster-Eliassi’s act – which she has taken to a variety of venues, including not only East Jerusalem, but Berlin, Tel Aviv and Rwanda – include her childhood at Neve Shalom (in Arabic, Wahat al-Salam), the mixed Jewish-Arab community in the Jerusalem foothills, and what it’s like to be a tall (1.80 meters, or 5 feet 11 inches), dark-complexioned and curly-haired woman with a unisex name and a dominant presence, who has been told her whole life to avoid high heels but is, with or without, always the tallest woman in the room.
Her identity always confuses other people: After returning to Israel following studies in the United States, she sent her impressive résumé to an Israeli human rights organization – and it took no more than 10 minutes for the organization to get back to her. When she arrived for an interview, however, she was told she’d have to wait, as “There’s a guy before you named Noam Shuster.” It turns out that it’s not easy to go around “with the name of an Ashkenazi pilot in the body of an Amazon from Iran,” as she puts it.
After that interview, which was unsuccessful, she ran a peace-building organization, but this past year she took a sharp turn, and after years of political and quasi-diplomatic activity she loosened her tie, went on stage and opened her mouth. A month ago she was named “Best New Jewish Comedian of the Year” in a competition sponsored by London’s JW3 Jewish Community Center.
She explains that after spending time working with people who had been children during the 1994 genocide in Rwanda and with Interpeace, which tries to bring together Arabs and Jews – “The pain in my throat released itself. Now I say whatever I want. I’ve moved from an attempt to influence through organizations and politics, to directly addressing the individual voice, in order to begin to build an alternative. I haven’t given up my desire to influence. Standup is a platform for making my voice heard, through stories. I don’t know if it’s having any influence, but at least during those seven minutes in front of a Palestinian audience, for example, we managed to create something different together. And this gives me another drop of hope.”
~~~~~
Noam Shuster-Eliassi is an up-and-coming comedian. Noam Shuster-Eliassi is a peace activist, and not a starry-eyed wish-for-peace dreamer but rather a credible, formidable major-league power hitter with real credentials and hard-won experience. Noam Shuster-Eliassi is warm, candid, disarmingly personable; Noam Shuster-Eliassi is funny as hell. Noam Shuster-Eliassi dares you to try to make her conform to your idea(s) of what and who and how she is, dares you to try to make her conform to your ideas of how she "should" look.
~~~~~
Noam Shuster-Eliassi is a person I would follow on any path toward peace that she believes is tenable. I believe that she can create such paths, simply through the force of her character.
PROFILE | NOAM SHUSTER ELIASSI
Tall Curvy Girls Wear Heels: Why I Finally Love My Body
How to build peace in Israel/Palestine | Noam Shuster
Jewish Comedian causes mess in the Arab Media
Yoga, singing, dancing. Inside a 'Coronavirus Hotel'
Noam Shuster documented her experience recovering from Covid-19 while living in a hotel full of strangers in Israel.
Noam Shuster youtube videos
The topics dealt with in the 31-year-old Shuster-Eliassi’s act – which she has taken to a variety of venues, including not only East Jerusalem, but Berlin, Tel Aviv and Rwanda – include her childhood at Neve Shalom (in Arabic, Wahat al-Salam), the mixed Jewish-Arab community in the Jerusalem foothills, and what it’s like to be a tall (1.80 meters, or 5 feet 11 inches), dark-complexioned and curly-haired woman with a unisex name and a dominant presence, who has been told her whole life to avoid high heels but is, with or without, always the tallest woman in the room.
Her identity always confuses other people: After returning to Israel following studies in the United States, she sent her impressive résumé to an Israeli human rights organization – and it took no more than 10 minutes for the organization to get back to her. When she arrived for an interview, however, she was told she’d have to wait, as “There’s a guy before you named Noam Shuster.” It turns out that it’s not easy to go around “with the name of an Ashkenazi pilot in the body of an Amazon from Iran,” as she puts it.
After that interview, which was unsuccessful, she ran a peace-building organization, but this past year she took a sharp turn, and after years of political and quasi-diplomatic activity she loosened her tie, went on stage and opened her mouth. A month ago she was named “Best New Jewish Comedian of the Year” in a competition sponsored by London’s JW3 Jewish Community Center.
She explains that after spending time working with people who had been children during the 1994 genocide in Rwanda and with Interpeace, which tries to bring together Arabs and Jews – “The pain in my throat released itself. Now I say whatever I want. I’ve moved from an attempt to influence through organizations and politics, to directly addressing the individual voice, in order to begin to build an alternative. I haven’t given up my desire to influence. Standup is a platform for making my voice heard, through stories. I don’t know if it’s having any influence, but at least during those seven minutes in front of a Palestinian audience, for example, we managed to create something different together. And this gives me another drop of hope.”
~~~~~
Noam Shuster-Eliassi is an up-and-coming comedian. Noam Shuster-Eliassi is a peace activist, and not a starry-eyed wish-for-peace dreamer but rather a credible, formidable major-league power hitter with real credentials and hard-won experience. Noam Shuster-Eliassi is warm, candid, disarmingly personable; Noam Shuster-Eliassi is funny as hell. Noam Shuster-Eliassi dares you to try to make her conform to your idea(s) of what and who and how she is, dares you to try to make her conform to your ideas of how she "should" look.
~~~~~
Noam Shuster-Eliassi is a person I would follow on any path toward peace that she believes is tenable. I believe that she can create such paths, simply through the force of her character.
PROFILE | NOAM SHUSTER ELIASSI
Tall Curvy Girls Wear Heels: Why I Finally Love My Body
How to build peace in Israel/Palestine | Noam Shuster
Jewish Comedian causes mess in the Arab Media
Yoga, singing, dancing. Inside a 'Coronavirus Hotel'
Noam Shuster documented her experience recovering from Covid-19 while living in a hotel full of strangers in Israel.
Noam Shuster youtube videos
Yes, I am onboard as well. Most excellent.
posted by Meatbomb at 7:07 AM on March 30, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by Meatbomb at 7:07 AM on March 30, 2021 [1 favorite]
!!! She is one of my dearest friends and is absolutely this charismatic and fun and extraordinary in real life. It was dumb luck that I met her in our early twenties and it’s been incredible to watch the world catch on to her brilliance.
posted by sleepingwithcats at 7:38 AM on March 30, 2021 [47 favorites]
posted by sleepingwithcats at 7:38 AM on March 30, 2021 [47 favorites]
there are times I feel certain that comedy--good stand-up comedy--is the highest form of communication
posted by elkevelvet at 7:48 AM on March 30, 2021 [2 favorites]
posted by elkevelvet at 7:48 AM on March 30, 2021 [2 favorites]
Her path reminds me of Hari Kondabolu as well. I think there's something to be said for us* working on the ground, having to process all that experience somehow.
(*i barely had a standup career, but aside from myself, the local comedy scene especially the satire ones, very much overlaps with those working in grassroots and humanitarian organisations)
posted by cendawanita at 9:29 AM on March 30, 2021 [1 favorite]
(*i barely had a standup career, but aside from myself, the local comedy scene especially the satire ones, very much overlaps with those working in grassroots and humanitarian organisations)
posted by cendawanita at 9:29 AM on March 30, 2021 [1 favorite]
Why does this comedian keep making me cry?
For years I heard relatives and friends telling me don't wear heels to weddings, you're already too tall, you're gonna be the tallest girl around anyways, wear flats. It will scare off men. It will threaten men. Don't wear big gold earrings.posted by clawsoon at 9:35 AM on March 30, 2021 [19 favorites]
You already have enough presence.
That dress - I don't like it, it hugs your curves. You know what? It's not that you're fat, you're just full in some areas in your body. What you can do, just quit carbs, quit sugar for one week and you'll see the difference.
I remember I was invited for a wedding and as soon as I started getting ready for that wedding, all the voices that everyone had been telling me for years started echoing in my head and I paused and I took a deep breath and I told myself those voices will probably always be around me but the most important one is the one saying "I am beautiful." I made a decision in that wedding. I made a decision that I'm going to wear whatever is comfortable for me that day and I told myself I'm gonna enter this room and everyone's gonna notice me because I'm big, because I'm beautiful, because I'm tall, because I'm dark, because I'm curly, because I'm curvy, but mainly because I'm happy and I want to feel secure with myself and secure in my own skin.
For years I tried to lose weight because I tried to adjust myself into a smaller size. I didn't wear heels because I was afraid to be the most dominant girl in the room.
Well, you know what? I'm the most dominant girl in the room and I love it, and I'll wear heels, and I'll be the tallest girl around and if you are scared of dark women, curly women, curvy women or taller women than you, it's not my problem, I think you have a problem.
"I found strength by asking difficult questions [...] there is no option to give up"
"believe that even your worst enemies can transform"
posted by aniola at 4:59 PM on March 30, 2021 [1 favorite]
"believe that even your worst enemies can transform"
posted by aniola at 4:59 PM on March 30, 2021 [1 favorite]
(Shuster) is absolutely this charismatic and fun and extraordinary in real life.
posted by sleepingwithcats at 9:38 AM on March 30
OP here. Thank you for letting us know about Shuster IRL. I absolutely suspected that she is who she appears to be on the label but I've never met her, it would have been presumptious on my part to voice my (possible) hallucinations of who this woman is. Plus I tend to think that it's my job as the person putting up the post to present "The facts, just the facts." and let the post stand on it's own.
Charismatic and fun and extraordinary? Oh, man -- at the least. To watch her dance, that dazzling smile, her smiling eyes -- she is something else. Poetry. One of my best friends is 6'1" tall, as is my oldest sister, and I'm tall myself; I can't really understand guys who don't see the appeal of a woman who can reach the top shelf.
posted by dancestoblue at 6:46 PM on March 30, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by sleepingwithcats at 9:38 AM on March 30
OP here. Thank you for letting us know about Shuster IRL. I absolutely suspected that she is who she appears to be on the label but I've never met her, it would have been presumptious on my part to voice my (possible) hallucinations of who this woman is. Plus I tend to think that it's my job as the person putting up the post to present "The facts, just the facts." and let the post stand on it's own.
Charismatic and fun and extraordinary? Oh, man -- at the least. To watch her dance, that dazzling smile, her smiling eyes -- she is something else. Poetry. One of my best friends is 6'1" tall, as is my oldest sister, and I'm tall myself; I can't really understand guys who don't see the appeal of a woman who can reach the top shelf.
posted by dancestoblue at 6:46 PM on March 30, 2021 [1 favorite]
Thank you for sharing :)
posted by mkdirusername at 7:53 PM on March 30, 2021
posted by mkdirusername at 7:53 PM on March 30, 2021
@dancestoblue, thank you for posting this! I sent Noam the link to your post and she wrote back: “oh wow, how come they posted this now, that’s so cool”
Can you share what inspired the post and why now? Would love to tell her!
posted by sleepingwithcats at 10:11 PM on March 30, 2021
Can you share what inspired the post and why now? Would love to tell her!
posted by sleepingwithcats at 10:11 PM on March 30, 2021
Can you share what inspired the post and why now? Would love to tell her!
posted by sleepingwithcats at 12:11 AM on March 31
I came across Noam earlier this year. Maybe the CNN video/article about that exclusive hotel she stayed in, living large, resting, laughing it up, doing yoga and stuff. I chased her down online for a few days, link follows link follows link, getting a sense of who she is, or at least as best as can be done on a cold, bright screen. I knew that many here would dig the hell out of her.
I wrote in the post that I would follow on any path toward peace that she believes is tenable. And I would. And I think many others would, also. The fact that she speaks fluently the three languages which tie together any possible chance of peace in her homeland is huge. Huge. She knows -- viscerally, experientially -- that political organizations with the goal of peace mostly turn into a big mess, devolving into meetings* and/or committees which go nowhere.
*Relavant Dave Barry quote: "Organizations have meetings because they cannot physically masturbate."
Meetings don't work, leaders do. It appears to me that she has potential to lead. From the front. With her intelligence, her presence, her sincerity, that damn smile of hers, I trust that she could teach peace pretty much anywhere, that she could lead others to set down their differences.
Leaders are rare. She is a leader. I posted this so others here at MetaFilter could see her.
posted by dancestoblue at 6:25 PM on March 31, 2021 [2 favorites]
posted by sleepingwithcats at 12:11 AM on March 31
I came across Noam earlier this year. Maybe the CNN video/article about that exclusive hotel she stayed in, living large, resting, laughing it up, doing yoga and stuff. I chased her down online for a few days, link follows link follows link, getting a sense of who she is, or at least as best as can be done on a cold, bright screen. I knew that many here would dig the hell out of her.
I wrote in the post that I would follow on any path toward peace that she believes is tenable. And I would. And I think many others would, also. The fact that she speaks fluently the three languages which tie together any possible chance of peace in her homeland is huge. Huge. She knows -- viscerally, experientially -- that political organizations with the goal of peace mostly turn into a big mess, devolving into meetings* and/or committees which go nowhere.
*Relavant Dave Barry quote: "Organizations have meetings because they cannot physically masturbate."
Meetings don't work, leaders do. It appears to me that she has potential to lead. From the front. With her intelligence, her presence, her sincerity, that damn smile of hers, I trust that she could teach peace pretty much anywhere, that she could lead others to set down their differences.
Leaders are rare. She is a leader. I posted this so others here at MetaFilter could see her.
posted by dancestoblue at 6:25 PM on March 31, 2021 [2 favorites]
That moment touched me deeply – it’s not necessary to forgive, not necessary to live together in a euphoria of neighborliness, but yes, it’s necessary to sacrifice, yes it’s necessary not to teach hatred, not to live only in the victimhood of the past.
Thanks, dancestoblue, great post.
posted by Bella Donna at 9:16 AM on April 1, 2021 [1 favorite]
Thanks, dancestoblue, great post.
posted by Bella Donna at 9:16 AM on April 1, 2021 [1 favorite]
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