Standing up for who they are – Dave Merheje and Ali Rizvi’s cheekily named comedy show takes aim at stereotypes – By Bruce DeMara
Ali Rizvi, left, and Dave Merheje perform 'We Ain’t Terrorists' tomorrow. Both comedians’ material draws on their heritage, but don’t expect them to talk about the immigrant experience — they were born and raised in Canada. (May 14, 2009)
In fact, Dave Merheje and Ali Rizvi are born-and-raised Canadian lads with a similar issue: they don’t look like your archetypical Canadians so their family backgrounds – one from the Middle East, the other from South Asia – mean people often don’t know what to expect when they take the stage.
But that rush to judgment brings with it a whole range of comic possibilities and that’s part of the fun behind We Ain’t Terrorists, playing [tonight] at Second City.
Merheje came up with the show’s title three years ago to be deliberately provocative and to point out the obvious: that appearances can be deceiving.
“Why do I have to beat around the bush? You can’t bull—- people. They’re thinking it, why don’t you just tell them?” Merheje, 28, said in a recent interview.
But Rizvi, a long-time friend and the first person Merheje asked to join him, was less convinced of the wisdom of the title.
“I said `No.’ I didn’t want my name next to the word ‘terrorism’ on an (Internet) search engine,” said Rizvi, 31, who has worked on CBC Radio’s Monsoon House with Russell Peters, as well as CBC television’s sketch series, Bloody Immigrants, and with MuchMusic’s sketch show, We Are Experiencing Technical Difficulties.
“I said, ‘Man, I don’t want to go across the border and get my balls busted.’”
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We Ain’t Terrorists, standup comedy with Dave Merheje and Ali Rizvi plays Tonight at 11 p.m.
Second City, 51 Mercer St.
TICKETS: $20, secondcity.com
Tags: Ali Rizvi, Comedy, Dave Merheje, Second City, Terror
Short URL: http://tinyurl.com/yfu8fvg
