Issue: 20 April, 2012

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NO LAUGHING MATTER

Comedy is a serious businessBy Riaz Naqvi

Friday, April 13, 2012

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Arab-American stand-up comic Aron Kader on why he thinks a senseof humour could be your most positive personality attribute

Some people need to lighten up. Comedy Central’s smash hit Axis of Eviltour made waves across the world as a response to anti-Muslimsentiments that had been sweeping the West in the wake of 9/11. AronKader made his name as the Palestinian-origin member of the troupe, andwas recently in Dubai to help the local comedy scene in the buzzingemirate, in partnership with comedy school Dubomedy. He sat down withwknd. to share his thoughts…

Your parents both came from veryconservative backgrounds. How didyou grow up with that and end updoing what you do?

I had very liberal parents. Mygrandfather was the first Arab, andMuslim, to move to Utah nearly acentury ago. He actually fought forAmerica in World War I. My dad grewup on a farm in Utah. Mormons arevery nice people, really polite, but theyall want to convert you! Ever watchedThe Simpsons? Think of Ned Flanders

— that’s like the whole of Utah. Conservative to the core. My mom camefrom that kind of background, so my dad had no choice but to convert toMormonism so he could marry her. In 1950s America, you didn’t want tobe an ethnic minority, and my dad wanted to fit in.

My background and cultural heritage is a very deep well of water that I candrink from, for jokes, material, intellectual pursuits… everyone’s got theirown story and it’s important to remember: someone always took a chancefor us to be where we are.

What was the moment when you realised “I want to make peoplelaugh for a living”?

I went to the Groundlings, a legendary sketch school that has producedWill Farrell, Pee wee Herman and a lot of legendary comedic actors. Inacting school, even when I was doing Shakespeare, I knew I wanted to docomedy. While I was going to classes and training there, I started doingstand-up.

Did your time in theatre help shape your comedy?

Big time. Sometimes the funniest things come out of the most seriousmoments. Have you heard the kind of jokes doctors make? Their sense ofhumour is very dark — what the British refer to as ‘Gallows humour.’Doctors have to make jokes to stop themselves getting too morbid. If youcan make someone laugh in the most serious situations, it shows a kind ofhumility, that you can respect life. Going to drama school, doing seriousthings — it actually made me funnier.

Being an American of Arab origin, a huge part of your discourse isabout Arab culture. How did you come up with the concept of Axis ofEvil?

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The three of us were all independent performers at the Comedy store inLos Angeles. The owner of the club one day said to us “you guys are allMuslim and Arab — you should do a show together.” When I started out incomedy, I wondered if I could ever do a show just for a Middle Easternaudience. I was the only Arab comedian I knew, until I met Ahmed Ahmedand Maaz. The owner of the club insisted we do shows together:“Nobody’s going to come at first, but just keep doing it.” We started aweekly themed show called Arabian Nights in 2000.

By 2004, we decided we needed a name for ourselves; George Bushobliged!

Have you had any audience problems during a show, post-9/11?

We did. Someone phoned in a bomb threat before a show in San Diegosoon after 9/11: “If you do this show, I will bomb the club.” When the clubcalled the owner, she was adamant that it goes ahead. You had to standup for yourself. If someone shouts something racist, they’re not reallyracist — they don’t know the difference between a Palestinian and aPakistani! If someone shouts something abusive about Arabs, I just thinkthey’re not being entertained enough. I need to write funnier jokes.

So you use abuse as motivation to improve your material?

My first priority is to be funny. Audiences won’t necessarily know anythingabout Arabs, so I’m not going to get offended.

After the Arab Spring, do you think more audiences in the West areseeing this region differently now?

I don’t know about that, but there’s definitely huge pressure on an Arabcomedian to comment on what’s going on in current MiddleEastern affairs.

Who gives you that pressure?

I put it on myself, mainly. If I don’t comment on it, who will? As Arabcomedians, we have a different political perspective of what’s happeningin the Middle East. I consider it my job to share that, while entertainingpeople.

You’ve been making a lot of fun of rap and hip hop recently. Why?

Rap music used to communicate the issues African-Americans faced intheir communities; it was the voice of the disenfranchised. Now, it’s allpopping champagne in clubs. If you enjoy that, fine, but claiming it’s still‘socially relevant’ is pretentious.

So you might say it’s gone a bit stale. You’re an entertainer too —how do you combat staleness in your material?

When I first started comedy, I would try any joke. Now, I need to makesure it fits in my standards, my act and even my ‘comedy’ voice, whichevery comic develops over time. As an artist, if you aren’t growing as aperson, your work will go stale. Look at Russell Peters — he’s been doingcomedy for 22 years and he’s mastered the art of stand-up. He’s beenable to evolve. I’m a very different kind of person to Russell, though. Ihave an axe to grind with the whole Palestinian-American thing.

On stage, where do you think the balance lies between pre-preparedmaterial and working with the crowd?

I think people have paid money to see my material, and that takesprecedence. In stand-up, sometimes we go into the audience to cover upif we lose our train of thought. Some comedians have a natural gift forcrowd work — and people love being part of the show. For me, I feel like Ihave too many other things to talk about and my own strengths lie inthose. If someone heckles me though, that’s an invitation forimprovisation. I go a lot by an audience’s reaction.

As an American, do you enjoy British humour?

Top Gear, Ricky Gervais, Monty Python… I love it. I like the way Britsexpress things. That semantical, linguistic wordsmith power — they cansay so much in one little phrase. But when British humour is dumb, it rivalseven the dumbest American humour.

I have an issue with people who thrive on calling Americans dumb. Look

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at it this way: we are 350 million people isolated on the North Americancontinent. It’s mostly middle class, blue-collar workers with very little payand vacation time. The average American would love to see Europe!Across the Atlantic, you get longer holidays and cheaper flights. Doeseveryone in West Essex know where Iowa is? No. So why is everyone inIowa supposed to know where West Essex is? What I’m saying is: it worksboth ways. Sadly, there are a lot of loud, willfully ignorant people in theUS.

How has stand-up changed from when you first started out?

People communicate a lot faster. Social media and YouTube mean you getexposed a lot quicker. In the 1980s, as soon as a comedian got on TV,they were made. Seinfield, Roseanne Barr, there were so many. Everycomedian that got famous in the eighties, they just had to get on TheJohnny Carson Show. Now, you have to be more self-promoting. I can geton Comedy Central, CNN, whatever… it doesn’t mean I’ve ‘made it’. Thatthreshold now lies in the niche. It’s about who you’re funny for.

You’ve just partnered with Dubomedy to give a workshop forbudding comics here in Dubai. What are your thoughts?

When I first came here in 2007, there was no comedy scene. What Ali andMina [stand-up comedians and owners of Dubomedy] are doing is creatinga foundation and I would say they’re doing a great job. Dubomedy iscarrying the torch.

We did the Amman comedy festival for three years and we brought a lot ofAmerican comedians to the region for the first time — not to entertaintroops, but Middle Eastern audiences.

Do you ever worry about crude themes in your comedy negativelyimpacting kids?

If kids are smart enough to understand sophisticated humour, good forthem. It shows intelligence. I do think every parent’s worst nightmare todayis that their kid is going to go on YouTube and be exposed to somethingexplicit — you don’t always get what you Google for!

I don’t worry about what I’m saying because the edgiest topics I cover willbe political, not sexual. I do have jokes I wouldn’t use in the Middle East. Isave these for late night shows in the US. These ones don’t have anythingto do with any ethnic groups — and you won’t find them on YouTube!

riaznaqvi@khaleejtimes.com

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