Classmate Profile

Fiddler is Jewish. His grandfather on his father’s side was a hat maker in Russia. He was assigned to make a hat for the czar of Russia. When he attempted to put the hat on the head of the czar, the czar spit on him and exclaimed, “I will never be touched by the hands of a Jew.” His grandfather then immigrated to America to avoid persecution.

Fiddler’s mother wasn’t raised in Judaism. She was first introduced to it when she went to college. Oddly enough, her first interaction was with the movie, “Fiddler on the roof.” Irony? Probably not.

Fiddler is 25 years old and has had quite the journey. He is the youngest of four children. He is majoring in English, with a minor in communications, and is expecting to graduate in December. He has been making gelato for the past five years. Not just any kind of gelato either, it is Argentinian gelato. Fiddler got involved with it when he took a job out of high school at an Italian coffee shop, where they made gelato. He took a job this past summer making gelato for an Argentinian gelato company.

Fiddler’s father and older siblings were athletic and sports oriented, which pushed him into the arts. In high school he was involved in the theater and he was on the gymnastics team. He was the pommel horse guy. Fiddler remarks, “We were like the artists and the musicians and we smoked pot, had long hair and beards and stuff. A totally different breed from the other gymnasts.”

In high school he also started his band, Dr. Kevorkian and the Volunteers. Fiddler played the guitar and his dad rocked out with him playing the keyboard. Every year at his high school, Niles North, there would be a charity rock show event.

He had always wanted to play in the show so he finally got his act together junior year and they rocked the house. The band was together for seven years and though they’ve had a lot of success, he feels that their very first concert that night at the charity show was the best one. “It was just, yeah, we just rocked so hard, especially since it was high school,” he said. “And all the girls you liked were there to see you.” He also thought they performed well at their senior year concert “We were rocking, on top of the world, it was the dopest.”

Music has always been a huge part of Fiddler’s life. His favorite thing to do is play live music, “The thrill from it is untouchable, when people are dancing to something you are playing, when people knew the words to your songs.” He loved playing at house parties or small dive bars where there it’s a more intimate setting. His favorite show besides the one in high school was a house party at Illinois State. The floors were shaking and there were people wall to wall. He described the energy as explosive.

Dr. Kevorkian and the Volunteers was not the only band that Fiddler started. When he was 21 years old he started a band called Kiddy Korral. This was no ordinary band. It was a musical circus themed jug band. Since he loved jazz and folk music and also loved the circus, he wanted to put something together that complimented that. The members of the band all had wacky names. For example, Fiddler was “Fiddles the Hobo clown.” There was also: “Brewster the bearded baby”, “Aye Aye Aye the 3 eyed Mexican gun slinger”, “Lady Coco the bearded lady”, and “Stain the hideous cowboy (half cow, half boy, all man).”

“The music wasn’t very good,” Fiddler said. “But we had the best time being clowns and getting hammered drunk playing old timey music. We’d pass the jug around full of whiskey.” One of his favorite memories with this band is when they were playing at a house party in Rogers Park. The police came due to a noise complaint. When the Police officer peeked his head in to see what was going on he looked so confused when he saw the crazy clown costumes that he just mumbled, “Uhm, uh, try to keep it down.”

Fiddler ran an open mic night at a café in Evanston for five years. He feels that doing this is what really gave him total confidence to be on stage. Though he’s had quite a bit of experience with his bands, this taught him how to really talk to audience and how to relate to them. He used to host a trivia contest at a downtown Chicago restaurant. Fiddler also hosted the NEIU talent show last year and plans on doing so again this year. He feels that hosting is the best way to get the audience on your side. Instead of performing an act, and only having five minutes to get the audience to like him, he has the whole night to do so. He can tell jokes, play a few songs, and dance if he’s really that desperate.

When Fiddler wasn’t rocking out on stage, his head would be in a comic book. Batman has been a part of Fiddler’s life for as long as he can remember. It’s his silhouette that’s so attractive, the car and the costume. He didn’t know this growing up, but Batman had the best writers in the business at the time. He thinks that the argument about who is the better superhero always comes down to Superman vs. Batman. However, “Good writing is what wins against a superhero that has all the power.” Fiddler felt that Batman was always doing the right thing even when it was hardest thing to do. “He’s the best person that a person can be.”