NEW YORK — Although comedian David Tuchman was raised a nice Jewish boy in an Orthodox New York city home, his comedy series OMGWTFBible is anything but reverent — or orthodox.
For the past two years, Tuchman, 29, has retold Old Testament stories — with a modern twist — in front of a live studio audience for his monthly podcast OMGWTFBible (that’s Oh-My-God-What-The-Fuck-Bible for non-millennials). The podcast goes chapter-by-chapter through the Bible, recounting the stories with a hearty dose of cynicism, humor and wit.
Tuchman records the shows live every month in venues around New York City, accompanied by a different guest host who reads the translation while Tuchman interrupts with jokes, commentary and interesting tidbits.
“For thousands of years we’ve been under the impression the Bible was meant to be taken seriously,” he begins each show. “Finally, a new translation that will change all that.” What follows is 20-40 minutes of candor, and for the more devout, a rather blasphemous, translation of the Hebrew Bible, beginning at Bereshit (Genesis) and now, two years on, deep into Shemot (Exodus).
The idea for the podcast germinated from advice his writing professor at Hunter College had once given him: “If you want inspiration, all you have to do is read the Bible cover to cover.”
Years later while looking for material for a comedy gig, Tuchman turned to the trusty Old Testament for inspiration. He initially planned to do a live reading and translation of the story of Yehuda and Tamar, a juicy escapade involving prostitution and incest, but realized this could be solid material for much more than one routine.
“I got one verse in before I flipped back to the beginning of the book and decided to translate the Bible in its entirety, from the beginning.” he told The Times of Israel.
‘The seed behind the idea is that nobody has the one right way to translate the Bible’
Tuchman said that at face value, while the stories are pretty captivating, the Bible alone makes for a pretty dry read.
“Around that time, I bought a huge Oxford Bible, and I’d try to sit down and read it. But every time I’d get three chapters in and just stop bored to tears.”
And so began his quest to “rehabilitate the Bible.”
A few months later in October 2012, his first episode went live on iTunes.
For the formerly-Orthodox-turned-
“The book’s got everything: genocide, incest, and even talking donkeys,” his website proclaims, so what better place to turn for inspiration?
Tuchman says he always found biblical stories fascinating, but felt that he didn’t get an opportunity to dissect them while in yeshiva since many of the more interesting (read: salacious) stories were often skimmed over briefly, or skipped out entirely.
‘The show has helped me recognize what is valuable about the texts and understand why they have stayed with us so long’
