The Son of a Mohel Brings Family’s Story to Edmonton Fringe Festival

By Shayna Cairns, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

(AJNews) – Internationally touring storyteller Noam Osband is bringing his award-winning show, Circumscribed: A True Tall Tale of One Father, Two Sons, and Thousands of Foreskins, to the Edmonton Fringe Festival from August 14 – 23, 2026.

It’s a comedy storytelling show about growing up with a father who was a mohel (Jewish ritual circumciser) who buried foreskins at home, Noam’s failed efforts at finding paternal figures after his father’s untimely death, and later wrestling with circumcising his own kid. Weaving together family video, pictures, and audio recordings, this comedic storytelling is a perfect show about the loveable eccentrics we call family.

Osband will bring the show to Edmonton for its Canada debut, with nine performances as part of the Edmonton Fringe Festival. The 60-minute show will be performed at Stage 21: the Sanctuary Stage in the Holy Trinity Anglican Church (10037 84 Avenue) in Edmonton’s south side for one show a day on August 14 and 15, and August 17 through 23.

“It’s a story about my relationship with my father and … about the relationship of parents and kids. So, my father was a mohel, and he circumcised me. He did my brothers, friends and family. We used to bury foerskins by the tree near the garage,” he told the Philadelphia Jewish Exponent last year.

Osband didn’t have much interaction with non-Jews until he went to college, at which point he realized that some of the things he had experienced were truly unique.

“Nobody else had a foreskin tree near their garage, but I never thought about how odd it was until I got to college,” he said. “And I would sometimes tell people the story, and they’d be like, are you crazy?

“It’s a show about growing up with a father who was a very loving and very good father, but eccentric in really good ways and really loved getting us involved in ritual and a lot of esoteric Jewish ritual. And then he died young. He died when he was 51. And then in the years afterwards, me looking for father figures who were not really great father figures.

“And then the show sort of ends in me becoming a dad myself and wrestling with whether or not I was going to circumcise my own son.”

He describes it as “a storytelling show” in which everything said on stage is “100% true,” including lots of family photos, audio and video, even footage of the performer’s own bris.

“It is not rare in comedy and storytelling that you embellish stuff, but I think almost to a fault, I cannot embellish,” he said. “It’s hard for me. So, truly, all the stories are real.”

In addition to his work as a mohel, Osband’s father, Michael Osband, was a pediatrician, pediatric hematologist and oncologist at a time when childhood leukemia survival rates were much lower than they are today. Michael died when Noam was 20 years old.

“I think it’s in part because his work was so real and so heavy that he enjoyed bringing the sense of magic and wonder into the world with us,” Osband said.

“He could make jokes with very serious people that nobody else could make, I think in part because he was known as this very, you know, also sort of serious, respectful person. But he just had this other side to him, too, that really rubbed off on me, who’s a performer and likes doing comedy stuff,” Osband said.

“I would sometimes have these stories that I would tell about my father that were sort of very funny. And then I thought, ‘There’s a show to do.’ I thought, ‘Oh, well, there’s this through line about parenthood and about what we offer our kids. Then also there’s a through line about circumcision, which was such a big deal for him,’” he said.

“Circumscribed” won the Audience Choice Award at the 2025 New York City Fringe Festival. Click here for ticket information. 

“I think it’s a fun show because most people who’ve seen the show are not Jewish. And I’m explaining halacha and random Jewish things, and it works. I think there’s this level, which is if you have a Jewish background, there’s a certain fun element to hearing funny stories,” he said.

The quotes in this article are taken from an interview that Noam did with Stephen Silver for the Philadelphia Jewish Exponent.