Last Sunday, Muslim comics performed a sold-out show in a comedy club in Manhattan, with the tagline: “The Last show before Trump Deports us!” Dean Obeidallah created “The Big Brown Comedy Hour” comedy troop back in 2009 as a platform for funny people of Middle Eastern and Southeast Asian descent. During Sunday’s show, Obeidallah took in the crowd and declared: “This room is Donald Trump’s worst nightmare.” Addressing the times ahead with the new administration, he continued: “We’re going to fight. We’re never giving up. Right?”
Comedienne Maysoon Zayid also had a few things to say during her set. “I am Donald Trump’s worst nightmare: I am Muslim, I bleed wherever, and I’m disabled — I have cerebral palsy, so I shake all the time… I’m genuinely afraid that Trump is going to nuke Canada. And I think the motivation is Justin Trudeau is a 10.”
Mahnoor Waseem, who was born in Pakistan and is now a college student in New Jersey, says she nervously laughed throughout the show but is supportive of the new president. “I felt a little bit of hope,” she said. “That hope comes with my faith.”
