Renowned actor and comedian Michael Rapaport couldn’t get past security when a Batavia comedy club abruptly canceled the celebrity’s June shows due to safety concerns amid potential protests.
But Glencoe fans rallied past cancel culture to welcome Rapaport on June 27.
No protests were seen by pro-Palestinian groups supporting the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas invasion of Israel at Am Shalom in Glencoe (840 Vernon Ave.) amid heavy Glencoe Public Safety and Cook County Sheriff’s Police presence.
Karen Firsel of Northbrook, television personality and Am Shalom member, interviewed Rapaport for the congregation’s “A Conversation with Michael Rapaport” program. Firsel secured Rapaport’s booking before the Fox River Valley shows were canceled.
“We maxed out our attendance signup at over 1,000 people in the first 24 hours of announcing,” Firsel said.
Michael Rapaport’s X (formerly Twitter) profile at @MichaelRapaport identifies Rapaport as an Actor/Comedian/Director/Disruptor/Podcaster at https://www.michaelrapaportcomedy.com/, “Making weekly podcast history @iamrapaport @rapaportreality WORLDWIDE.”
“It’s a product of asking for something,” said Firsel, who “followed him (Rapaport) for years.
“The fact that he has been so outspoken and so raw and so real, he’s been a hero to me,” Firsel said. “I would comment on his social media posts to try to get his attention and one of my comments was, ‘You should come to Chicago.’
“Eventually, he wrote back and he connected me with his agent, and look where we are now,” Firsel said. “If you don’t ask for it, you might not get it, but when you do ask for it, you could get it.”
Past front entrance electronic security measures, Rapaport’s “green room” was the clergy space of Am Shalom Senior Rabbi Steven Stark Lowenstein.
“We have a lot of security but we always do,” Lowenstein said.
Lowenstein has traveled to Israel on goodwill trips. Rapaport revealed June travel plans to Israel.
Lowenstein said of Rapaport’s support of Israel, there are, “very few people that are making it as public as he is and it’s important to lift up those voices.”
Earlier that Thursday, Rapaport toured the installation outside where 248 chairs have been placed on Am Shalom’s corner front lawn since last October to bring Israeli hostages home.
There is a chair for missing Israeli-American hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin, 23, who was taken on Oct. 7, 2023, from the Nova Music Festival.
Special guest that evening, Abby Polin of Evanston, is Hersh’s aunt. Polin believes her nephew Hersh is alive.
“Because that’s all we could do, is hope he is still with us,” Polin said. “Hope is mandatory.
“We have to keep showing up, we have to, all of us, everybody that’s here today, which, it’s an unbelievable audience and crowd, we have to show up because all we could be doing here right now is advocating and keeping up awareness,” Polin said.
Rapaport briefly occupied a comfortable green room chair in office seating yards from the 248 outdoor chairs which have together endured autumn, winter, spring, and now summer.
“The chairs outside, I think it’s immensely important and I hope we can get rid of them tomorrow, today,” Rapaport said to Pioneer Press. “It’s just every single emotion you can think of that’s not good, it’s just devastating.”
“I think it’s extremely important that we do not forget,” Rapaport said.
Of Glencoe 50 miles from Batavia, “I knew I would be safe here,” Rapaport said. “The canceling of my show in Batavia was very disappointing not for me losing out on the show.
“The thing about it that was disappointing…and concerning…is that for somebody who’s been as outspoken as me, to have a show canceled, people that are on the fence, or people that want to say something, I think it’s intimidating them, that’s what I was afraid of.
“It was embarrassing to me because I didn’t want anyone else to feel concerned.
“I’m not in the league of Jerry Seinfeld, but if you’re going to go after Jerry Seinfeld, who’s a clean, G-rated comedian for 40 years, and you’re going to go after him, you’re trying to go for the top,” Rapaport said, of Seinfeld who is also Jewish.
“You’re not going to intimidate him, he’s shown that,” Rapaport said of Seinfeld.
“He’s not political, he’s not bombastic, he’s not in your face, but it’s like, ‘Okay, you want to go for the top, you want to try to shut us down from the top,’ so the rest fall in line.
“See?” Rapaport said.
On a night when Donald Trump and Joe Biden had their first presidential 2024 debate, Rapaport said, “I am hoping whoever wins, they win by a landslide because if they win by a landslide, there won’t be any question.”
Firsel’s television talk show interview included audience questions.
Rapaport received applause after saying, “It just seems like this idea of a cease-fire before we free the hostages is like, the math is wrong.
“You free the hostages and then we’ll discuss the cease-fire.”
About celebrity platforms, “When we went through this award season in January through February, through March,” Rapaport said, “to not hear one of these people, to not hear one person say, they could say, ‘Free the hostages,’ and, ‘Cease fire,’ they could say, ‘I want the hostages returned, I want peace,’ but to not hear the word come out of anyone of these people’s mouth,” surprised Rapaport.
At the end, Firsel asked the audience, “Question. Could you please give me your loudest and best, ‘F… Hamas.’” On a countdown, people shouted those two words.
Andrew Frankenthal of Chicago River North sat in a social hall audience chair a short distance from the 248 chairs outside.
“That’s the story of the Jewish people, is strength and resilience,” Frankenthal said.
“We’re being tested once again as we have been throughout our history.
“We’re coming together and we’re rising above it,” Frankenthal said. “I’m encouraged by this crowd and by people like Michael Rapaport.”
Karie Angell Luc is a freelancer for Pioneer Press.
