When people hear that Uri Banai will star in the new season of "Nice Butterfly," 17 years after the mythological show went off the screen, the first question he encounters is whether he is about to embody the snail in me, or whether he will step into Dudu Zer's mustachioed shoes.
"I'm asked straight away, 'Wait, so you'll be in my seat? Are you Dudu?'" He smiles.
"People are confused and do not exactly understand, but I had great presenters on the show, and I did not come in anyone's shoes. Not to be a foreign uncle and not to be Uzi Hitman. I am Uri Banai, and I came to give of myself what I can give. I sing, says Stories and deep interaction with the puppets. "
This coming Sunday morning (7:30, here educational) the new season of one of the most successful children's programs in the history of television in Israel will be launched.
A program that since the eighties has grown on her and her songs whole generations of young viewers, led by presenters who became part of the collective consciousness of everyone who was then a child: Zer, the late Hitman, Ofra Weingarten, Efi Ben Israel, and even the late Ofra Haza.
What's new in the current butterfly incarnation?
Ninet Tayeb renewed the opening song, which was originally recorded by Ilanit, and alongside Banai will be directed by Meshi Kleinstein, singer Esther Rada and actor Ben Yossifovich.
As usual, the show, shot in a new studio designed in the style of the memorable set, will include stories, corners, original songs (from Jonathan Geffen to a bunch of cloud on a stick), along with updated performances of timeless hits, such as "That's How the Color Was Born."
"Nice Butterfly has a bit of a sucks concept, and we've already talked to each other about the possibility of changing that next season," Banai Marzin.
"After all, there are always two presenters on the show - son and daughter. Like a taboo. That's why I got to collaborate with Meshi and Esther, who are amazing singers and actresses, but Ben and I don't meet at all. Too bad, because he is a star."
In the new version of "Nice Butterfly", with Meshi Kleinstein, Esther Rada and Ben Yossifovich.
"All the dolls have retained their energy, as before," Photo: Courtesy here Educational
And maybe the real stars are the puppets in general, who have kept their place in the show.
The turtle's egg, the snail's captive, the goose goose and the chick nolly.
The puppets who operate and dub them are almost all left: Ami Weinberg returned to do Betz, Ayelet Levin returns to Noli, Jill Ben David returns to the character of Shavei, and the place of Irit Shilo, who operated Oza, was taken by Meital Raz (who played in the series and play "Michael" ).
"This is not my first job with dolls," Banai explains.
"I once did something small for 'Sesame Street,' with the Abigail doll. There are many aspects to working with a doll, such as how to touch it. It should be treated, not a person standing a meter away from us and operating it. I feel it comes naturally to me. If I do the "It's good, the child who watches forgets that it's a doll, and is really drawn to the story. That's the challenge."
The four dolls always had a focused character. How much have you maintained that base?
"The puppets retain the energies just like in the old programs. Shabi and Oza are the energetic ones in the bunch. Shabi is so funny, and Oza is a devil. "Not so understanding, a little melancholy. In the end, the dolls stayed young forever."
One doll was dropped from the comeback: that of the penguin Pengi, played by the veteran actress Galia Yishai, who died a year and a half ago. On them is the oversized doll, with the shrill voice, fearful.
"I do not know what made the production not include Pingi, and I also do not remember too much of this character, I was an adult when she joined," Banai evades.
"Besides, this is not an Israeli animal. How do you want a penguin to survive in Israel?"
How much did you grow up on "Nice Butterfly"?
"I watched it at the time because everyone was watching. That's what they gave on TV. Today I have a lot of fun doing the instruction as a father. My little Jonathan, 6, heard me at home rehearsing the songs and also came to the set. He already knows everyone, and is very excited about it. ".
Can the program still speak to the Internet generation?
"Today children have plenty to choose from, and they see everything. Instinctively, parents try to direct their children to watch what they saw and loved for themselves as children. 'Nice butterfly' is a great solution because we allow parents to tell the child 'let's see something I grew up on.'
"The new version is adapted for today's TV, with all sorts of effects you see on screen while singing, for example, or the updated language and fast pace. When we were kids there was only one channel. We didn't even need a remote because there were no stations to fiddle with."
Dudu Zer in the original "Nice Butterfly", Photo: From the show
• • •
Banai (52) was sucked into television as early as the mid-1970s, when he was barely 6 years old and suddenly found himself participating in the mythological show "A Moment with Dudley" alongside Shlomo Nitzan and Tzipi Moore.
"I was in first grade, at my Jonathan's age. The educational studios were located in Ramat Aviv, and the producers approached elementary schools in the area, found out with the educators which of the children had acting talent. That's how I was cast."
Banai participated in a segment in which Moment and Dudley dramatize the story of Eliezer and the Carrot.
In another episode he played a sick child.
"It was my first time in a TV studio, in front of cameras, doing it myself. A defining moment."
As a descendant of the eternal aristocratic family of culture and entertainment in Israel, it was natural that he too would find himself in the profession.
His family tree is respected: he is the son of the pale tracker Gavri Banai, the grandson of the late Meir Eliyahu Banai, a mythological jade in the Mahane Yehuda market in Jerusalem. His uncles are the late actors Yaakov, Chaim and Yossi and the retired judge Yitzhak Banai.
His cousins include the late Meir, Ehud, Eviatar, Orna and Yuval. Add the generation of their children, the singers, Noam and Elisha, and the younger brother of Uri himself, the singer Boaz Banai - and you were probably confused a long time ago.
Even before he weaned himself from the diapers, Banai starred in the gossip columns, when the divorce battle between his parents spilled into the headlines.
His mother, Orna, left their home in Tel Aviv when he was less than a year old, and he remained in his father's care - with visits from his mother.
In his childhood (on the right), with his male father, the late uncles Yaakov and Yossi, and his cousin Yuval, Photo: From the family album
Gavri married a year later with Daphne, his wife to this day, who raised little Uri.
The couple has two children: Jasmine (50), a social worker, and Boaz (44).
In the meantime, Orna repented, started her own family and moved to Bnei Brak.
Once a month, until the age of 13 or so, Uri is required for a check-up, as part of the vision arrangements, and according to him, the sharp transitions from life with his father in the shadow of bohemia to weekends in the ultra-Orthodox environment - are deeply engraved in him.
"As a child it was not a simple, challenging and very confusing affair. I would come to visit my mother in Bnei Brak, and I always felt that I did not belong to this community. They had a hard time accepting anything like me, and children can be cruel. I was dressed differently, I did not always "The customs or I understood them. They did not accept me because I was different. I was strange in their eyes."
How is your relationship with your mother today?
"Mom and I are in a good relationship, to this day. She meets the grandchildren. She is still a religious woman. I do not remember their divorce at all, because in the end Dad remarried immediately, and that is how my mother actually raised me."
Were you angry with your mother in those years?
"I do not think I was angry, even though you know, sometimes a child does not accept everything that happens around him. I remember it as a challenging and confusing situation, but in retrospect it did not make me scratch too deeply."
He was born to one of the most famous and beloved entertainers in the country.
The Pale Tracker trio - along with Shaike Levy and Israel (Polly) Polyakov (who died in 2007) - was then in full swing, and little Uri would often accompany Dad to work.
"I would go with him to performances and rehearsals. Think of everyone who worked with the tracker in those years - Naomi Shemer, Yossi Banai, Yair Rosenblum, Asi Dayan. I saw everything up close.
"On my 7th birthday Dad said to me, 'I'm shooting a movie, and I'll take you to the set. We need to sleep there, so pack a bag.'
It was July 4, 1976, the day of Operation Entebbe. "
In fact, you came to the set of "Givat Halfon does not answer."
"Great birthday present, but as a kid I was not aware that I was witnessing the creation of something historical, and it also did not interest me so much. For me, it was hot and sandy, and a bit boring. "That I can give Dad peace, they sent me with Arie Moscone to fish, we were both alone at sea. It was fun."
The humor of the trackers is still relevant, in your opinion? Does today's generation connect to it?
"What the trio did is still relevant. Keep talking about it and singing its wonderful songs. When there is a big political or social event, you suddenly remember a track of the tracker that connects terribly to what is happening. I get a lot of those on WhatsApp. Schools do graduation parties with tracker songs, and sometimes I'm invited to stay. "
• • •
Like Forrest Gump, Banai has passed between some of the most prominent milestones in Israeli culture.
As a high schooler, for example, he was a member of the Tel Aviv youth band, which held a weekly corner on "This is it!"
"They once did a chapter for Hanukkah. Moni Moshonov and Gidi Gov played Matityahu and King Antiochus, and Greek soldiers were required to stand behind them with a hat and spear. I received a line of text there: 'Matityahu, please bow before the statue.' But then Mooney improvised something that surprised me and made me laugh live.
"I learned a lesson from this: that an actor should always be ready. You can not know what will happen in the hall. I was once on stage at a performance of 'Spanish Orchard', and suddenly screams from the hall. A woman gives birth, but has to continue the show. But in 'This is it!'
"I was too young, and I was not ready. I apologize to Moni for that part."
In the army he served in the Central Command band, and in his last days in uniform he has already participated in rehearsals for the first Israeli youth drama, "A Matter of Time," which has been broadcast educationally since 1992 for four seasons.
"It was the first time I walked down the street and people recognized me. I was familiar from TV," he recalls.
From there he went on to study acting at Lee Strasberg's school in New York, and when he returned to Israel he heard about auditions for a new series.
Looking for an actor to complete the cast.
In New York I lived in the Chelsea neighborhood, which is a stronghold of the LGBT people, and I had a couple of neighbors in the building who I took their talk to, along with everything I saw in the gay clubs. It was very fresh in my head, All kinds of characters from the street in New York. "
In Channel 2's prime time, Iggy's Builder had a colorful gay figure outside the closet, who was not ashamed of who he was.
One scene on the beach is considered the first time that men were seen kissing in a drama series on Israeli television.
Banai and Avshalom Polak's lips touch each other for a moment, until the photo is smeared with effect to the beach.
In nineties terms it is considered bold.
"There was some Channel 2 dialogue with Ethan Fox, because it was impossible to show a kiss like that, right inside. The effect that was broadcast was a compromise that was agreed upon. To parents or friends and say 'this is who I am'.
"A lot of people from the community have approached me over the years and told me that Iggy's role has helped them get who they are and come out with it. When people tell an actor how much he has helped them - it's a huge added value."
Have you also encountered negative reactions?
"At first there were those who said to me, 'You should not do this,' 'If you play gay, you will not be allowed to do other things.' "He used to make a very colorful gay man, like I did Iggy, and Abutbul is the best man he can be."
To complete the nostalgia of "Florentine", Banai recently put on, together with Nir Friedman and Karin Ophir, a stage performance with songs from the series' soundtrack.
"We've done a few shows in the last two years, and it's cool to Allah. I'm constantly doing singing and acting projects. A year ago, in Corona, I released a new song, 'Willigama,' which I wrote about a surfing trip in Sri Lanka, and I'm now working on another song. A single here and there without the pressure of an album. "
In the days of "Florentine".
"Enormous added value", Photo: Moshe Shai
In 2000, Banai felt the taste of the sweet playlist - and his taste is still on him from yesterday.
That same year he released a debut album, "Butterflies," which was an impressive success and earned him the title of Discovery of the Year in the charts.
The theme song, "Butterflies," raced to fourth place in the annual parade, and "Wedding Invitation" became a popular canopy song.
Then it stopped.
"I definitely had the second album Syndrome. 'Sailing in the Imagination' (which was finally released in 2008; N.W.) was less successful and less well known.
I did not attach importance to it, because I was then mainly concerned with the stage and the theater.
Today I can put out a song when it flows to me. "
• • •
For the past six years, he and his father and brother Boaz have been running "These are the Builder," a joint show in which the three of them talk about the family and the way it unfolded to conquer the world of entertainment.
"In the show, Dad tells how his brother Yaakov would go to the Zion Cinema in Jerusalem, with groups of blind people. He would impersonate a blind man to go to plays with them. Our family is a special story, and Dad tells everything, with the songs and piyyutim and characters of Jerusalem."
Aren't there moments when you're a little tired of being a builder?
"And if I'm tired, can I do something about it? Obviously there are parts where it's less nice. Vote.
"On the other hand, Ehud Banai was my guitar teacher when I was 13. After four or five lessons, he said to my father: 'Listen, Uri has learned everything, he knows chords, and from here he has to take it forward on his own.'
"So I started sitting a lot with Meir, my cousin. We are both alone with guitars, writing all kinds of funny songs together. Although Ehud taught me, but I learned a lot from Meir. Also in terms of how he treated the guitar.
"When I was 15-14, I also drummed a bit. Yuval Banai and Shlomi Bracha were soldiers then, and they formed a band in the army. One day they scheduled a performance on Purim at some base, but their drummer was sent to the front or something, and could not perform. I had drums at home "So they said to me, 'Come on, save us.'
In 2017, Meir died after a battle with cancer, at the age of 55. "I admit that at first I was not completely connected to the last album he made ('Hear My Voice' from 2007; N.W.).
It was only after he passed away that I reopened the album and listened to all the marvelous melodies he had written for the piyyutim.
This is a great album, which just reminds me today how much we all miss and grieve this loss.
"Meir went so early, so young. I'm sure he would have written a lot of other good songs. Too bad he can not see how everyone loves his songs. I'm not sure in real time he understood that. You know, maybe he sees from above ".
Meir's death flooded your anxieties in the end?
"My grandmother says, 'The far one is getting closer.'
The late Meir, Eviatar and Ehud went deep into religion. Did it affect the connection between you?
"The Banai family, still in its roots, was a traditional family. True religious - but never fanatical. There was always a tradition, and everyone took it in their own direction. Even within religion there are differences. For example, Eviatar is not as religious as Ehud is religious. Eviatar moved to Jerusalem "So we meet at family celebrations and events. Eviatar and Orna's father, Judge Yitzhak Banai, lives in Jerusalem. My father lives in Tel Aviv, and it is already difficult for them to meet so often. We try to keep in touch."
• • •
Two decades ago, Banai married actress Lenny Shahaf, the mother of his two older children, Nina and Michael.
They divorced in 2009, and five years later he remarried to Anat Goffman - an actress, director and theater teacher.
The couple has a child together, Yonatan, and they currently live in North Tel Aviv.
"My granddaughter is already 18 and a half years old, is now starting a year of service. She was the chairman of Meretz Youth, and is going to instruct there as part of her year of service.
Maybe when she grows up she will turn to politics, you never know.
It could be a refreshing change in the Banai family.
Michael, 13 and a half years old, in the eighth grade, is sick of the verb, loves computers and computer games.
A typical boy.
"Yonatan, 6 years old, is starting first grade, so it's a very big excitement."
Do you recognize in them the genetic attraction to the field?
I did not see Nina, she is drawn in a different direction. Michael always loved to sing and learn musical instruments, so maybe at a later age it will happen to him.
"I make sure to pass on to them the love of football. Hapoel Tel Aviv has been in my blood since a young age. I was poisoned at the age of 4 by the player Shlomo Vishinsky, who took me to training. He was a friend of Shia Feigenbaum and Jimmy Turk, "They let me kick the ball - and since then I'm burnt. I also stuck with my brother and my sons. Everyone suffers because of me."
You made your short football career in the children's team of Maccabi Tel Aviv.
"We lived in North Tel Aviv, the L. neighborhood, and I really wanted to play as part of a team. Maccabi's children played at the Maccabiah field, near Reading, while Hapoel's children played at Givat Aliya in Jaffa. "With Meir Malika, Jackie Tzarfati and the goalkeeper Itai Aricha.
How did the Corona period affect you?
"Most of my livelihood in the last year came from performances, so personally I had a very difficult time. And it's not just a financial matter. I also missed the applause and meeting with an audience. During the restrictions period I performed in the yards of houses in front of 20-15 people. For free, they were at ridiculous prices. "
What did you think of the attitude towards culture, as revealed then?
"When everything was closed and the artists asked for help, I read talkbacks: 'Who needs the world of culture at all?' It will stay and flourish even if you restrict to performing in the yard in front of a few people. "
Banai was recently in solitary confinement, having returned from a brief private holiday in Berlin.
"My wife reminded me that in the past I had said several times: 'I want to shut myself off for a week, just me and the guitar, without being disturbed and without going anywhere.' So here, I got it. Funny how the world has changed."
nirw@israelhayom.co.il