Anna Burnside reviews ‘a tremendous show’ that’s ‘funny and tender’.
Just when comedians mining their family experiences for material is getting old, along comes an American Muslim from a redneck area with a story that is way too far-fetched to be made up.
Baba is Loufti’s father, a Syrian surgeon who married a red-haired Irish Catholic. Baba was devout and young Ismael took after him, wearing a kufi, rejecting his first school as too secular.
Loufti pieces together bits of Baba’s story with his own. Central to both is Baba’s car, which he customises into an Islamobile. Thankfully Loufti documented this vehicle in detail because it’s the second star of his show. Baba covers every inch of the bodywork with increasingly unhinged slogans, some warm and peaceable, others unacceptable to his liberal son.
He’s particularly vexed by the juxtaposition of “rectum is not an entrance” and “yoga ok”.
There are so many great moments. A recurring joke about Baba’s insistence on giving westerners Islamic names. A meditation on the stupidity of the penis as a body part. Loufti’s nikah - Muslim marriage ceremony - to his high school girlfriend. There is a picture of this too. Baba officiated and it took place at a mall falafel shop.
This is a tremendous show: funny and tender but also expertly structured and delivered without a word out of place. For anyone jaded with family photo comedy, this is the perfect antidote.
Ismael Loutfi: Heavenly Baba performs at Assembly George Square (Studio Five) at 18:00 until August 24, 2025 (no performance on the 11th).
Photo by Mandee Johnson.
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