Ayelet the Kosher Komic

Ayelet Newman
Born
Ayelet Ben Hur

Long Island, New York
NationalityAmerican
OccupationStand-up comedian
Websitekosherkomedy.com

Ayelet Newman, known by the stage name Ayelet the Kosher Komic,[1] is an Orthodox Jewish female stand-up comedian. She discontinued her acting career and began performing "kosher comedy" to women-only audiences after becoming a baalas teshuva (embracing Orthodox Judaism) in the early 2000s.[2] In 2003 she moved to Jerusalem.[3] She performs both in Israel and internationally.[4]

Biography

Born Ayelet Ben Hur,[5][6] she grew up in a secular Jewish family in Long Island, New York.[2] After high school, she moved to Los Angeles to audition for roles in TV and film. Among her acting credits are an HBO series, a Lifetime TV movie, and a bit part in the 2003 film The Hebrew Hammer.[2][3][6] She also performed stand-up routines on Comedy Central and at the New York Comedy Club and The Improv.[3]

Her career took a 180-degree turn when she began attending Torah classes at the Los Angeles branch of Aish HaTorah, an Orthodox Jewish outreach organization. As she embraced a Torah-observant lifestyle, she quit acting and began performing what she calls "kosher comedy" – stand-up routines that are devoid of off-color humor, vulgar references, cursing, and personal attacks, but that instead focus on the humor in daily life.[7][2][8] She also stopped performing in front of men, but plays to female audiences exclusively.[7][2]

Welcome to Glatt Kosher Airlines. Our pilot and co-pilot will be taking time to pray Mincha and Maariv [the afternoon and evening prayers]. You're asked to pray with extra devotion at this time since no one will be flying the airplane.

Ayelet the Kosher Komic, "Glatt Kosher Airlines"[5]

Her hour-long show for Orthodox women and seminary girls includes stand-up routines on topics such as modesty, dating, dieting, kosher laws, Jewish prayer, motherhood, and malapropisms in Hebrew.[3][9][10] While most of the show is rehearsed, Ayelet does some improvisation.[4] Her signature routine is a pre-flight safety briefing on the fictional "Glatt Kosher Airlines", in which passengers receive emergency instructions such as: "Should there be, God forbid, a rapid change in cabin pressure, a book of psalms will fall from the panel above your head".[7] "Please say your own tehillim [psalms] prior to assisting the small child, elderly passenger or recent baal teshuvah seated next to you".[2]

She has produced the comic audio CDs It's a Frum Frum Life and Life in Israel.[1]

Personal

Since she started her comedy career in the Orthodox Jewish world as a single woman, Ayelet was reluctant to reveal her age to media sources lest it limit her marriage opportunities.[7] She has since married a full-time kollel student[4] and is the mother of 9 .[11]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b Rosenberg, C. (11 March 2014). "Tickle My Funny Bone". Mishpacha. Retrieved 28 February 2015.
  2. ^ a b c d e f Birkner, Gabrielle (11 March 2005). "Frum and Funny". The Jewish Week. Retrieved 28 February 2015.
  3. ^ a b c d Stern, Leah B. (19 January 2005). "Kosher Komic Does It Her Way". The Jerusalem Post. Archived from the original on 2 April 2015. Retrieved 28 February 2015.
  4. ^ a b c Branfman, Varda (12 March 2014). "Igniting the Jewish World With Laughter". The English Update. Archived from the original on 12 October 2014. Retrieved 28 February 2015.
  5. ^ a b Chabin, Michele (31 March 2005). "For Women By Women". Sarasota Herald-Tribune. pp. 4E – 5E. Retrieved 28 February 2015.
  6. ^ a b "The Hebrew Hammer (2003) Full Cast & Crew". Internet Movie Database. 2015. Retrieved 28 February 2015.
  7. ^ a b c d Berman, Daphna (28 January 2005). "A Jew, an Orthodox Jew and an ultra-Orthodox Jew meet at a club..." Haaretz. Retrieved 28 February 2015.
  8. ^ Gelbwasser, Michael (5 March 2011). "Have You Heard the One About the Kosher Comedian?". Sharon Patch. Retrieved 28 February 2015.
  9. ^ Pine, Dan (18 February 2005). "For Women Only: Orthodox comedian keeps jokes clean and kosher". Jweekly.com. Retrieved 28 February 2015.
  10. ^ Lambert, Josh (20 May 2014). "Comedy Isn't Kosher, But It Can Be Funny". Tablet. Retrieved 28 February 2015.
  11. ^ "Kosher Komedy". kosherkomedy.com. Retrieved 28 February 2015.