Sophia Harris Bat Mitzvah - June 4, 2011

Huge success! The guests were eager with anticipation for the party to start, and what they did not expect was 'The Lost Rabbi.' We had a cousin in the lobby asking his Dad if he thought there would be any black hats at the party, since my husband does business with Orthodox Jews. The dad says, "Oh, looks like they're here now, they had to wait until sundown to arrive," so even he thought these guys were for real.

My husband played his part well, and until the jokes started coming, many people were fooled. I think the script was beautifully developed, Garret really had the fine art of editing the potentially offensive elements of a roast, and distilled our family into the essence of who we are, and what many people could enjoy laughing about, and laugh they did!

My mother-in-law was so thrilled and charmed by the whole act that she made me pomise that I would hire The Amazing Bottle Dancers to attend her funeral and do a comedic but loving eulogy.

That is what I most loved about the presentation. It was the perfect balance of fun, campy-ness, shtick, and cultural authenticity. A cousin of ours cried. Her old auntie recalled this cousin's great grandmother's wedding in Hungary where they performed the bottle dance. That we could celebrate our daughter's thoroughly modern mitzvah with a link to our history, is truly the essence of Judaism, is it not?

We had no motivators on the dance floor for the kids. There were no airbrush artists, or caricature illustrators. There were no photo booths, no plastic gizmos and gadgets for the kids to play with... no special effects or fog machines. We streamlined all the "STUFF" into what we thought was potent, important, tasteful... and the Amazing Bottle Dancers started our party off with an act no one will ever forget. The director of my daughter's Performing Arts School was there, and she was on the floor laughing and applauding.

Sophia's entrance was flawless, dramatic, and tongue-in-cheek enough not to be ostentatious.

We are thrilled, thank you!

Ilise Harris

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