Thanking the troops on Thanksgiving

According to yesterday's Jerusalem Post, Israeli born comic Avi Liberman spent this past Thanksgiving in Afghanistan entertaining the troops.  He said, "So many people told me I was missing out on Thanksgiving by not being with my family, but I think they were the ones missing out. I was with people I was really thankful for."

Liberman's involvement in the project came rather suddenly; he bumped into Burton at The Improv in California and discovered that he needed a last-minute replacement for the Afghanistan tour. "I canceled a gig in North California, confirmed all the final details on Saturday night and was on a plane Sunday morning," says Liberman.

"It was a very moving experience," he recalls, though entirely different from the traditional comedy stage. The first show took place at a forward operating base in Farah, Afghanistan, "inside a Special Forces compound, with no microphone, no speakers." It was just 25 soldiers, two comedians, and "an hour of laughing and thanking each other for what we do."