Halal and hilarious

Have you heard the one about the Muslim Funny Fest?

The inaugural comedy showcase, a three-day summer event in New York, featured a lineup of more than a dozen comedians all sharing an Islamic faith and a penchant for finding humor in the modern Muslim experience.

But organizers of the July festival didn’t just bring the laughs – they brought big box office, too, selling out every evening of stand-up at the Comic Strip and New York University's Grand Hall.

Buoyed by their success, co-organizers Dean Obeidallah and Maysoon Zayid are already talking about a second Muslim Funny Fest next summer. And they're even considering taking the show on the road.

“We’re plotting a tour. I think it’d be great to take it to DC, San Francisco and Dollywood, Tennessee,” says Maysoon, adding that she would like to add one of the funniest stand-up comedians ever to the 2016 lineup.

“My goal for next year’s Muslim Funny Fest is to get Dave Chappelle to perform,” she says of the comic and actor who converted to Islam in 1998.

“PUSHBACK AGAINST BIGOTRY”

For Obeidallah and Zayid, the Muslim Funny Fest was a pushback against bigotry and Islamophobia and a way to peel away misconceptions about whether there’s room for humor in Islam.

“How many times have you seen Muslims in American media be funny? You might see Aasif Mandvi on ‘The Daily Show,’ but how many times do you see Muslims laughing at themselves?” Obeidallah asks. “I’ve performed in Saudi [Arabia], Egypt, Jordan and the biggest laughs you get are about Arab culture and Muslim culture. On some level, you’re joking about Islam, but we’re just having fun, and the audience loves that.”

Not to be confused with an Arab comedy showcase, Obeidallah stressed that the uniting factor in the Muslim Funny Fest was religion, not ethnicity.

“We reached out to the South Asian community, to African-American Muslim comedians, and we had a real cross-section,” he says. “Most people don’t know a third of Muslims in America are actually black. There's a diversity.”

Comedian Preacher Moss, who performed at the Muslim Funny Fest, is himself black and Muslim, and has joked wryly about the combination. “The United States is scared of two things,” says Moss. “Black people and Muslims. I’ve got the best of both worlds.”

Together with fellow Muslim comedians Azhar Usman and Mohammed Amer, Moss formed the trio Allah Made Me Funny in 2004, which played 53 shows in North America one year.

Moss, who has written for Damon Wayans and George Lopez, remembers that first year with Allah Made Me Funny when the troupe had its debut at Toronto’s Yuk Yuk’s Comedy Club. Muslim audiences, who were there for the sold-out show, inquired about where they could pray. Toronto comedy impresario Mark Breslin opened up one of his venues to be used a faith center.

“He covered up all the liquor, and people were laying down on hand towels on the floor to pray,” Moss recalls. “That’s really how it started.”

In the years since, Moss says he can see commercial opportunities for Muslim entertainers blooming.

Grammy Award-winning rapper T-Pain, CNN journalist Fareed Zakaria and NBA hall-of-famer Shaquille O'Neal are all notable Muslims in show business.

Maysoon was encouraged by the turnout at the Muslim Funny Fest.

“The feedback from the Muslim community has been wonderful,” she says. “After all the hate we are subjected to in mainstream media, it makes sense that Muslim audiences would like to laugh for a change.”

As for the chances of landing a comedy megastar like the reclusive Chappelle?

“I totally have faith that it’s going to happen,” she says.

© Copyright SalaamGateway.com 2015