Here’s a very funny guy, Woodmere native Modi Rosenfeld

Since the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks, Woodmere native Modi Rosenfeld, a stand-up comic, has used his long-time craft to provide relief to audiences.

“For an hour and a half, I’m giving people a moment to just breathe and laugh and unite through comedy,” Rosenfeld said.

Rosenfeld has been a comedian for 30 years. He graduated from Hewlett High School in 1988, went on to study psychology and voice at Boston University, music at Yeshiva University’s Belz School of Music, and later pursued a career in investment banking.
He had never entered a comedy club until his first performance at the Comedy Cellar in Manhattan in April of 1994.

“I was very lucky, in the beginning, I was a very big act,” Rosenfeld said of earning his spot in the comedy scene. “There’s lots of characters and all kinds of high energy, and I was passed at a lot of the comedy clubs in the city right away.”

Rosenfeld’s mother, Batia, a Woodmere resident, thought her son was funny, but needed assurance from other Five Towns residents.

“Many people in our neighborhood are very big fans of him,” she said.

Before his breakthrough, Rosenfeld worked as a banker for Merrill Lynch from 1993-99.

“I used to imitate the secretaries, and my friends said, ‘You should be doing this on stage,’” Rosenfeld said.
Once he switched career paths, he was hooked on comedy.

“That was it, I caught the bug right away,” Rosenfeld said.

On Feb. 18, Rosenfeld kicked off his “Know Your Audience” tour at the Paramount in Huntington. The tour will hit cities across the United States.

“I talk a lot about how Jews love to raise money for charities, I talk about Hatzalah, the Jewish ambulance corps, we talk about Sephardic and Ashkenazi, I talk about my husband and being married to a millennial, I talk about antisemitism,” Rosenfeld said of the show’s content, with much focus on his Jewish roots.

He concludes every performance by singing “Hatikvah,” the Israeli national anthem.

Rosenfeld was born in Tel Aviv and lived there until the age of 7. When he moved to Woodmere, he lived in a Jewish-American household, only speaking Hebrew, he said. His family went to Temple Hillel in Valley Stream.

When the Hamas attacks occurred, Rosenfeld had just finished performing in Israel for the Jewish holiday of Sukkot. He was traveling from Tel Aviv to Paris to do more shows, and after a four-hour delay, his flight took off.

“That was a sign that we should definitely keep doing the shows and not cancel them because of what happened,” Rosenfeld said. “I’m performing for an audience in Paris that was on their phone, watching the war unravel, and then all of a sudden, the lights go out, the curtain goes up, and I’m on stage. For an hour and a half, (we) were able to just laugh, and then I sang Hatikvah, and we again remember where our hearts are.”

Leo Veiga, Rosenfeld’s husband, serves as his manager, coordinating tour details, and running social media and publicity.

“We get to travel together and share really special memories,” Veiga wrote in an email.

Off stage, Rosenfeld works in television. His favorite role was playing himself on an episode of the HBO show, “Crashing,” a comedy-drama about entering the industry.

He also hosts, “And Here’s Modi,” a podcast showcasing an unfiltered version of his life, which just recently hit 100 episodes and sings as a hobby, enjoying religious tunes but making no money off of this past time.

For more on his shows, podcast and background, go to ModiLive.com.