The nationally acclaimed comedy act, the Black Jew Dialogues, performed yesterday evening at the K-State Student Union. Sponsored by the Diversity Programming Council, the show featured Ron Jones as the Black and Larry Jay Tish as the Jew.

Jones opened the show by commenting on K-State sports. He said that he would have liked to have seen the Wildcats in the Final Four, but it was a great season anyway.

Tish was quick to add that the Kansas Jayhawks were eliminated first, prompting applause from the audience.

The duo's disclaimer at the beginning of the show accurately represented how it would go the rest of the night. They warned the audience that there would provocative language.

"We know it's out there, people think it, people say it," Jones said. "Let's get it out in the open. Don't get caught up in the words, get caught up in the message."

For the show, the comedians advised the audience to turn off their bias, hatred, and preconceived notions.

To illustrate these thoughts, they showed a video of students, some from K-State, who were interviewed by the comedians' puppets. One of them, a Mexican, was asked what he had heard people thought about Mexicans in the United States.

He replied that people said they were lazy and stealing all the low class jobs. That is a contradiction pointed out one of the puppets. They are lazy, but they are stealing all the jobs, he reflected.

That kind of humor was what Eric Houston, senior in agribusiness, enjoyed about the show. They confronted serious issues in a lighthearted manner, he said.

On stage, the comedians remarked how both Jewish and Blacks are minorities, have lived in ghettos, and have been slaves from Africa. Tish said that since Egypt is part of Africa, the Jews were also slaves from Africa in Biblical times.

"Aw hell no," Jones said. "Don't go pulling that North technicality."

The point they were trying to emphasize was that to cope with conditions in America, they must deal with their past. Tish said that Jews use food to help endure the suffering and Jones said that blacks use music. Often throughout the performance, Tish commented that he was hungry or thinking about food.

One skit within the act featured the men dressed as grandmothers preparing to go to a picnic. They sat down at a distance from each other. Tish avoided Jones because he is a black woman.

"I was taught to look at people as who they are and what they've done," Jones said.

But Tish replied that all she ever has seen on the news were black people and they mugged her grandson. Jones said that they never show hardworking black people on the news.

The two grandmothers wind up befriending one another, dancing and trading picnic baskets.

Dressed back as their normal selves, Jones and Tish had a discussion on guilt and what it is like living in America as a black and a Jew.

Tish asks Jones to imagine he's with another woman while his wife is sleeping beside him. And she wakes up.

"Oh man that's some Tiger Woods s---," Jones said.

That is how the guilt feels being Jewish, Tish said, feeling guilty for everything.

As for being black, Jones offered his own perspective on life in America.

"Imagine you're only capable of being someone's athlete, or a clown, or being dangerous, that you're totally driven by your sexual urges and that ultimately you're going to f--- up and wind up in jail," he said. "That's what black people have to deal with in America."

The two said that much of the perception about the minorities in America are due to fear and stereotypes - called "feareotypes." Any wrong that a black or Jew commit affects the image of the whole group, they said.

"I just wish [America] would realize there's nothing to be afraid of," Jones said. "There's nothing to fear."

They described several situations in which fear controls thoughts of minorities. After the September 11 terrorist attacks, Muslims on airplanes are subject to fear or hatred. Also, driving in cities and having black people walk towards a persons car usually prompts them to lock their car doors out of fear.

The final part of their show was in a game show format, called ‘Jew or Not Jew'. Pictures of celebrities were shown on screen and participating audience members had to guess whether they are Jewish or not.

After that, members of the audience stood up to allow Tish to guess whether or not they were Jewish. Contestants in neither portion of the show had much success, which was the point of the show.

"I liked the game show because you can't just look at somebody and go ‘they're this, they're that'," said Tiffany McFarlane, freshman in arts and sciences.

Jones and Tish said that to solve the problems facing America, they must be faced, which is the purpose of their show.

"America may be our last chance at getting it right… for everybody," Jones said.

The duo invite any person wishing to continue the dialogue to join in discussions on their Facebook Fan Page. A link to the page may be found at their website theblackjewdialogues.com