Laugh... Allah made him funny

Azhar Usman’s Allah Made Me Funny tour has been making positive waves in the US, and now, on November 13, he’s set to have Mumbai laughing

Comedian Azhar Usman’s first attempt at stand-up was a disaster. The second time, he worked up the courage to go to an open mic, in 2001, in Chicago. In Usman’s words it was a “safe room”, meaning that it mostly attracted local singer-songwriters, and only a couple of aspiring comedians, and everyone was supportive. Usman, whose parents migrated to the USA, from India, in the 70s, managed to get a few laughs, and felt he could stick it out in comedy.

Since 2004, Usman, along with Preacher Moss, an African-American comedian, has been part of Allah Made Me Funny, a pioneering Muslim comedy show in America.

The tour, which now includes Arab-American comedian Mohammed Amer, was initially created to serve as a bridge-building tool between Muslims and non-Muslims to address negative stereotypes about Islam and Muslim culture in a post-9/11 world. On November 13, Usman brings his stand-up act to Mumbai. Here are excerpts from an interview with DNA…

You were a lawyer and an entrepreneur. What made you turn to comedy?
I didn’t choose comedy; comedy chose me. At least this is how I feel. I’ve found that my background in law and business has actually been extremely helpful in building a career in entertainment.

What, in your view, is the role of comedy in society?
To make people laugh. If it can make them think as well, then it is good comedy. But comedy itself is about making people laugh, nothing more, nothing less.

How would you define your comedy?
It is very difficult to ask a comic to describe or define his own work. I guess, in an objective descriptive sense, my act is very personal. It is about me, about my childhood, about growing up with an identity that was in flux, and about my thoughts on the world we live in.… Oh, and it’s pretty silly too.

You have said there is a long tradition of humour within Islam…
The humour tradition within Islam goes back to the Prophet Muhammad. He was a man known to smile constantly and one who enjoyed a good joke. Entire volumes exist that describe just about every incident of a joke either enjoyed by the Prophet, or better yet, actual jokes or humourous statements of the Prophet himself. Further, certain companions of the Prophet were particularly noted for their senses of humour, including, for example, a man named Nu’ayman ibn ‘Amr (often referred to as Dahiq an-Nabi, or ‘The Jester of the Prophet’). Against this historical backdrop, Muslim cultures, all over the world, developed their own localised humour traditions. This is not to say that they didn’t have indigenous humour traditions that pre-dated Islam, because they most certainly did, but after Islam’s ideas and faith became predominant in certain parts of the world, then humour traditions faithful to the legal, theological, ethical, and aesthetic boundaries of Islam flourished.

This is true in just about every part of the Muslim world. I would argue that the comedic perspective of Allah Made Me Funny is in some ways contributing toward the expression of an indigenous American-Muslim cultural identity that captures the unique realities of the Muslim diaspora in the West.

When did you start keeping the beard, and why have you stuck to it?
The honest answer is because I fell in love with my shaykh, which caused me to fall in love with the Prophet Muhammad, which caused me to fall in love generally with all of the prophets of God, all of whom kept beards.

There are quite a few Muslim comedians in the US and the UK today. Do you think you have inspired a trend in Muslim comedy? Is it here to stay?
I think it would be arrogant of me to consider myself as an inspiration to anyone, but certainly I agree that we’ve seen a steady increase in the number of comedians coming from Muslim perspectives, not traditionally represented in comedy. I find this extremely heartening, and I welcome this development. I definitely think it is here to stay as a vector, trend, or trajectory in the “entertainment marketplace”, so to speak. But the fact is that only those acts, which have real underlying talent, authenticity that audiences can connect with, and an undying dedication and devotion to the craft of stand-up comedy will have longevity; the rest will be forgotten as quickly as they arose. This has always been the case with so-called ‘ethnic comedians’, throughout the history of stand-up.

What kind of audience do you see at your shows?
We see all sorts of people at our shows, literally from every demographic background and group. We simply expect them to pay attention and give our show a chance.

Thankfully, the majority of people have responded very positively. Seinfeld once said: “Laughter contains thought,” and this is visibly evident in the ways in which audiences respond to, and laugh at different types of comedy material. We certainly hope that people find our comedy material enjoyable, and that they laugh, but hopefully Allah Made Me Funny, doesn’t just make people laugh, but also think.

What took you so long to bring your show to India? Do you plan to bring the Allah Made Me Funny group to tour India?
I would have loved to perform in India sooner, but alas, this was the first invitation that actually worked out. I am just ecstatic that it did. We would absolutely love to bring the full Allah Made Me Funny — Official Muslim Comedy Tour to the sub-continent, with all three core performers. I am confident that Indians of all backgrounds — not just Muslims — will thoroughly enjoy the show.

Do you have a favourite Hindi comedy show or comedian?
My all-time favourite is probably a one-hour comedy album of Moin Akhter’s, and he does this fantastic bit about going to a cricket match for the first time. Hilarious. I haven’t heard it in years though. As for a proper Hindi fillum, I loved the original Don as a kid, which I found to be absolutely hilarious, even though nobody else seemed to think it was a comedy.

r_debjani@dnaindia.net