Prankster and comedian Simon Brodkin appears as the first guest of Podcast Against Antisemitism’s second season. In the interview he explained his newfound liberation in speaking about antisemitism and his Jewish identity on stage, among other topics.
Brodkin, who famously handed Theresa May a spoof P45 when she was PM and lobbed golf balls with swastikas on them at Donald Trump, explained how his outlook has changed since the days when he used to play characters such as wide boy Lee Nelson: “I was sort of hiding behind those characters because I was never quite comfortable in my own skin and that’s been a really cool journey for me talking about things that are close to my heart…my Jewish identity is something that I’ve been open about and talking about and of course, with every bit of Jewish identity, you only have to go one, two, three generations back until you get some antisemitism, and sadly that’s ingrained very much in our culture.
“My grandma escaped from Nazi Germany and I will not be alone with that. And I started bringing that to the table, bringing that to the stage, and it’s been joyous for me.”
This is despite being on the receiving end of anti-semitic pile-ons on social media. Politician David Duke caused one of the pile-ons. "He outed me as a Jew on social media and the pile-on I got after that was insane. It was absolutely mad."
“It was before I was out of character so I felt much more detached from it. I hadn’t made that move into talking about myself so it was sort of one step removed. Since I’ve done stuff on stage as myself, everything feels more personal which is great because you feel like you’re really pouring your heart out in that emotional connection you get, but then if you get some abuse afterward it feels more about you.”
Podcast Against Antisemitism, produced by Campaign Against Antisemitism, talks to a different guest about antisemitism each week. It streams every Thursday and is available through all major podcast apps and YouTube. You can also subscribe to have new episodes sent straight to your inbox.
Previous guests have included comedian David Baddiel, television personality Robert Rinder, writer Eve Barlow, Grammy-Award-winning singer-songwriter Autumn Rowe, and actor Eddie Marsan.
Listen to the podcast here
Watch the full interview below
