In the spirit of Live Comedy Day and April Fool’s Day – both on 1st April – former Stand-Up Comic Ashley Boroda discusses the link between comedy and Jewish culture.
Before stepping into his current role working in communication training and development, Ashley Boroda had a previous life working rooms on the stand-up circuit, performing for The Fed among other Northern venues and teaching comedy skills to others. It all started when he was thrown in at the deep end as a writer on a radio production he’d created: “I wanted to know how funny I actually was, so I decided to try it out.” He was hooked!
Ashley soon discovered that getting comfortable on stage was less about natural talent and more about putting in the hours: “It’s really about confidence and stage time. Once you’ve done enough gigs, it becomes completely natural to stand up and talk to an audience.”
As to where those funny bones come from, it could be argued that a comedic instinct is hardwired into Ashley’s cultural DNA. The link between Judaism and comedy is undeniable, particularly in the United States, and the titanic figures of that milieu were a formative influence for Ashley. Asked who he considers to be the four patriarchs of Jewish comedy, he doesn’t hesitate, respectfully offering their birth names: “Melvin, Alan, Lawrence, and Jerome!” Those being Melvin Kaminsky (Mel Brooks), Alan Stewart Konigsberg (Woody Allen), Lawrence Gene David (Larry David), and Jerome Seinfeld (Jerry Seinfeld) – four men whose contribution amounts to rewriting the entire language of American comedy.
For Ashley, the influence of Jewish comedians on American humour is impossible to overstate: “It’s fundamental. American comedy often sounds like it’s being spoken by Jewish people, even when it isn’t. They set the standard.” Although Jewish people make up around 2% of the American population, their presence among the country’s most celebrated comics – from vaudeville stages right up to the current streaming era – is extraordinary. Ashley’s theory as to why is rooted much as in geography as culture: “Back in the day in places like Brooklyn, where Jewish families were crammed together in shared apartments, they were probably trying to out-funny each other. It became a competitive sport. And when you’re the outsider, you want people to like you – making them laugh is a good way in.”
It’s a theory supported by the success of Seinfeld, still the most-streamed sitcom in history. The show is rarely explicit about its Jewish identity and yet, as Ashley points out, it’s deeply infused with it – the neurotic self-examination, the conversational rhythms, the comedy of minor grievance elevated to philosophical principle – all of it is shaped by that background. Ashley cites one of his favourite facts, an instance of poetic justice: for a long time, Seinfeld was the number one hit in Germany. “What great revenge,” he says. “The Nazis would be furious!”
So, what is it that makes Jewish comedy Jewish? And how might one describe the Jewish sense of humour? Ashley finds it easier to recognise than define: “Cheeky, certainly – a taking of liberties.” There’s no doubt a subversive streak and maybe something to do with the questioning of conventional wisdom. Perhaps part of the answer lies in theology; Judaism is built on commentary and counter-commentary, one view set against another, and every answer opening into a new question: “There’s always another perspective – it’s a dialectic.” That habit of questioning – of holding two ideas at once and finding the friction between them funny – may be the key.
These days, Ashley channels the craft into communications training, teaching business professionals to present using stand-up techniques rather than PowerPoint slides: “My training sessions have replaced my need to do stand-up. It’s still a routine but I get to perform it in front of an audience who aren’t drunk.”
Look out for a night with Comedian Gillian Fischer at Manchester Maccabi this month!
