Tell us about your show and what audiences can expect.
Heavenly Baba came out of doing stand-up for the past 15 years. Initially, the show was mostly jokes from my comedy, but after a year of building, it turned into something completely different. I’ve never done anything like it. It’s an hour long story about religion, art, and how not to convert people to Islam.
Can you talk about some of the creative team involved?
For the first year of working on the show, it was just me. But last summer I started working with Greg Walloch – an incredible director that’s worked with Hasan Minhaj and Gabe Mollica. Greg was a huge help in taking the show to the next level. He helped me focus on the emotional stakes of the show and really think about what it means to make art.
Where do you draw inspiration from for your work, both in terms of creation and performance?
I got a lot of inspiration for this show from my religion. When I do stand-up, I’m not thinking like that – I’m just trying to get a laugh; but for Heavenly Baba, which is attempting to be something deeper than stand-up, I really had to investigate my own beliefs as a Muslim. There may or may not be a quote from the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) in the show. You’ll have to come to find out.
Looking at this production, how would you say it links to previous work personally and thematically?
Personally, the show pulls a lot from my childhood. I’m telling stories I never thought I’d get to say on stage. The debate about whether or not stand-up counts as art is also a central theme in the show, and I’ve wondered about this my whole adult life. The show does a good job (I think) of tackling these things comedically.
Why is this an important story to tell?
I’ve seen a lot of immigrant stories over the years, and I’m not putting them down when I say that Heavenly Baba is completely original. The story of my dad is genuinely insane and fascinating. Illegal medical practices, cult leaders in Turkey, a marriage at 17 – I don’t want to give too much away, but the phrase “Buddhism is Atheism” comes up more than once. There are a lot of stories about immigrants who come to the West, keep their heads down, and suffer humiliations silently as they try to make a better life for their children. This story is not that.
What would you like audiences to take away from seeing you/this production at the Fringe?
A central question in the show is “do I have the courage to stand by my convictions?” and I hope people sit with that. Obviously there are a lot of laughs and insane details in Heavenly Baba, but the goal is for viewers to take something deeper away from it.
Do you tend to take inspiration from events happening in the world around you in terms of your work? Do you think artists have a responsibility to respond to what’s happening?
With stand-up, there’s certainly a part of you that wants to stay up to date on current events, but there are only so many angles you can take – and in an art form where originality is key, that makes the “topical game” a hard one to play. I don’t generally pull jokes directly from the news. Rather, I like to assess the “vibes” around an issue, and write to those. You can be more creative, and truer to yourself, if you’re talking around the immediacy of a news story, rather than directly to it. Heavenly Baba is deeply rooted in the early 2000s, since that’s when the bulk of the show’s story takes place, and so there is a reliance on the feelings and energies surrounding that terrible time in American history.
How do you feel about the current arts landscape in your country and your part in it? Does it excite you and inspire you to keep pushing the boat out?
In the States, stand-up has never been more popular – it’s also never been worse. Social media has rewritten what it means to be a comic. Crowd work is a plague and clips of it are currency. All context and “soul” has been ripped from it. It’s devastating. But it’s also been a good thing for me; seeing the direction stand-up has been going for the past five years pushed me to want to create something completely different: a story that literally cannot be clipped up and posted on Instagram or TikTok.
Why are arts festivals such as the Fringe so important for international exchange?
We tend to think our neighbourhoods, cities, and countries, encompass the entirety of the world. Going to a festival, whether it’s Just for Laughs, or the [Edinburgh Festival] Fringe, reminds us that there’s a literal world outside the comfortable, self-contained ones we construct for ourselves as artists.
What can the wider arts community do to get more people involved in their specific disciplines?
Be better at what you do. Laziness and entitlement turn people off.
Have you got your eye on any other shows that are part of the programme?
Totally! I’m excited to see my friend Laurie Magers’ show Do You Accept These Charges?, plus my friend Dylan Adler.
What’s next for you and how are you feeling about the future in general?
The day before going to Scotland, I’ll be running Heavenly Baba Off Broadway at a really cool theatre. I’m planning on doing a run of the show in the States after the Fringe, and possibly filming it. The future generally is bleak, however. Darkness surrounds us all. We are governed by Satanists and demons. Society is circling the drain.
How can Edinburgh audiences keep up with you beyond the festival?
Follow me on Instagram! @Ismaelcomic.
Ismael Loutfi: Heavenly Baba, Assembly George Square Studios, 30 Jul-24 Aug (not 11), 6pm