Like fine Manischewitz wine, Alex Borstein just keeps getting better with time. Whether you know her as the animated voice of Lois Griffin on FOX’s “Family Guy” for the past 21 seasons; playing hilarious recurring characters on MADtv; or starring as the tough-as-nails Susie Myerson in Amazon’s “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” she’s that rare actress/comedienne with chutzpah that makes you belly laugh out loud.
Borstein and her multitude of loyal fans have been oh-so-sad that “Maisel” is premiering its fifth and final season on April 14th. (From the moment Jewlish.com readers saw Midge (co-star Rachel Brosnahan) talk to the Jewish butcher in season one, we knew there would be several fun food scenes!)
The good news is that Borstein is debuting her new musical comedy special, “Alex Borstein: Corsets & Clown Suits,” which will stream on Prime Video starting on April 18th!
Jewlish.com talked to Borstein about Shabbat, her favorite Passover food and those unforgettable “Maisel” deli scenes!
Q. Tell us about your very first special!
It’s a deeply personal and wildly fictitious picture of one woman's life after divorce…I've never had a comedy special drop, on any service or channel or anything before. So it's a first and it's terrifying, but exhilarating!
Q. During “Corsets,” you introduce your parents to the audience and mention that your dad was raised Orthodox. Growing up, were you kosher?
Yes, we kept kosher. We had two sets of dishes and all that good stuff. But we were not Orthodox.
Q. During the pandemic, it was absolutely wonderful to see those social media posts where you baked challah, made and sang about matzah balls and matzah brei. Do you still do shabbat with your kids?
Yeah, we do Shabbat and I mean, really, that is how we kind of take a breath and introduce the end of the week and the beginning of the weekend and slow down and light a candle and challah. Really, it's all about the challah. We're all addicted!
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Q. Are you still baking?!
No, no. I baked like once or twice and just realized the reason people are professional bakers and I'm not one of them! We did it to do it, but boy, really hard and just not as delicious.
Q. How important is it as a Jewish mother to teach your kids about Judaism?
Fairly important. My parents are staying with us this week. It's spring break and so we are doing Passover with them. We're totally into it. As you can imagine, it's a bit of a performance with us; my son had his bar mitzvah last year and my daughter's gonna have hers in a couple years. My dad and I are teaching her the Hebrew ourselves and all of the blessings.
So it's very important and I'm into it. It doesn't take the place of other things in our lives. We don't give up other pleasures. We don't, you know, follow any dogma and don't have like a rigorous structure to it, but it's kind of a huge presence. It's always there.
Q. What’s your favorite Passover food?
Haroset! Hands down! I can eat it by the bowlful!
Q. During the special, you also mention falafel sandwiches and Hungarian goulash! Are you a fan of either!?
I am a fan of both! I do love it. My favorite Hungarian dish though is not goulash. My favorite Hungarian dish is called Rakott (casserole) Kaposzta, which is basically it's like sauerkraut or cabbage and meat. It's like a casserole usually with sour cream and stewed tomatoes too and probably not the healthiest thing. There's rice in there too. I love it. It’s like my favorite comfort food. When I'm sick, my mother makes matzah ball soup and Rakott Kaposzta (without the sour cream)!
Q. Audiences loved watching “Maisel” and all those New York City deli scenes with Susie and Midge! Did they bring in Jewish deli meats to get the cast in the mood?!
Yeah, those scenes took place in a real location, it was called Artie’s Deli on New York City’s Upper West Side and it was shut down a few years ago. We used it continuously, they kind of kept it alive so that we could use it as a set.
I love being on that deli set, with all the meat hanging and the black and white cookies. And my favorite thing was at the end of those shoot days, they'd have like 600 extra black and white cookies, and then send me home with at least 50! You know I loved that! It was really fun. I love shooting there.
Q. What’s your favorite food in a deli?!
Pastrami on rye with mustard and then following it up with a black and white cookie!
Get more of Alex Borstein in her new special Corsets & Clown Suits which premieres Tuesday, April 18, 2023 on Amazon Prime Video.
