CATSKILLS ON BROADWAY Brings Good Old-Fashioned Comedy And Big Laughs To The McCallum

The McCallum Theatre presents Catskills on Broadway on Friday, February 22, at 8:00pm. The Catskills Mountains of New York, the cradle of American humor, launched the careers of many of our greatest comics. In this new version of the 1991 Broadway hit, Freddie Roman, Sarge, and Mark Schiff will have you laughing at good old-fashioned comedy that brings back the golden years of the Catskills. Freddie Roman, creator and star of Catskills on Broadway, adopted the attitude that if Broadway couldn't come to the mountains, he would take the mountains to Broadway. Catskills on Broadway was a new format for the Broadway community and the production earned Freddie acclaim and a stint on the Tony Awards broadcast.

Freddie began as a teenage comic in the Catskills and later as an actor at New York University and theaters in the Northeast. To support his family, he became a proprietor of a ladies' shoe store but he longed to return to acting and comedy. Thanks to the support of his wife and family, he returned to comedy and became a hit in the New York area. His warm, personable style won him fans and friends.

The turning point for Freddie came during one of his performances where Totie Fields was in the audience and she asked him to join her tour. Since then, he has performed throughout the country, including major resorts and casinos in Las Vegas and Atlantic City. Freddie completed a one-year engagement at Trump Castle in Atlantic City and starred in his own television special, "The Big Room," for Comedy Central. Currently, Freddie has a regular role in the Amazon web comedy "Red Oaks."

Freddie is Dean of the New York Friars Club and has appeared on Comedy Central's televised Friars Club Roasts. When not performing, Freddie devotes time to many charities, including his own Freddie Roman Celebrity Golf Classic which benefits area hospitals.

Sarge is a triple threat - piano savant, improvisational comedian and singer. Sarge is also an author with I'm Still Standing Up, tracing his life of twists and turns.

Born in Miami to a Jewish mother and black father, he was adopted soon after birth and raised by a Jewish couple on Long Island. On his 6th birthday, after his parents took him to see The Sound of Music on Broadway, Sarge sat at the family piano and played songs from the show entirely by ear, without touching a piano before. And, after his grandfather took him to shows in the Catskills, Sarge set his sights on becoming a comedian.

After a stint as a talent rep, Sarge enrolled at The Lee Strasberg Theater Institute. He wrote, produced and performed for Fox's "Best Damn Sports Show Period," as a syndicated radio host for Fox Sports Radio, and worked for "Wide World of Sports" and CBS Sports. After playing clubs and colleges, Sarge opened for music's biggest names, including Paul Anka, Aretha Franklin and Wayne Newton. His act evolved from comedy as he learned to weave his musical talents into his shows. Sarge sings in his own voice and in others including Harry Connick Jr. and Stevie Wonder. His impressions of Marv Albert, Mike Tyson, and Kermit the Frog leave audiences clamoring for more. Sarge has worked on some of the biggest stages from Radio City Music Hall to Major League Baseball's All-Star Game, to entertaining troops in Iraq.

Sarge's adopted parents raised him as Jewish without much exposure to his black heritage. This led to internal conflict as a young adult, feelings he tried to numb with alcohol and drugs. In 1990, he made a commitment to sobriety and dedicated himself to assisting others facing the same battle. Sarge does comedy in treatment centers andrecovery residences, and his comedy recovery film Sarge Behind Bars was shot in Casper Wyoming Reentry Prison.

Mark Schiff has been a working standup comedian for more than thirty years. When Mark was twelve, his parents took him to a nightclub. There, live on stage, was Rodney Dangerfield doing his act. At that moment, he knew the path he had to follow.

He has toured with Jerry Seinfeld for more than seven years, and worked with Jay Leno. Mark has also headlined in all the major casinos and clubs across the country and appeared many times on both "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" and "Late Night with David Letterman." He has had both HBO and Showtime specials, and has been the featured act at the Montreal Comedy Festival.

Mark has also written a book called I Killed: True Stories of the Road from America's Top Comics which was published by Random House in 2009. Mark is a playwright and had his first play The Comic produced in Los Angeles and in Aspen, Colorado, to standing room only crowds. His playThe Comic was optioned by HBO to be made into an HBO film. Mark's latest project is his new play Married People: A Comedy which he has co-written with comedian Steve Shaffer.

Tickets for this performance are priced at $88, $68, $48 and $28. Tickets are available at the Theatre's website at www.mccallumtheatre.com or by calling the McCallum Theatre Box Office at (760) 340-2787.

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