How I Found my Voice - Sami Shah - Stand-up Comedian / Author - TPE #093

Sami Shah is a Pakistani Stand-up comedian who has now moved to Australia to become one of the top performing comedians in the country. Sami is also an author, after winning numerous awards for his autobiographical work, "I Migrant", Sami ventured into fantasy fiction with 'Earth Boy' and 'Boy of Fire and Earth'.  

Sami Shah comes on the podcast to discuss how he found his voice performing Stand up comedy - Sami discusses being on the scene of the Karsaz bomb blast reporting live then going to perform a packed comedy show just days later.  

 We get into a deep dive discussion about unresolved trauma, the sad clown troupe, comedy and depression, suicidal ideation, living as a Shia in Pakistan, immigration and the hate asylum seekers get.  

There is also some reminiscing of the Karachi Sami remembers.   Sami tweets at:  https://twitter.com/samishah  

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 The podcast is hosted by comedian and writer, Shehzad Ghias Shaikh. Shehzad is a Fulbright scholar with a Masters in Theatre from Brooklyn College. He is also one of the foremost Stand-up comedians in Pakistan and frequently writes for numerous publications. He can be found on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Tinder.  https://www.facebook.com/Shehzadgs/ https://twitter.com/shehzad89 https://instagram.com/shehzadghiasshaikh  

Chapters: 0:00 Introduction 1:15 How I started doing Stand up comedy 5:30 Organizing shows in Pakistan 7:15 Comedy as Catharsis 11:00 People going after Comedians online 15:00 Writing Satire in Pakistan 19:00 Aurat March in Australia and Pakistan  22:30 Reporting on the Karsaz Bomb Blast 27:10 Comedy as a coping mechanism 30:00 Unresolved Trauma and Toxic masculinity 40:00 Refugees and Asylum Seekers 49:00 Living with death threats  53:00 Humainzing through Comedy 55:00 Criticizing Australia as a Pakistani 59:30 Doing Comedy over Zoom 1:02:30 Opening for Sami Shah 1:03:30 Being comfortable yourself on stage 1:11:00 Nanette and the evolution of the form  1:19:15 Suicidal Ideation 1:20:30 Comedy and Depression 1:33:22 Atheism  1:40:00 Ex Muslims and Islamophobia 1:53:00 On Grief 1:55:00 Fantasy Fiction writing 2:03:00 The Creative Process 2:13:00 Expats 2:15:30 Remembering Karachi 2:18:00 Musharaf's enlightened moderation 2:24:00 Building a Comedy culture