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Jamie Elman: Comedian, Actor, Producer, Director, Co-Creator of “YidLifeCrisis”

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Jamie Elman: Comedian, Actor, Producer, Director, Co-Creator of “YidLifeCrisis”



Introduction to Jamie Elman.  1:04 min. Interview: Raymond Elman. Camera: Lee Skye. Videography and production: Marialexia Hernandez.  Recorded: 3/3/2019, The Betsy hotel, Miami Beach.

 

JAMIE ELMAN is an actor, writer, director, producer and musician. He has appeared on some of television’s most acclaimed series including Mad Men, Curb Your Enthusiasm, and House M.D. and for three seasons of NBC’s critically lauded drama American Dreams. His breakout role was Cody on the FOX/YTV teen sitcom Student Bodies.

Along with Eli Batalion, Jamie co-created the award-winning Yiddish web series YidLife Crisis, which has over 3 million online views and four prestigious Canadian Screen Award nominations, including Best Actor and, two years in a row, Best Digital Series. As ‘comedy peacekeepers,’ YidLife regularly performs live all over Canada, the US, Europe and Israel, and has twice been named to the Slingshot Guide as one of the Top 50 Most Innovative Jewish Organizations in North America. Jamie recently starred in the Toronto production of the play BAD JEWS, his third run of that show in 3 years.

Career film highlights include California Dreamin’ (Grand Prix, Un Certain Regard, Cannes Film Festival), When Nietzsche Wept (portraying a young Sigmund Freud) and the series finale of beloved Canadian drama Bomb Girls. Voice work includes animated Disney blockbusters Wreck-It Ralph and Frozen. He co-created and starred in the web series crazy/sexy/awkward for Fremantle Media, which was acquired by Howie Mandel.

A native of Montreal and graduate of McGill University, Jamie is a pianist and singer who has recorded with Ben Harper, Natalie Maines and Rickie Lee Jones, and plays most Monday nights for the last decade at The Varnish cocktail bar in his adopted hometown of LA.

— yidlifecrisis.com

The videos below are organized by topic and run between 1 minute and 8 minutes. Click on any video. You must be connected to the Internet to view the videos.

 

A RECENT EPISODE, “AN ANTICEMENTISH EPISODE”:  7:55 min.




 

 

CREATES A UNIQUE PERSONAL BRAND:  7:27 min.




What is your religious background? What was your thought process regarding combining humor with the presentation of orthodox Jewish practices of a community that takes itself very seriously?

 

CREATES A UNIQUE PERSONAL BRAND:  4:01 min.




Describe the audience for YidLife Crisis.

 

EXPOSURE TO BROAD INFLUENCES:  5:32 min.




How do you develop your stories? Do you annotate the bible to cull an infinite list of material?

 

SEIZES OPPORTUNITIES:  1:10 min.




Are we in the midst of a Yiddish Renaissance?

 

UNDERSTANDS THE AUDIENCE’S PERSPECTIVE:  1:44 min.




Watching YidLife Crisis in Yiddish with subtitles makes sense to me because we have been watching foreign language films with subtitles forever. So why not watch stories in Yiddish, which may be the most expressive and onomatopoeic language in the world?

 

SEIZES OPPORTUNITIES:  5:47 min.




Describe the odyssey of your blend of online video material and traveling live performances.

 

CREATIVE FLEXIBILITY: 2:42 min.




It sounds like you could produce YidLife Crisis episodes forever. Do you have ideas about things you’d like to do in other realms?

 

STRONG DRIVE FOR ACHIEVEMENT:   2:06 min.




What doors has YidLife Crisis opened for you?

 

 

UNDERSTANDS ARTISTS’ NEEDS:  1:55 min.




YidLife Crisis seems to be all-absorbing from a time perspective. How do you manage other projects and opportunities?

 

 

UNDERSTANDS THE BUSINESS OF ART:  1:57 min.




You’re monetizing YidLife Crisis by selling tickets to live performances. I assume you are also selling display ads for your website. Do you have somebody who is actively trying to sell advertising for you?

 

 

COMMUNITY VALUES:  1:30 min.




ArtSpeak is part of a bid to the Doris Duke Foundation to put together programs to build bridges between Muslim and non-Muslim art communities. You would be an outstanding contributor, regarding how to humanize what people see as a very rigid religion.