Joel Chasnoff graduated from university and entered into a career as a stand-up comic. The proceeding life of living in a basement apartment in Brooklyn and facing rejection from audiences was not what he had envisioned. So he enlisted in the Israeli army. The Jewish Daily Forward reports:

But from the moment Chasnoff signs up, he has fallen through the rabbit hole. During one interaction with a man at a dog tag machine, Chasnoff laments: “Hey, I think you misspelled my name.”

“So don’t die,” the man says, and shoos him out the door.

Chasnoff is 24 when he enlists, but his peers in the Armored Tank Brigade are 18. The difference in their maturity is a Grand Canyon-sized chasm, aggravated by the fact that Chasnoff has joined the Israeli military out of conviction, unlike his peers, who are there because of conscription.

Chasnoff has written a book, The 188th Crybaby Brigade: A Skinny Jewish Kid From Chicago Fights Hezbollah, which documents his his time in the army; The Jewish Week has a well written review.

On Apr 19, Joel Chasnoff and Anthony Swofford (Jarhead: A Marine’s Chronicle of the Gulf War), with editor at large of Esquire magazine A. J. Jacobs as moderator, will discuss the sick—and, at times, disturbingly hilarious—culture of modern war, from the psyche of the American marine to the Israeli mission in Lebanon.

Upcoming talks at 92Y: