She can't tell dirty jokes, curse, or make fun of
the audience, but Ayelet the Kosher Komic can still make crowds of
women burst out laughing.
A self described "pioneer" in
religious entertainment, she is developing a new brand of "glatt
kosher" comedy routines for religious women who wouldn't dare try
anything else.
Ayelet - "like Cher or Madonna," she says of her
stage name - performs for all-female audiences across Israel and
abroad. Next month the kosher komic leaves for a 10-week tour of
England, Canada and the U.S., where she's hoping to expand her unique
brand of comedy even further.
As a member of the community
that she pokes fun at, Ayelet regales crowds with real life stories
about her quest to find a soul mate through Jewish matchmakers ("rule
number three: if he repulses you, don't go out with him again"). In one
skit, she fantasizes about an all-chocolate diet ("warning: the chances
of losing weight on this diet are very slim - slimmer than you'll ever
be"), and in her trademark opening act, she jokes about a "glatt
kosher" airline which is equipped with collapsible black hats for
emergency prayer purposes ("should there be, God forbid, a rapid change
in cabin pressure, a book of psalms will fall from the panel above your
head").
But Ayelet wasn't always the "ultra-Orthodox girl with
bulletproof stockings" that she is today. In fact, she used to perform
in "treif" comedy clubs across New York and Los Angeles, before
becoming newly religious two-and-a-half years ago. She only picked up
her career in its new and more conservative form last year while
performing in front of seminary girls in Jerusalem. She has since
entertained Haredi women, as well as more modern crowds, and in
cooperation with the Anglo comedy troupe Off the Wall Comedy, she
appeared this week at a cafe in Jerusalem's Baka neighborhood, followed
by a private performance the following night, in a private living room
in the ultra-Orthodox neighborhood of Har Nof.
Ayelet, who lives
in the Old City, thinks of her performances as something of a mitzvah.
She believes that God gave her a talent for the sole purpose of
bringing happiness, laughter and a bit of frivolity to a group of women
who wouldn't have it otherwise. "Many of these women have large
families and a lot of responsibility, and getting out and having fun is
sometimes neglected. They have a desperate need for entertainment
because they don't have a television, they don't go to movies and they
would never go to a regular comedy club. Women come up to me all the
time to thank me and say they don't usually get out of the house," she
explains.
She also insists that she doesn't miss performing in
front of mixed audiences because women laugh more than their male
counterparts and aren't as likely to heckle. More importantly, though,
she says performing for men is simply "not modest."
"It's not a
woman's role to be performing in front of men," she says, echoing the
teachings of her rabbis. "Women are supposed to be the modest ones and
the center of the family. Their role is more in the home."
Indeed,
it's been quite a change from the fast paced world of acting and comedy
that she left behind in New York and Los Angeles. She "found Judaism"
while exploring the Jewish singles scene, or in her own words: "I
wanted a Jewish boy and got a rebbetzin instead."
Ayelet insists
that her repertoire is amusing to "anybody remotely affiliated with
Judaism." Her matchmaking stories, however tortured, are all based on
real life experiences and in a single, nearly breathless sentence, she
ticks off her credentials: "I've contacted 165 shadchanim [matchmakers]
in nine different states, four different countries and personally seen
over 75 of them, all in nine months."
The Kosher Komedy CD comes
with a request to refrain from using it on the Sabbath and holidays,
and along with the copyright comes a warning that "any form of
duplication or reproduction is strictly forbidden by law and halacha."