Eran Zarhovich: "My mother told me 'my son is the prime minister'" | Israel today

On the evening of June 3, when the Bennett Lapid government was sworn in, Eran Zarchovich sat at home and laughed.

"I began to receive congratulations, as if I had been elected prime minister. Even my mother told me: 'I am the prime minister's mother.' Something happened here that I did not believe would happen, because I did not think he would be prime minister."

Why?

"He did not enter the Knesset and we said goodbye to him. Everyone, including me, was sad that the character was leaving. On the other hand, I told myself that it was time to move on to other characters."

How many years have you been close to Bennett?

"I started working on the character when Noam, my son, was in an easy basket. Today he is 7."

At least now you have a division of the term with Eli Finish, who plays Yair Lapid.

"True, I talked to him about it. But Mariano has done Bibi for years, and in that sense, that clinging is a bit of a barrier for you. Next season Bibi will be less present, naturally, so he will have time for more characters. By the way, as we visited Bibi, so "We will also visit Bennett. He will not have any discounts."

He grew up in Petah Tikva as a nerdy child, "with looks but without abilities," and not everyone liked him.

"I had a teacher, who I probably disturbed, and she said to me, 'Zarhovich,' the problem is you think funny. You don't. 'I hope she's watching me now." 

The Kabbalists in high school did not bother with the funny nerd?

"It's not that I was the poor of the stratum that gets beaten every two days, but let's say I was not the terror of the stratum. There were also people I did not get along well with. "Good for someone, he got me off the bike and beat me."

The boy who was beaten came to the top of comedy and acting in Israel.

Could it be that it all started there?

"Could be. Because if I was cool, tall and handsome, then I would not have the comic side, or maybe I would use it less. When you're funny people - you buy them. You want more of it. And that's what I had to offer. It's not. That I'm bothering to force myself to laugh. "

Zarhovich began working in the field in 2000 at the age of 26 when he edited a satirical animated website called "Nonsense".

Since then, he has managed to reach the top of comedy in Israel with unforgettable imitations in "A Wonderful Land," which will enter the Pantheon.

Unlike most of his peers in the profession, he did not imagine he could make a living as an actor but piles of talent and ambition brought him the highest there is.

"The desire existed, but I was afraid of it. I had members of the Petah Tikva youth band 'Past, Present, Future,' and I even had a friend from there. But I said, 'What, I'll sing? I'll play? I have no courage. Even then "I had the same fears. Will I go and study acting? Will they accept me? Will I be able to make a living from it?"

When did you realize yes?

"At some point you say to yourself, 'Fuck it, life goes by, and I have to do it.' But along the way there was a lot of insecurity and fears."

The full interview tomorrow in the supplement you sat