Q&A with Hasan Al-Habib

Growing up as the eldest sibling in a big family often comes with accidental responsibility. Were you the “mature one” or absolutely not?

My sisters would describe me as extremely annoying growing up. But I wasn’t malicious, everything was done for laughs. My parents taught me that if you can be genuinely funny whilst naughty, you might get away with it. Indeed, this is how many of our worst politicians get elected.

I did have too much responsibility growing up, though. That tends to happen when your parents separate but refuse to speak to each other. I was the Pakistan to their America and Iran. Although as the son of Iraqis, neither parent will be happy about that analogy.

Your relationship with your sisters sounds really important in the show. Have they become your unofficial emotional support group?

To an extent. They’re actually better at talking about our family’s problems than I am. Maybe they should be performing my show.

What I did realise, later than I should have, is that it's much better to talk about this stuff then keep it bottled up inside. And talking to my sisters is a cheat code, partly because they’re women (so I'll get to speak uninterrupted), but also because they know all of the context, so it's much less painful to do.

What’s harder: explaining a PhD topic or explaining to relatives that you do stand-up comedy?

Explaining that I do stand up isn't particularly difficult because it's not something I'm ashamed of. It's not what parts of my family would have chosen for me, but even they can admit I'm decent at it.

It would be a different story if I was terrible. I do sometimes feel sorry for terrible comedians’ parents, that's a tough hand to be dealt.

PhD projects are so incredibly esoteric that they can be difficult to explain. Honestly, though, it's far harder to get family members to listen as you do so.

You’ve got such a warm, charismatic stage presence. Were you always naturally funny growing up, or did comedy come later?

Comedy came young, because it was forced upon me. Growing up as the only person with an Arabic name in my parochial primary school meant lots of good old fashioned bullying.

In one case this involved a teacher saying something very racist about me, which I covered in my first show: “Death to the West (Midlands)”.

The point being it was clear that I knew I couldn't report the bullying to my teacher, so I had to find another solution. The only one that worked was being funny. If people are laughing with, or even at you, then they can’t mock you themselves. They also start to like you. So I stuck at it.

Do your family members ever try to negotiate what can and can’t go into the show?

My family and I have an unspoken pact: they don’t come to my shows, and I can say what I want.

It works for us both.

Hasan Al-Habib: Stuck in the Middle (East) With You is at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe from the 5th – 3-th August (not 18th). For more information visit https://www.edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/hasan-al-habib-stuck-in-the-middle-east-with-you