19 June,2011 09:40 AM IST | | Sowmya Rajaram
That's the philosophy stand-up comedian Imran Yusuf swears by, and it permeates all of his political and satirical acts
Identity is manufactured'. That's Imran Yusuf's biggest concern all throughout our interview, and in the acts that have made this 31 year-old stand up comedian wildly popular in the little period that he turned professional (a year and a half).
It's easy to see how Yusuf manages to pontificate on heavyweight matters of identity. The man's heritage is like a map itself. He is a Muslim of Indian origin who was born in Mombasa, Kenya, but raised in Hackney, East London, and spent a year in America as a teenager. What's not easy to understand is how he manages to squeeze all of that into his well-attended acts.
"The first rule of comedy is to talk about what you know," he explains. "My grandparents were from India, my immediate family is from East Africa, and I grew up in the United Kingdom. Growing up with this mixed heritage and not really fitting in anywhere, I realised that identity is very important to people.
Yet, I've realised that identity, at the end of the day, is just something that is created by someone else. The only thing that matters is your virtue and how you behave. And that's the idea I try to bring into my acts," he explains.
So how does he see himself? "As a funny man," he laughs, then hastening to add half a second later, "As a handsome funny man." He then acknowledges, "I don't have the face to be a Bollywood or Hollywood hero. But I do have the skill and ability to make people laughu00a0-- and my frame, skinny, tall and athletic, adds a unique energy to my comedy. I'd take that any day."
His acts are peppered with jokes about racial stereotypes, about how whether you're Martian or Punjabi, what matters is whether you switch off your phone in a cinema hall, and how Americans perceive the British.
It's not all political, though. Google 'Imran Yusuf', and a bunch of videos featuring his acclaimed dinosaur impression pops up.
Intrigued, we asked about its origins. Laughing, he recalls, "I lived in America for a year when I was 12 or 13 years old. Jurassic Park had just released and therefore I had seen it months ahead of anyone else in Britain.
The film obviously had a huge impact on me as it did on lots of othersu00a0-- so when I moved, I would chase my little cousins around the house, doing a dinosaur impression. And today, at 31 years, after years of practice and messing around at home, I'm practically a dinosaur myself! The first time I tried it on stage, I got a massive laugh, and it took off after that. I try not to do it on stage anymore though, unless people ask for it, which is often."
At:u00a0 8.30 pm, The Comedy Store, Palladium Mall, SB Marg, Lower Parel
Call: 43485000
