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brielle Fuerst’s good friends, to her delight, were married just a
few months ago. Leading up to the wedding, they asked her if
she might be interested in putting on a little performance during
the reception, something to entertain them and to jazz up the crowd.

Fuerst knew right away what she would do.

“I could do a weapons demo, if y’all think that’s cool,” she
told them.

And so, at the wedding of her two friends, Fuerst, a martial arts
and self-defense trainer, combined a nunchuck demonstration with
an impromptu dance routine.

Though the content of the performance was certainly unusual,
there’s nothing out of the ordinary in the practice itself. The wedding
shtick, as its known, is a staple of Orthodox Jewish weddings.

“It was really fun,” Fuerst said.

This shtick is distinct from the typical use of the Yiddish
word, meaning a comedic sketch. The wedding shtick is derived
from a Talmudic source, as these things tend to be. From
MyJewishLearning.com: “The shtick custom, it seems, derives from the Talmud’s
mandate to dance and rejoice for a bride on her wedding night. Just
what does this entail? The Talmud gives some examples, including
Rabbi Shmuel b. Rav (Yitzhak) who juggled myrtle branches at
weddings, and Rabbi Acha, who would hoist the bride up onto his
shoulders and carry her around.”
For Estee Ellis, performing the wedding shtick is a way to
transcend buttoned-up strictures of a formal wedding party, and
to express something ineffable about the relationship between the
bride and groom and the performer.

“It’s a really exciting way to celebrate and perform aspects that
are more personal,” Ellis said.

At a typical shtick, Ellis said, the couple will appear beneath
an arch of arms made by guests, just as a warmup. For her own
performance for close friends and family, she’ll repurpose college
T-shirts from the bride and groom’s alma maters, a practice that
she said is fairly typical.

If you’re looking for atypical, you might have wanted to see
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Estee Ellis performs a wedding shtick
SIMCHAS Courtesy of CJ Studios
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM



Ellis and her friend do a medley from Fiddler on the Roof as they
danced with felt bottles velcroed to their heads, in reference to the
now-married couple’s love of sitting on the roof.

Back when she was a student at Torah Academy, Ellis oft en
performed comic roles in the musical productions, which has
prepared her for the spectacle she makes of herself as part of the
shtick. But it’s all worth it for the newlyweds’ enjoyment, she said. And
if performing the shtick on your own sounds daunting, have no fear.

“Th e best kind of shtick,” Ellis said, “is the kind where you can
invite other people to create it also.”
Melissa Meyers fi rst heard about wedding shtick aft er she
became more religious in college. She’s come to love the tailor-
made fun of it, the joy it brings to a wedding party.

She’s seen friends who do more or less the same performance
at every wedding, and as fun as that is — who doesn’t want to see
someone eat fi re in a hotel ballroom? — she tries to personalize
her own performances.

When a medical school friend was married, she and other
classmates dressed up like other friends and co-workers, and acted
out the frenzy of a hospital when a patient has a heart attack.

Wedding shtick was always a part of Rena Asher’s Jewish
world. But now that she’s reached the age when friends are getting
married, her connection to the practice has deepened. Rowdy
dancing and costumes are typical of her experience of the shtick,
but she recently had the opportunity to do something new.

Asher had seen former Akiba Hebrew Academy classmates don
the school’s cougar mascot costume, but only recently got to put
on the costume herself. Th ough she only put on the head, there
are more weddings, and perhaps more of the costume, to come. ❤
Rena Asher’s recent
wedding shtick
Courtesy of Rena Asher
Melissa Meyers
(center) taking part
in a wedding shtick
Courtesy of
Melissa Meyers
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