TV presenter Baz Ashmawy has never been busier, with more TV shows on the go than most people manage in a whole year, as well as a return to live performance. He spoke to Darragh McManus about his hectic life.
Baz Ashmawy is a pretty cool guy. Not only in the sense of being funny, smart, interesting, but his broadcasting style is relaxed, easy-going…in other words, cool.
It's surprising, then, that Baz admits that right now is "a crazy time for me, professionally. Very, very busy, but it’s great."
So what’s he been up to? Well, there’s the Irish version of DIY: SOS (the makeover show presented in the UK by Nick Knowles) that he’s just finished filming; the second series of Wingman that he’s just about to start filming; the documentary series he’s halfway through filming; the stage show he just did in Dublin’s Mill Theatre…oh, and a new charity campaign he’s fronting.
The last involves the long-standing Give Up Clothes For Good campaign, run by TKMaxx for Enable Ireland. Campaign ambassador Baz explains, "It’s been running since 1997 and has raised over €3million, helping 17,000 children, which is amazing. It was a campaign I really wanted to be part of.
"It’s very simple and easy to get involved. Drop off any clothes you don’t wear anymore – maybe can’t fit into! – in a bag at any TKMaxx store. You don’t have to think about it after that. It’s brilliant, the money this campaign is raising."
He’s a "huge fan" of Enable Ireland, who provide vital services for people with disabilities but also support families. Does he feel a responsibility to use his celebrity in a good cause?
"Well, you don’t do it from a worthy point of view," he says, "more the fact that people might listen to someone like me. You can feel pity or sympathy for someone but that doesn’t do anything for them – you have to ask, what can I do to help? So I can be a voice for this."
When we spoke, Baz had just returned from finishing the DIY: SOS shoot in Limerick, and is currently working on a documentary on funerals with his mother Nancy (a far cry from the Emmy-winning 50 Ways to Kill Your Mammy). Last weekend, he made a return to the stage for two nights in Baz Ashmawy’s Family Matters, a comedy show about growing up mixed-race in 1980s Dublin.
"I hadn’t worked on stage in a long time," he says, "and I always wanted to get back there. In one episode of Wingman, I was with Jimmy in Louth who did a play and then a panto, and I just thought, 'Wow – now is my time, I’m just going to do this.’ I kept putting it off but I’m always busy – it’ll never be less busy – so let’s just do it now."
He jokes that Family Matters allows him "to give out about my kids and my family, and off-load my crap onto other people! If nothing else happens, at least I'll be feeling better. Ah no, it’s good fun, it’s funny and entertaining, and you have that immediate interaction with an audience."
Baz grew up in Cairo until he was seven, when he moved to Ireland. At 15, he returned to Egypt for another two years.
He says now, "I’ve a lot of family there and I’m very close culturally to Egypt – it’s a big part of me, I love it. I speak a bit of Arabic and share that with my family. It’s funny, now I’m very much accepted as Irish but growing up I was always slightly different to other kids. There weren’t that many mixed-race kids here in the Eighties! I didn’t feel fully Irish until I was standing in front of the flag, holding an Emmy, and thinking, ‘Oh my God, this is the epitome of Irishness.’
"It’s interesting how your identity changes throughout life. It’s all about a sense of belonging, finding where you belong. You get that from your family and friends, your community, but ultimately your level of belonging can never be greater than your level of self-acceptance. You have to know who you are."
He's worked across several genres, but Wingman is possibly Baz’s finest production yet. The 'make your dreams come true’ show, which begins filming again in April, hits that sweet spot where entertainment meets something more meaningful.
"Wingman has an ideal balance between being enjoyable for viewers," Baz says, "but also doing something important in a practical way. It’s about someone’s passion and how sometimes you just need one person to believe in you. If you can bring that out in them, why wouldn’t you? It can be a tough series to make, but very rewarding, and great fun. I’m really looking forward to doing it again.
"I’m lucky now that I can make the kind of telly I want to make. And as I get older, I feel more that I want to do stuff that matters. Stuff you feel is important, even essential. I like to have fun, but if you can also have a long-lasting effect on someone’s psyche and the way they proceed in their life, even better. That’s brilliant.
"I probably got that from doing 50 Ways… and watching my mum change into an even more positive person, with a new hunger for life. That was kind of life-changing for me, very inspiring. It made me feel good about what we’d done. I didn’t regret anything about it. I’ve done shows in the past that didn’t have the same effect."
Baz has also written a comedy-drama "about a mixed-race guy whose wife dies and he’s raising their Muslim children in Dublin". They’re shooting a few scenes over the coming months, and RTÉ is interested in developing it into a show. He says, with a touch of understatement, "Yeah, fingers in a lot of pies at the moment."
Any chance he might squeeze in a 20th-anniversary reunion of How Low Can You Go?, the gonzo travel show which gave Baz his big break? "It’s an important part of my life," he says, "my first TV show and I’m mad about Mark and Michael. We had such a bond over the years doing that show.
"So I’d love to meet up with the lads again. But whether anyone would want to watch three sad old men is another thing!"
For more information on the Give Up Clothes For Good campaign, visit tkmaxx.ie.
