Friday night may have kicked off the 14th Annual Kung Pao Kosher Comedy soiree, but it was our first. Though we're clearly members of the target audience for a December night of comedy by, for and about Jews, we somehow managed never to attend. We were Kung Pao virgins. But no longer.

And though the evening's drawbacks were pretty much what we'd always suspected -- cramped seating, heaping portions of self-deprecation (even at the cocktail show) and the sinking feeling that we might not be subverting the Jews-and-Chinese-food-at-Christmas stereotype so much as living up to it in a way that might make Mel Gibson or David Irving smile -- we're glad we went.

By the time we arrived, the New Asia Restaurant's Cattskillian, communal, cleverly named tables (ours was called "Guilt") were filled with Jews. Those non-Jews in attendance had made the conscious decision to be Jewish-ish for one crazy night -- or at least the duration of the show.

By SFist Karen S., contributing