Jewish comedian from NYC goes viral for all the wrong reasons: I was in shock

A Jewish comedian from Brooklyn became the unwitting star of an international controversy when tens of millions of people watched footage supposedly showing him declare, “I support Israel” and emptying a Chicago comedy club — except none of it happened.Now-embattled comic Menachem Silverstein and a show producer told The Post that not only was the statement never made and no one walked out in disgust — but the comedian wasn’t even at last week’s event.Silverstein, 31, was instead offline observing Rosh Hashanah in Los Angeles when the bizarre story began racing around the world.“I turned my phone on after Rosh Hashanah, and I had over 40 messages from people being like, ‘What the hell is this? Is this you? What’s happening?’ ” recalled Silverstein, a father of two with a third child on the way.The controversial viral clip was filmed at the Laugh Factory in Chicago and shows the crowd suddenly leave with a comic still on stage.The performer was comedian Kieron Harrell, who was appearing in the Laugh Factory’s aptly named prank show “What Could Go Wrong?”Harrell never uttered the reported “I support Israel” statement, his producer told The Post, citing full footage of the event.The crowd also did not walk out because it was supposedly offended.As part of the gag, Harrell was blindfolded and given headphones — while the audience was secretly ushered out, leaving him performing to an empty room when he took off the blindfold — giving the impression in some of posted footage that the room cleared over a pro-Israel comment that was supposedly uttered.“There isn’t a single element that was true,” Silverstein said of the reports.“I wasn’t there.

The comedian didn’t say anything about Israel.The audience didn’t walk out because they were offended.“The entire thing is fake.”Silverstein said he believes Al Jazeera English was the first news outlet to falsely identify him as the performer and say he made the statement at t...