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Preacher Moss and Azhar Usman
Allah Made Me Funny: The Official Muslim Comedy Tour
- Riverside Studios
- Hammersmith, London
- 7 April 2007
Forget the Vicar of Dibley. These guys prove that religion and comedy
really can mix
Post 9/11, Muslims have had to fight a rash of cultural stereotypes, one of the main ones being: they just ain’t funny. But this American comedy tour, playing tonight to a largely Muslim audience, proves you can’t judge a religion’s sense of humour by one Danish cartoon. And also, more shockingly, that stand-ups don’t need to rely on pissed-up punters to keep the laughs flowing.
The tour’s founder Preacher Moss is an Afro-American who converted to Islam in his teens, and his material centres on his battle to overcome prejudice on two fronts. He tells us about the trials of entering New Zealand as a black man, and of “coming out” to his family as a Muslim. He’s polished and entertaining, but needs a little more bite. Moss has a lot of experience writing for TV, and it shows. There’s too much slickness, and not enough spontaneity.
Preacher Moss in performance
Azhar Usman is a heavily bearded Chicago comic who riffs on his terrorist look (“I’d die for my country....by blowing myself up”). His act is split between in-jokes about the foibles of Islamic culture, and satirical attacks on anti-Muslim prejudice. His subjects – Bush, Bollywood, American phone-in shows – are familiar, but they’re given new life by his blending of light-heartedness with genuine moral anger.
When he gets onto the western media’s negative portrayal of Iranians, Usman reminds you that stand-up isn’t always just about the gags. As black comedians proved in the 70s and 80s, it can also be a powerful mouthpiece for disenfranchised groups.
Comedy over, and Usman checks with Muslims in the audience that his act was “halal”– he’s met with a resounding yes. I don’t know about “halal”, but I do know that I laughed as much as anyone else there. Odd references are lost on non-Muslims, but they’re the exception rather than the rule. You may expect a tour publicised as a way to educate “both Muslims and Non-Muslims about tolerance and acceptance through the vehicle of comedy” to be an honourable but ultimately humourless exercise. Thankfully tonight’s performance shows that, Allah or no Allah, funny is funny and it’s as simple as that.
Hugh Montgomery
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