THE HOTTEST UP & COMING COMIC IN LOS ANGELES TODAY
IS A 71 YEAR OLD JEWISH MAN!
eL YID, NEW CHARACTER CREATED AND PERFORMED BY NOTED
TV WRITER/PRODUCER AND ACTOR MARC SHEFFLER,
IS POISED TO TAKE THE LA COMEDY SCENE BY STORM
Believe it or not, the hottest and fastest rising new comic on the LA Comedy
Scene today is “el Yid,” a 69 year old Jewish man whose long white beard and black
and white garb would immediately lead anyone to assume that he was a Chasidic Rabbi
from Brooklyn. In actuality, el Yid is a new comedic character conceived and performed
by noted TV writer/producer and actor Marc Sheffler.
A former comedian and member of the Comedy Store’s legendary “Class of
1977,” Marc has also been involved with countless television series and specials during
the course of his long entertainment industry career, including "Sister, Sister," "Harry
and the Hendersons," "Who's the Boss," “Sanford & Son,” "Charles in Charge,” “The
Happy Days Reunion Show," "The Best of the Hollywood Palace" and the Warner Bros.
cartoon “How Bugs Bunny Won The West,” among many others.
The character of el Yid was born in late 2015, after a horrific automobile accident
almost cost Marc his life. After having been hit by a car while walking down the street
near his home by an 85-year old man texting on his phone while driving, Marc spent
many months recovering from his broken limbs and shattered spirit. Once finally healed,
however, Marc looked in the mirror and realized that not only had he been transformed
into an entirely new person, but he had a brainstorm! He’d also just given birth to an
entirely new character. The experience re-ignited his passion to once again perform
stand-up comedy live, after a 35 year absence from the stage.
el Yid has been making LA audiences howl with laughter ever since. He appears
regularly at Robin Hood Pub on Burbank & Woodman in Sherman Oaks on Wed-
nesdays, and at Upstairs @ Palermo on Vermont by Franklin on Thursdays. Check out:
https://www.facebook.com/elyidthecomedian/
About Marc Sheffler:
A native of Pittsburgh, PA, Marc Sheffler was given a truly unique gift by his
father for his 8th birthday: The Three Stooges! The famous slapstick trio performed at
his birthday party during a local appearance there in 1957. The Stooges brought Marc
on stage with a “Nyuck, Nyuck, Nyuck,” and the infamous phrase “I oughtta moider ya.”
Moe Howard dubbed little Marc “The Fourth Stooge.” “It was on that stage, at the age of
8, when I first realized it was my destiny to become a comedian,” Marc says today.
In 1969, Marc dropped out of college to head off to New York State’s Catskill
Mountains, the center of the stand-up comedy universe at the time. There, he began his
professional career, with his first job as the Stage Manager of the 1500-seat nightclub at
the Raleigh Hotel. During his fourteen months there, Marc watched every comedian on
that circuit – one of whom was London Lee, the scion of a wealthy Long Island family.
Marc worked for Lee for about a year and a half, at first running errands for him, and
eventually writing some of his jokes. Marc even became an onstage part of his act
during more than 200 club dates. One lucky night, Lee told his audience that Marc was
an aspiring stand-up comedian, and without any advance notice, thrust him into the
spotlight. Marc performed ten minutes, managing to generate enough laughs to earn
himself a spot onstage with Lee for an upcoming, two week engagement at the
legendary Copacabana nightclub in Manhattan.
After striking out on his own in late 1971, Marc walked into his manager’s office in New
York City (Lloyd Greenfield Management, whose clients at the time also included
Engelbert Humperdinck), where he was told a movie audition awaited him. As a result of
that audition, Sean Cunningham and Wes Craven cast Marc as one of their film’s four
leads, “a teenage heroin junkie named Junior Stillo” in the movie “The Last House on
the Left” (1972). The film became Wes Craven’s first, and is considered today to be the
granddaddy of the modern day slasher/crime genre. In early1972, Marc’s life and career
changed forever when Roger Ebert published a 4 1⁄2 star review of the film with this lead
sentence: "’Last House on the Left’ is a tough, bitter little sleeper of a movie that's about
four times as good as you'd expect.” Marc made dozens of personal appearances
across the country to help promote the film, meeting thousands of fans, and basking in
the newfound glow of his first taste of fame.
After his initial blast of exposure with “Last House,” Marc shifted gears back to his
original passion: a career in stand-up comedy. He also began to pursue writing and
producing projects for television. In late 1975, he developed a movie-of-the-week idea
along with award winning commercial director N. Lee Lacy (the man who’d directed the
infamous “Mean Joe Green/Coke” commercial.) In early 1976, Lacy’s agents at William
Morris sold the pitch to NBC – as a result, Marc moved to LA, arriving in town with a
writing credit and William Morris as his talent agency.
During his earliest days in LA, Marc spent countless nights at the legendary Comedy
Store, watching such legends as Richard Pryor, Paul Mooney, Jimmy Walker, George
Miller, Tim Thomerson, and Steve Bluestein. The William Morris Agency had set him up
with his first Monday night gig at the club just a few weeks after he’d relocated to la-la-
land. After his fourth Monday night, he walked up to legendary founder Mitzi Shore’s
table, and asked her if he had what it took. She looked up and said, “Okay Marc, call in
for spots.” Marc quickly thanked her and got out of her sight, before she had time to
conclude she'd just made a huge mistake. Over the course of the next several Monday
nights, Marc honed his material, quickly perfecting his set, generating big laughs, and
quickly made a place for himself as an Original Comedy Store Regular. Based on his
success, Marc became a lifetime member of the Comedy Store’s infamous “Class of
’77.” He even got his name inscribed on the Comedy Store’s exterior “Wall of Fame,”
alongside his peers at the time - Jay Leno, Robin Williams, David Letterman, Marc
Summers, and other now well-recognized performers.
Segueing into writing and producing for television, Marc’s career path next led
him to participate on such hit TV series as "Sister, Sister," "Harry and the Hendersons,"
"Who's the Boss," “Sanford and Son,” and "Charles in Charge." He also became
involved with numerous TV pilots, made for TV movies, and television specials,
including "The Little Shop of Horrors" pilot, "The Happy Days Reunion Show" and "The
Best of the Hollywood Palace" specials. His first real studio gig was at Warner Bros.
with Mel Blanc, the voice of the classic Warner Bros. cartoons, as the writer of the TV
short “How Bugs Bunny Won The West” in 1978. During this era, Marc worked closely
with a number of notable Executive Producers, including Norman Lear, (“Sanford and
Son,”) George Schlatter (“If She Dies, She Dies,”) Don Mischer (“The People’s Choice
Awards,”) Steven Spielberg (“Harry And The Hendersons,) and Garry Marshall (“The
Happy Days Reunion Special”), among them.
In 2002, Marc returned to the horror film genre, and produced David DeFalco’s
controversial movie “Chaos.” In 2006, he co-wrote and produced another horror film,
“Girls Gone Dead.” And in 2010, Marc supervised the writing of the first two episodes of
a new TV series called “Oh Telon” - a half-hour situation comedy - at EICTV, in San
Antonio de los Baños, Cuba. The show was greenlit for production, and in fall of that
year, Marc made television history by becomin...
