Alejandro Morales Brings the Laughter Home to the Borscht Belt

For decades, the Catskills’ Borscht Belt helped shape American comedy, giving immigrant performers a place to test jokes, tell their stories, and build careers that would later define stand-up nationwide.

Now, that legacy is being revived.

This weekend, the Borscht Belt Museum launches a new season of the Borscht Belt Comedy Club at Shadowland Stages in Ellenville, with Ellenville-born comedian Alejandro Morales serving as curator, host, and headliner.

Morales returned home with a clear goal: bring live Catskills comedy back to the place where it all began — and make it reflect the voices of today.

A Borscht Belt Family History
Morales’ connection to the Catskills resorts runs through his family.

“My mom and dad are both from Chile, and they emigrated separately in the 1970s,” Morales said. “My father says that he was the first Chilean in Ellenville — you take that with a grain of salt. But he got a job at the Nevele Hotel, and then my mother got a job at the Nevele Hotel, and they met working in the dining room.”

By the time Morales was growing up, the golden age of Borscht Belt comedy had already passed.

“By the time I was a teenager, the sort of heyday of the Borscht Belt was more or less in the past,” he said. “So I unfortunately missed all of the wonderful emergence of live stand-up comedy in the region.”

He didn’t see live stand-up until moving to Philadelphia, where comedy took hold. When he eventually moved back to Ellenville, he wanted to reconnect the region with its comedic roots.

“I really wanted to bring back this original art form that sprang up in the 20th century,” Morales said, “and bring it back so people can continue to enjoy that live art in Ellenville.”

Finding the Borscht Belt in His Voice
Morales now recognizes how deeply the Borscht Belt shaped his comedic instincts — even before he understood its history.

“I was a big fan of Joan Rivers,” he said. “She was one of my favorite comedians growing up. I was also a big fan of Sandra Bernhard and Richard Lewis.”

Through television, Morales absorbed the rhythm and sensibility of Borscht Belt comedy without realizing where it came from.

“I didn’t put two and two together when I was a teen or in my 20s,” he said. “But I’ve always been connected to this tradition that started in my hometown.”

That connection, he says, is something comedians still feel when they perform in the Catskills. “People come up to the Hudson Valley and it kind of dawns on them,” Morales said. “‘Oh, this is where it all started.’ Those conversations usually happen in the green room before the show.”

A New Comedy Season in Ellenville
As curator of the Borscht Belt Comedy Club, Morales has built a season that blends history with contemporary voices.

The January kickoff features Jeff Gurian, Alan Frishman — a local plumber and author — along with Beth Farber and David Lonstein.

February programming celebrates Black History Month with comedians Chanel Ali and Anthony Moore. In March, Emmy Award-winning comedian Judy Gold headlines what Morales calls the season’s marquee performance. April brings a Spanish-language comedy show with Laura Bolívar, expanding the Borscht Belt tradition to audiences long connected to the Catskills resorts.

“I really want to bring something to my generation and my parents’ generation — people who worked in the hotels who were Latin American and South American and speak primarily Spanish,” Morales said.

The season concludes in May with a family-friendly comedy show, aimed at welcoming as wide an audience as possible.

Carrying an Outsider Tradition Forward
Morales sees clear parallels between today’s revival and the origins of Borscht Belt comedy.

“The story of the Borscht Belt is the story of outsiders who were not welcomed everywhere,” he said. “It was Jewish folks who wanted to go on vacation and couldn’t go where they wanted to because of prejudice.”

Out of that exclusion came a cultural force that reshaped American comedy. “They took that rejection and that outsider status, and they built something that became an art form that’s taken the entire world by storm,” Morales said.

Today, Morales believes that same spirit lives on through marginalized voices finding space onstage.
“We can now plug in our outsider voices and carry on that tradition,” he said. “Having somewhere to practice your art and connect with your community — I don’t think there’s anything more beautiful than that.”

Comedy Comes Home
The revival is personal for Morales. His late father worked as a maître d’ at the Nevele and the Concord, where he crossed paths with celebrities of the era.

“I’m sure he’d be super excited if he were still with us,” Morales said. “My mother is so excited to have me back home. She’s thrilled.”

Image: Alejandro Morales (Credit: Philly Comedy Club)