They should send Nancy to the G20 and she can sort Trump out
50 Ways may have wrapped up but Baz and his Mammy show no signs of easing up
I am expecting a lot from my stag. I am expecting the wheels to come off
BAZ Ashmawy has made a name for himself as a presenter who is not afraid to put himself out there. Through his hit TV series 50 Ways To Kill My Mammy, the mischievous son took his mother on a global conquest, cleverly mixing travel high jinks with family challenges and the travails of a mother and son bond.
He has also embraced social media and his Snapchat views like a reality TV channel, a modern-day Cosby Show with his family as bit players. Garden variety trips to the shops turn into comedy gold although Baz admits that he has no wish to make little stars of his children.
‘I enjoy dressing my kids up,’ he says. ‘The two little ones are like two little dolls so I just dress them up. I have them in leather jackets and tutus and some calamitous clash of clothing. I love that, while my missus is more functional.
‘She would have them in leggings and a tracksuit top and that would drive me nuts, like how can you send them out like that? I think they are the new handbags. I don’t want to turn into the Beckhams but they are cute kids and I like showing them off.
‘Even with the older ones I enjoy shopping with them and we bond over it. Even they slag off my social media because I am all over it.
‘I control it to a certain extent. On Snapchat I use the kids a lot but that is just because I think parenting is funny and if it is a trip to the shop with them it is usually a calamity and it is them running rings around me and I think there is a natural comedy in that.
‘Other parents and dads relate to it and I could see myself one day stopping it. Because they have been asked to do jobs and I haven’t put them forward for that.
‘I wouldn’t let them work in the industry because one of the young fellows was asked to do something recently and I was like, listen pal you can barely handle the ego you have now without me dumping fame on you. So I will keep the fame for mammy.’ Mammy, AKA Nancy, is very much enjoying a new lease of life on the back of the show’s final third series. Along with a group of friends she has gone travelling on her own and is just back for a trip to see the Pyramids. However, she may be about to embark on another adventure as Iran has become the newest territory to embrace the show.
‘Nancy and the show are really big in Iran, I couldn’t believe it. Iran and Australia love the show and go mad for us.
‘In Iran they have gone and dubbed us with these two great comedians who are very popular and it has added to the show.
‘I have seen it and it is weird but a real privilege and I have noticed that I have got some new followers from Saudi and stuff, which is weird but great that the show resonates with so many different peoples and cultures.
‘It is unbelievable how it has crossed barriers, they should send Nancy out to the G20 and get her to sort Trump out.
‘There are certain commonalities you have with people and comedy and family are two important ones and that is what is in the show. Even in a different language it is understood and I am very proud of that side of it.
‘There was never a big master plan. We just made a TV show and hoped for the best and that is now a brilliant benefit. I am dying to go to Iran with Nancy. That would be brilliant to just go and do a few radio and TV chats shows and it would be brilliant and there is a TV show in that alone.
‘She is brilliant and really good and she just went travelling around Egypt there for a while and she was sending me all her snaps; no filter and she hasn’t started using hashtags, thank God.
‘But she has more confidence on the back of it. She has embraced Facebook and shows off to her friends. It is still pictures of four grannies and their heads are cut off and she will get the swing of it someday. But she is living and having a good time and it was a really good experience.’
BAZ is sitting on an inflatable pink flamingo filming a video for his Instagram account as he gets ready to launch a new campaign for outlet giant TK Maxx.
While many of us struggle to pay or accept a compliment when it comes to social media bragging, we Irish are a cut above the rest. TK Maxx and Baz Ashmawy have lifted the veil on Ireland’s social media bragging habits and the results are pretty interesting.
Research revealed that almost two-thirds of Irish adults use social media as a medium to showcase and celebrate achievements, life events, holidays adventures and even their bargain fashion finds.
In total, 62% of Irish people admitted they had bragged on social media, with 42% doing so in the last three months. What’s more, 11% even admitted to boasting on a weekly basis.
‘I love Conor McGregor and he is top of the braggers’ list and he does it with such style as well. There is just no shame’, Baz says.
‘He had a pair of Gucci trainers up there and he was just saying “I like these, I might wear them twice”.
‘That kind of bragging is great. But if you look at Nancy’s generation they frowned about bragging. All their lives they were told don’t brag or show off and God knows what the neighbours will think and you would be labelled up yourself. Now people are proud of their success and if they look good they want to show it off.
‘It is all about what you are into like if you go through my Instagram you can see all the places I have been with Nancy and some of them are just stunning.
‘There are days, and I look back at them and I am looking at the source of the Nile and I just have to stop and take a breath.
‘I remember I was in Ankerwatt in Cambodia and it was a sunset and we were filming and it was stunning but everyone was swarming around taking pictures and you wondered that, in their world, were they even
there if they didn’t have the picture to prove it?
‘It depends on what you are into. I quote like fashion and clothes and my mates take the mickey out of me asking what am I going to wear today. But that is what I am into. I am into clothes and places. I go into TK Maxx a good bit.’
Baz is quick to point out though that reality is the same for everyone. And no matter what filter you like to put on your day to day existence, the universal truth is that kids ground you.
‘Family life is the same for everyone it doesn’t matter who you are. I bet you Kanye has a pain in his backside with the kids. I don’t buy into that theory that people’s lives are different because they are rich and famous. Some celebrities post pictures of how they want people to see them but behind it all everyone is the same.
‘I own an Emmy and then I came home and I did a supermarket shop and a school run and that would knock the ego out of anyone. It was great to win it but it sits on a mantelpiece and it is done and I am onto the next thing. it is trying to be happy in the now, that is the key and I think that is what is important. It is good to be proud of things.’
Two years ago Nancy let slip that her son had finally got engaged to his long-term partner, Tanja Evans. The couple have been together since 2006 and have six children. They are parents to Hannah, Mahy, and Baz is stepfather to Tanja’s four children from a previous relationship, Charlotte, Harry, Jake and Amelia.
When I mention his wedding he sits back in the chair and sort of rolls his eyes. But the mere mention of his stag peps him right up again.
‘My stag? I would like to get that sorted soon. It has been so busy with work and TV projects and I have been in the UK a couple of days a week for the last few months and it is just getting pushed down the line.
‘I need a hole in the diary when we are going to start planning a wedding. We will see.
‘I am expecting a lot from my stag. I am expecting the wheels to come off. Everyone keeps asking me about this clean living. I am clean living at the moment.
‘I am not saying that it is going to be the case forever. I will still have my moments. If I am on a beach I might have a cocktail or a glass of wine with a nice meal. But it is the balance that is working for me.
‘I have drank enough in my life to outdo everyone in this room, so I like where I am at and I have energy for my kids and my work and it is working for me so I am just sticking with me.
‘Maybe for my stag I should call up the lads from How Low Can You Go? I’d love to do another show with them and we could do a show ‘Baz’s stag’.
‘Michael (Hayes the guy with the pig in the Vodafone commercial) and half of Game of Thrones with him.’
A man with many strings to his bow, this summer he returns to RTÉ Radio One for two months to host a late night show. The show will be on air from 10pm weeknights. Baz recently covered for Ray D’Arcy on his afternoon RTÉ Radio 1 show, nearly five years since his weekend breakfast show ended and said he is already excited about being back on the airwaves.
‘It is good to be in radio. It was strange to walk in there but everyone was really nice and high-fiving me and it felt good walking back into RTÉ. And then slipping into Radio One. That was a bit strange and it felt a bit older but I am still a young spot in there which is good for the ego.
‘They are very cool with me and it is just an hour a week for eight weeks. It’s nothing more than that and people were making out that I was taking over radio One. It is just me going in and doing something different and I have the freedom to chat to people and that is great.
‘I do miss Lucy [Kennedy] that is the one thing because we did it all on our own. That is a long time ago although I always have that in the back of my mind that I would love to get another gig with Lucy but it just hasn’t happened yet.
‘But she is busy with kids and work. She has asked me to do Living with Lucy. Again it is a time thing.
‘Like I had a meltdown recently because one of the kids was looking for a kitten. Literally I nearly had a breakdown because I just can’t have another body in the house.
‘So I don’t think I would bring someone into that world but I would love to do it in theory, it would be good banter.’