‘Our Hebrew Friend’ comes to Bondi
Melbourne comic David Rose is heading to Sydney with a show about identity and belonging, and the great-grandfather who might just have started it all.
There’s something poetic about a comedian whose great-grandfather was a famous Jewish comic finding himself, a century later, asking the exact same questions about identity and belonging, and turning it into a show.
David Rose will bring Nepo Great Grandbaby to the Bondi Pavilion Theatre as part of the Sydney Comedy Festival, tracing the life of his great-grandfather, Julian Rose, a vaudeville comedian known as “Our Hebrew Friend” who performed at the Royal Variety Show and on the BBC in the early 20th century.
“The show is about my great-grandfather, the vaudeville comedian Julian Rose. Julian was a ‘Hebrew comic’ in the early days of stand-up comedy and the show is about his life, our shared vocation, and the confusion that comes with Jewish identity generally, as well as how that represents itself in 2026,” Rose told The AJN.
It’s personal territory, but Rose navigates it with warmth.
As explained to The AJN, he didn’t grow up religiously or culturally Jewish, but his wife opened that door for him.
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