Bearing it all

Blake Evan Sherman grew up in a family who liked to dish out jokes along with corned beef sandwiches. Those were the days when his parents, Billy and Marlene Sherman, owned Billy Sherman’s Deli in Creve Coeur, a St. Louis institution that they sold in the late 1990s before retiring.

Blake worked at the deli during his high school days at Parkway North, though his real passion was performing. During high school he ushered at the Fox Theatre so he could see shows for free. He got his acting start at the JCC and also appeared in shows at the Muny and The Goldenrod Showboat. After graduating from high school in 1990, he eventually moved to New York where he studied at the American Musical and Dramatic Academy. He continues to live in Manhattan.

This weekend, Blake will be in St. Louis for the 4th Annual Stella Artois QFest, a four-day film festival that showcases an eclectic mix of contemporary gay, lesbian and transgender-themed feature films, documentaries, and shorts. He will introduce and answer questions about the festival’s closing film, “Bear City,’ in which he is featured as the character Melvin. The movie is a “Sex and the City”-like romp (with an emphasis on sex), which centers on a gay subculture of big, hairy, bear-y men and the “cubs” who find them attractive.

Blake isn’t sure who from his family will attend the screening – his parents and three siblings live here, as do nieces, nephews, cousins and the like. But he knows that no matter what, he has an enormously supportive family who have always encouraged him to pursue his dreams.

“My family are been my biggest fans,” said Blake, 35, who in addition to acting, plays in a rock band and performs stand-up comedy. “Waiting tables every weekend and after school was great training to be an actor. It really taught me to be outgoing. Plus, my mother is an incredibly warm, vivacious person who has quite a presence. My dad is a bit of a comedian. He would sit behind the deli’s meat counter and have a joke for everyone.”

Blake, who celebrated his bar mitzvah at Temple Israel, said growing up Jewish definitely has influenced his career. “My core values come from my life experiences and those include a whole lot of humor,” he said. ” My whole family was not in the entertainment business but they were very entertaining. There were always jokes and laughter in my house.”

As for the future, Blake wants to continue to mix up all forms of performance – musical theater, comedy, feature film, TV work, commercials, dancing -and have as diverse a career as possible. Right now however, he is looking forward to spending the first Passover seder with his family where he plans to dig into his father’s home-cooked brisket. Guess you can take the boy out of the deli but you can’t take the deli out of the boy.

Gold opportunity

One of the things I like about Michael Kahn is that he enjoys introducing himself as Jewish Light food columnist Margi Lenga Kahn’s husband. But the truth is Kahn, an attorney, is no slouch in the writing department either, having penned eight novels (his latest is now in the hands of his agent) that feature the character Rachel Gold.

Some of his older Rachel Gold mysteries, which were out of print, are now available as eBooks on Kindle. All should be available in this format by May. In addition, Light readers might enjoy perusing one of his short stories, which won an Ellery Queen Readers Award when it was first published, called “Bread of Affliction.”

This mystery, involving a Passover theme, can be viewed on the Light’s website at www.stljewishlight.com/breadofaffliction for the next few weeks.

Jewish fraternity from Mizzou brings philanthropy event to STL

Since 1913, Alpha Epsilon Pi (AEPi) has been the largest Jewish fraternity in North America, and since 1946, the largest Jewish fraternity on the campus of University of Missouri-Columbia. Every other year the chapter hosts “Rock-a-thon,” a three-day philanthropy event in which a brother from the fraternity rocks in a rocking chair on a stage in downtown Columbia, Mo. for 63 straight hours while all the other brothers scatter throughout mid-Missouri canning at different venues to collect change to support the American Cancer Society. The most recent Rock-a-thon in 2009 raised over $53,000 for colorectal cancer research.

Bryan Weintrop, an AEPi junior at Mizzou from Creve Coeur, explained that because the chapter has grown to more than 100 brothers from roughly 60 in 2009, the fraternity is expanding its canvassing efforts this year outside of Columbia to include Kansas City and St. Louis. So expect to see lots of young guys in black jackets or white T-shirts with “Rock-a-thon” written on them throughout the Chesterfield Valley April 28-30. They’ll be holding cans for donations, hoping you will dig deep and give what you can.