The London Jewish Tribune
No. 1767 Thursday 17th February 2005 8th Adar 1 5765
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f Ayelet’s London performance at the Golders Green home of Mrs Estee Stimler on 8 February is anything to go by, then Kosher Komedy is clearly the way of the future. The audience of normally staid, reserved British ladies was howling with laughter by the time Ayelet reached the end of her Glatt Kosher Airlines routine – clearly, the idea of collapsible black airline hats for mincha and sifrei tehillim emerging from the overhead lockers in cases of airborne emergency is more than a little amusing.
But what really made Ayelet’s talent stand out was the way she moved seamlessly from her set routines – including tales of shidduchim woes and her fear of missing shekia and being too late to daven mincha – to picking up on nuances of British behaviour and mocking them gently to great effect. Clearly, Ayelet is a lady of many talents and one to look out for in the future! We hope to see her back in London very soon.
FIVE MINUTE FOCUS ON…
AYELET THE KOSHER KOMIC
by Judy Silkoff
Although
general comedy is at best empty nonsense and not to be encouraged,
Chazal do praise a milsa-debedichasoh as Eliyohu Hanovi revealed,
praising a badchan for making others happy. A good
example of this is Ayelet the Kosher Komic, the only strictly kosher
professional comedienne in the world. She used to be a Hollywood
actress, but since becoming a ba’alas teshuva and moving to Eretz
Yisroel two years ago, she has found a different way of expressing her
comic talent. Known to most as the Kosher Komic, she performs her
hilarious but completely clean and appropriate stand-up act for
audiences of Jewish women around the world. Ayelet
lives in the Old City of Yerushalayim and was in London last week as
part of her Winter 2005 world tour. Woman’s World caught up with her
between shows!
Ayelet, how did you become involved in show business in the first place?
When
I was a little girl, around nine years old, I would see people in
movies playing different characters and doing different accents and I
would think, “Hey – I can do that…maybe I could even do it better!” I
had a strong feeling that this was going to be my life and I made
concrete plans to achieve it.
So, how did you go about making your dream come true?
When
I was in my teens, I got publicity headshots taken and began to attend
acting classes. I’m a very persistent person and eventually it paid off
and I began to get jobs in shows and commercials.
You’ve given all of that up now of course. What was the process of your becoming more religious?
Well, I attended a Modern Orthodox day school in New York but only actually became frum around two and a half years ago, after I got involved with Aish Hatorah and Isralight
(an international Outreach organisation). By that point, I was spending
half of my time in New York and half in Los Angeles for work, but I
would attend courses and classes through these organisations wherever I
was at the time. Eventually, I started going on their trips and
missions to Israel – I did one with Isralight and then I went on the Jewel Programme organised by Aish. It changed my life. I always say: I started going because I wanted to find a Jewish husband and I ended up with a Rebbetzin instead!
When did you move from New York to Israel?
It was around two years ago. Up until that point, I’d been trying to integrate my career with being shomer shabbos and keeping kosher,
but it just wasn’t working. I always felt that my talents were
G-d-given and that I should use them, so I was fulfilled in that sense,
but something was missing – there was no way for me to reach ultimate
fulfilment. So I moved to Eretz Yisroel, I enrolled in EYAHT – the Aish Hatorah
School for girls in Jerusalem – and studied there for a few months. You
could say that I put my career on the back burner and my soul on the
front burner for a little while.
Did you feel frustrated at all because you were no longer performing?
No,
actually. I had come to the conclusion that I couldn’t merge the two
and I knew that my career was not the important thing. I felt liberated
in a way – I had felt kind of stuck in acting, it was a constant
struggle to find the next job and the people are not always so nice.
There is also the pain of rejection to deal with. It was like I was out
of Mitzrayim all of a sudden!
So how did the Kosher Komic come into existence then?
Well, all the time I was in seminary I would use people’s Shabbos tables as my forum! I used to perform my Glatt Kosher Airlines routine
and it became bigger and bigger. I added in a few random jokes and I
realised I could actually create a clean act that ladies would enjoy.
Once I had perfected the Shidduchim
routine, I began to perform at fundraisers in Israel and had an amazing
response from the women in the audience. After all, Orthodox women have
very limited opportunities for entertainment outside the home – they
don’t watch television or go to the movies – and it’s an area that has
been neglected. I’m bringing simcha to a lot of people and ultimately am achieving all the goals I set out for myself in the past, just in a different way.
Was this leg of your winter tour your first time in London?
No,
I was here in September laying the groundwork for this trip and got to
know Golders Green a bit then. It’s a great community. But I was very
disappointed to find that London Bridge has not fallen down. They’ve been lying to me all this time!
Do you plan on coming back to entertain us any time soon?
Yes,
the plan is for me to do a world tour twice a year – winter and summer
– and I want to include a few London dates each time. I also hope to
get back here for Marion Hermes’ Showcase in June.
In the meantime, how can we get our Kosher Komic fix, Ayelet?
You could come to the States! I’m touring New York, Los Angeles and Toronto next and won’t be back in Israel until April. Alternatively, you could buy my CD – Kosher Komedy Volume 1. Although I only perform in front of women for tznius reasons, there is no singing or anything inappropriate on the CD and men can listen to it. It will shortly be available from Aish Audio for $15 and can be shipped to anywhere in the world. Just visit my website, www.kosherkomedy.com for more information!