Post-9/11 life is a comic goldmine

[TonyGosling]

Post-9/11 life is a comic goldmine
For Arab-American comedian, post-9/11 life is a comic goldmine
Jay Stone - Canwest News Service - Tuesday, February 05, 2008

http://www.canada.com/globaltv/globalshows/et_story.html?id=d276691b-a 56a-4058-8640-8a44c53e8873

The American comedian Ahmed Ahmed flew from Los Angeles to Toronto the other day, and he reports a smooth flight: no one pulled him out of line, no one hassled him at security, he wasn’t stopped at the border.

It’s the kind of thing that could ruin a guy’s career.

“Come on, I need to get arrested so I can write a joke,” Ahmed laughed on the way downtown from Pearson International. “I need some material.”

The perils of airport security when your name is Ahmed Ahmed are part of the comic’s standup routine, a combination of family humour and jokes about living as a Muslim of Egyptian origin in a post-9/11 world. The fact that he can travel more easily now is a perhaps a testament to a less-hysterical atmosphere, or perhaps to the fact that Ahmed travels so much, he’s approaching gold status on his frequent flyer card.

He’s getting famous, a situation that is helped by the upcoming film Vince Vaughn’s Wild West Comedy Show, a documentary about how Ahmed and three other stand-ups toured the U.S. in 2005. Ahmed, 38, was becoming well known anyway from his appearances at L.A. clubs and on a comedy tour called Axis of Evil with two other Middle Eastern comedians, but the Vaughn movie is sending him over the top. On Friday, he’s booked as a guest on the Tonight show, and there are movie deals afoot: he’s in Jon Favreau’s upcoming Iron Man, and he has a supporting role in You Don’t Mess With The Zohan, a comedy starring Adam Sandler.

The acting gigs take him back to the beginning.

Ahmed was born in Egypt and his parents brought him to California when he was one month old. His father was mechanic and later owned a gas station. But his dad Ñ who appears in the movie, along with the parents of the other comics Ñ always wanted to be a comedian. Ahmed says his father recently had open-heart surgery and woke up in the hospital to see two nurses over his bed.

“Thank God I’m not dead,” his father said. “This can’t be heaven: there’s only two of you and you don’t look like virgins.”.....

http://www.canada.com/globaltv/globalshows/et_story.html?id=d276691b-a 56a-4058-8640-8a44c53e8873