The 2021 death of comedian/actor/voiceover performer/monologist/author/video blogger Jackie Mason adds a timely hook to Canadian director Barry Avrich's video record of the final 2008 performance of The Ultimate Jew, one of the Mason's numerous Broadway one-man shows.
Apart from minor clips of offstage material, there is no background/bio on Mason and his noteworthy career, which included numerous clashes with censorship and popular opinion. Mason here is, as ever, a cross between Borscht Belt and Lenny Bruce; just about every routine leads back to Jewishness when the punchlines don't ding other races along the way.
Viewers will find, for good or ill, a much grounded in the political atmosphere of 2008 and the rosy dawn of the "hope and change" Barack Obama era. Mason mentions contemporary political sleaze scandals of Bill Clinton and Elliot Spitzer (noting that a thrifty Jew would take special umbrage Spitzer had overpaid for sex). Mason describes Israel and the formidable Israelis as being tougher, more "Puerto Rican" than the skinny, pale Woody Allen-ish American Jews who visit there expecting preferred treatment because they donated $85 to the country, only to hear no gratitude in the local Hebrew language none of them understand.
Offscreen Mason was a staunch defender of Israel. Doubtless, cancel culture would have put Mason in the crosshairs had he been prominent with some of the contemporary observations he makes here. Mason's Obama gags are, of course, pretty soft-toothed stuff, but he proceeds to declare anti-black racism in the USA is extinct—Jews, meanwhile, continue to suffer hiring discrimination, for when was the last time you saw a Jew in a rodeo? A closing rant takes on the "kill everyone" aesthete of rap/hip-hop music, and when audience members boo the mention of the name Rudolph Guiliani, Mason makes it clear he is on Team Rudy's side.
Time-capsule though it is, the material still represents late-stage Jackie Mason when he was an eminence of stand-up. A natural addition to broad-based Judaica shelves (ya think?) in addition to general entertainment, showbiz, and concert-film collections in public libraries.