If you’re British and hear the name Ashley Blaker, you’ll probably start to giggle. Blaker, one of the funniest men in the British entertainment industry who today wears a black hat and has peyos behind his ears, talks about becoming religious in a heavily atheistic medium, and how a Torah life doesn’t have to be humorless.
I’m not sure what an internationally recognized comedy writer and producer is supposed to look like. Long gone are the days when jesters wore motley hats and pointy shoes. But I’m pretty sure the average comedy professional does not look like the slight man with the dark-brown beard and thick peyos tucked behind his ears who shows up to meet me at a Manhattan restaurant wearing a white shirt and a black suit. For a guy who earns his living making people laugh he seems awfully serious.
Ashley Blaker an independent producer for the BBC and other media outlets is here in town for a professional meeting. In fact he’s become a real fan of BoroPark’s 13th Avenue always making time to get there to stock up on kosher nuts and candies baked goods and seforim. But he’s a native ofLondon where he and his wife Gemma are living and raising their five children.
If you’re a frum Jew like Blaker his name probably won’t mean anything to you. Yet in England Blaker is considered king of comedy in the mainstream media first earning renown through a show he created called Little Britain and more recently as creator writer and producer of the side-splitting The Matt Lucas Awards.
All entertainers have their challenges but being religious in the decidedly secular entertainment world has its own unique set of hurdles. Blaker says he’s determined to succeed in both worlds and where his unaffiliated Jewish compatriots are concerned (and the entertainment world has many) he’s determined to try to bridge the gap.
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