By snoadmin
So, what happens when a Rabbi and a Muslim walk into the University Student Union ballrooms?
Well, long-time comedic duo Bob Alper and Mohammed ‘Mo’ Amer answered that question when they brought their “Laugh and Peace” comedy show Monday night to Cal State Long Beach and gave students lots of laughs while simultaneously breaking down stereotypes through their jokes and stories.
Amer went up first and discussed his quirky upbringing with anecdotes touching on his path to American citizenship and fitting in at school.
He was a Muslim kid with a British accent who had recently moved form Kuwait to Huston and was placed in an English learner’s class with primarily Hispanic students.
“I came in [to that class] to learn English and walked out learning Spanish,” Amer said over the roar of laughter from the audience.
According to Amer, as an Arab it was hard for him to “find a happy middle ground” when he grew up, especially after the 9/11 attacks.
“I have a brother, Omar, who’s a pilot,” he said. “My other brother has a Ph.D. in biochemistry. And it gets worse, I have a nine-year-old nephew named Osama. It’s the trifecta!”
Cynthia Schultheis, the Multicultural Center assistant director, pitched the comedy show idea to the Beach Hillel and Muslim Student Association.
“Comedy breaks a lot of stereotypes, and we wanted the Beach Hillel Jewish students and the Muslim students to work together, and comedy always dispels a lot of hard feelings and stereotypes,” Schultheis said.
As the comedians took turns performing, it became clear that there was not going to be any mention of politics.
“The program is totally non-political,” Alper said. “We don’t talk about the Middle East. We don’t talk about anything that divides us.”
Maryan Abdulahi, a freshman anthropology major, said the nature of the jokes made the enviroment more relaxed.
“I thought they were really funny and relatable,” Abdulahi said. “It was good that they didn’t talk about [political issues] because then it would have made it uncomfortable,”
Alper and Amer reminisced about the start of their partnership and talked about their goals for the “Laugh and Peace” tour.
“My goal as a comedian is to bring people together through laughter, and we find when people laugh together, it’s really hard to hate each other,” Alper said.
Alper said he wanted Muslims to see a warm, affable Rabbi in hopes that they understand that there are all kinds of Rabbis, all kinds of Jews, in order to break down barriers.
The comedic duo stood up as they talked about the main lesson they wanted their audience to walk away with when the program ended.
“There are problems that exist between Jews and Muslims but in the course of our work together and our friendship, we think that Jews and Muslims could come together if they could simply learn … Irish dancing,” said Alper as he and Amer began to dance enthusiastically for the cheering audience.
