New Jersey Stage 2016: Issue 1 | Page 28

After college, he worked as a Fortune 500 management consultant while moonlighting as a stand up comic. A few years later, he entered the PhD program in Neuroeconomics at California Technical Institute (CalTech), but ultimately quit grad school to pursue comedy full-time. At the beginning of 2016, Rosenfeld released The Russian Optimist, his second comedy album. Recorded live last September at New York Comedy Club, the album captures Rosenfeld’s set offering social commentary on everything from dark Russian nursery rhymes to sharing scientific findings about whether monogamy is natural to explaining why America runs on fear. Those of a certain age may remember Yakov Smirnoff who became famous in the eighties for his comparison of life in communist Russia versus America. Known for the tag line, “What a country!” his jokes took a differ- Ben Rosenfeld talks about “Divorced Bedtime Stories” NewJerseyStage.com 2016 - ISSUE 1 Table of Contents 28