"His is a sincerely odd likability, and his gentle, intellectual streak mixes pleasantly with an underlying mischievousness... Hoptman's show makes for a decidedly odd and pleasurable Thursday night out." --St Paul Pioneer Press
Ari Hoptman featured in a Star-Tribune profile: "Something in his ability to scrutinize complex patterns of language demonstrates a native curiosity that helps explain his capacity for quirky sideways glances at the world around him."
"What Hoptman does is considerably outside the real of garden-variety weirdness. The notions that weave in and out of his mad, mad, mad performance are mind-benders." --Minneapolis Star-Tribune
"Ari Hoptman brings a self-depricating sweetness and killer sense of comic timing to the role of Einstein." --Minneapolis Star-Tribune, on Picasso at the Lapin Agile
"Ari Hoptman as Larry's tenure committee chairman is hilarious." -- Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
"... an articulate and warmly sympathetic portrayal." --Minneapolis Star-Tribune, on Two Rooms
"Ari Hoptman is a talented comedic actor who also knows how to handle dramatic and even musical parts with great skill."
--Ari Hoptman's website
At the opening of A Serious Man, in New York City, south of Tuckahoe, NY.
Hope all is well, whoever you may be. Why don't you have a seat and stay a while here at my little website until you have to leave or you get bored?
Right now:
I just finished a run of the ever-popular "Sisters of Swing," the story of the life and times of the Andrews Sisters, at the History Theater in St. Paul, MN. A fun show, to be sure, but one that is absolutely exhausting, especially six times a week.
For those of you who are interested, I played Vaudeville Man, Mr. Rich, the train conductor, Lou Levy, Bing Crosby, Paul Douglas, the Bierfrau, the jeep driver, John Snagge, the "clacker" man, the soldier in the hospital, Danny Kaye, Carmen Miranda, the Lieutenant, the soldier with the message, Morrie the casino manager, the messenger boy, Maxene's doctor, the TV announcer, Johnny Carson, and the photographer.
Coming up:
"The Odd Couple" at Pioneer Place on Fifth in St. Cloud with Mr. Zach Curtis from late February to early March. For information click in this general area right about here.
Also: Dial M for Comedy, a solo show, will be presented twice at the Sabes JCC in Golden Valley, MN, on the evenings of February 28 and March 2. Lots of details round about this text that you're reading now.
Click here for Ari's theatrical resume.
Favorite kind of wood: ply
Favorite nog: egg
Preferred style of chocolate chip cookie: not too many chocolate chips
Favorite long-extinct mammal: Ooooohh, well, the American lion maybe? There was one once, right? In the Ice Age? I think I read that. Maybe I'm wrong.
Position on freedom of speech: in favor of it
Favorite word in the Old High German language: sunufatarungo, an adverb meaning 'father and son together'
Experience as a dealer in Atlantic City: minimal, if that
Fifth favorite Marx Brother: Gummo
Favorite British ruling house: The House of Stuart (1603-1714) had it goin' on. Or so I have read.
Most useless fact yet learned: In the Sanskrit language, a quail says "cu-wit cu-wit cu-wit!"
Caribou or elk? Won't even dignify that.
Does Ari know former Monkee guitarist Peter Tork? No
Interested in how linguists helped solve the mystery of intervocalic voiced consonants in Early Germanic? I know you are, and don't try to deny it! Here's the first of three Youtube clips of a film with yours truly.
HEY HEY!
The CD
Interested in books for kids or books to scar innocent kids for life or books on English grammar?
Here's a site you may be interested in.
"Dang! Shtick by Ari Hoptman"