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."