Stand Up

Kameer had never found much luck when trying to pursue a career as a stand up comic. He’d do observational stuff about being a Muslin in America that just never seemed to land with audiences. He would tell his friends that he just needed to find his niche; though they often told him that he just wasn’t funny. The criticism had mostly gotten to him, and he only ever performed once every six months or so.

And then the Great Shift happened.

He decided to do a set just for a sense of normalcy. It was a sparsely attended show opening for a friend’s indie rock band. And he started off with his usual jokes; they still weren’t going over well. He paused with a realization.

“Well, I guess telling those with this f*ckin’ face just makes me a f*ckin‘ racist, doesn’t it? Sh*t! I shifted myself into white girl privilege.” He blurted out.

And the response was something he hadn’t heard from the stage in a very long time: Laughter.

He began to rant about the Great Shift, becoming a woman, being a different race. People could relate; it was actually funny.

As he joked about wanting to speak to the manager of the bar for only getting three drink tickets when the men performing got four. He even stumbled onto a new stage name for himself: Karen Abdul-Jabbar.It seems he found his niche.