My father was Mickey Katz, who worked with Spike Jones and then went on to improvise some successful Yiddish parodies, some of which I perform. My favorite was 'Geshray of the Vilde Kotchke,' his version of 'Cry of the Wild Goose.'

The Yiddish language is so rich and unusual that I've always been hooked on its sounds, although I don't speak it.

I never learned to speak Yiddish, ever.

My dad would take me downtown, and I'd stand backstage and watch him in the vaudeville pit band. I was 6 or 7. He was a musician, a band leader, a wonderful clarinetist and saxophone player.

I was traumatized by a lot of childhood stuff. I felt that I was bad somewhere, starting with my birth.