“The Onion Brothers at College?” That sounds like a really bad movie, but unfortunately, it’s true.

It seems that a fan of the New Comedy Wave had seen the Onion Brothers’ one-time only performance at the Jewish Clockworkers’ Association Annual Ball and recommended them to one of his professors at the Comedy College of New Rochelle, NY. “Comedy College” sounds even crazier, but google it if you don’t believe it!

Unfortunately, there are no video or audio recordings of the symposium they did at CC, just mimeographed notes that were handed out to the students beforehand. So this is a recreation, based on literally hours of research, from the notes and recollections of the student audience, many of whom had to be reminded that they were there.

Karl walked on stage, dressed only in lederhosen. He placed a flip chart on the provided stand. “Comedy is like an onion. On the outside of an onion is a paper-like skin.” (at which point he used his pointer and tapped dramatically at the first, blank page of the flip chart.)

Karl: “But peel back that skin, and what do you find?”

At this point he ripped off the first page of the flip chart and flung it behind him.

“More paper.”

“But then you dig deeper.”

Then, faster and faster, and more and more frantically, he tore off each sheet from the flip chart, throwing them all over the stage.

When he got to the back of the flip chart he stopped.

“Just when you think you’ve gotten to the root of comedy…………..”

He loosened the belt of his lederhosen, and they dropped to his ankles.

He wasn’t wearing underwear.

Now the students started to a laugh. A chuckle here, a chuckle there. Then a more general wave of laughter, as Karl walked off the stage.

From the mimeographed notes: “If you chop an onion into small pieces, it will make you cry. If you chop your life into small pieces, that will make you cry too.”

“Comedy, like root vegetables, is sweeter in the winter.”

-R