The man brave enough to mess with El Al security
Instagram star Zach Margs dons multiple Israeli personas in the name of comedy
Louisa Walters is Features Editor at the Jewish News and specialises in food and travel writing
Instagram star Zach Margolin (@zachmargs) will do pretty much anything to make people laugh.
And so he’s spent the past year flitting back and between London and Tel Aviv making brilliantly clever funny videos where he slips into his one of his Israeli alter egos – the taxi driver, the beach waiter, the slimy singleton looking for love, and the El Al security official.
“The security staff at Ben Gurion fully recognise me,” he says. “I’ve become quite good friends with a couple of them and so I thought it was a great content idea to make videos about El Al security. And then, literally the next time I went to Israel after doing it, they were waiting for me. ‘Mr Funny Man. Okay, you think my job is a joke for you,’ and I was like, ‘No, no. You know, I take it quite seriously.’ I was worried they weren’t going to let me in the country, so I explained, ‘It’s not a joke. It’s just comedy.’ And she said, ‘You don’t think I have a sense of humour?’
“I didn’t know what to say, and sort of panicked, but it was all good – and now I make more content every time something happens with El Al I think they do their background research, so it’s become a running joke – like one time they asked me outrageous questions on purpose.”
Zach has been pursuing a career in comedy since he was a little boy watching Only Fools and Horses and Sgt Bilko with his grandfather, who was a stand-up comedian. Having gained 130,000 followers on Instagram over the past year he is now venturing into standup. “We’ve had such a difficult year fighting so much as Jews, we just want that relief, even if it’s just for 30 seconds. My biggest audience is in America and that is the beauty of social media – you’re able to reach the whole world. That’s how my success has happened so fast, because I’m making relatable content for Jews everywhere.”
Next year has big things in store for Zach and he may be coming to perform at a venue near you – and you can read more about him in the next issue of Life magazine (due out in February). In the meantime follow him @zachmargs.
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