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Baha Khalil Website: http://www.bahakhalil.com/
Baha Khalil is a Palestinan-American who was born and raised in South Paterson (Little Palestine), NJ. His stand up stems from his experiences stuck between two worlds, Arab & American. By day he's works in IT in an Office Space like cubicle but at night breaks away from it all with his humour.
Baha Khalil Interview
Comedian Baha Khalil walked out of seeing the summer blockbuster movie Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen more than a bit disappointed. The Paterson,
NJ based comedian felt that the film's creators poured on the
racial stereotypes way too thick and that such treatment had nothing to do with 'robot wars.' As an Arab and Muslim American, the somewhat delicate subject
of stereotypes and misleading portrayals of ethnic cultures is something Khalil is sensitive about, and wishes the American public would be better served
with more truthful depictions of his Arab community.
Baha has performed at Comix Comedy Club in NYC for the NYC Arab Comedy festival and the Big Brown Comedy Hour at the Broadway Comedy Club. His upcoming comedy shows include: 25-27 of Sept @ Glendale, AZ - Arab American Festival, on 2nd of Oct at the Montclair State University, NJ Memorial Theater 8pm, and the 8th of Oct Rutgers Palestinian Cultural Event
Balancing honest portrayals of Arab culture was just one of the interesting topics the 29yo comedian Baha Khalil and I discussed in my Skype interview
with him.
You were born in Paterson, NJ - how was it growing up there?
Baha Khalil: Yes, I was born in South Paterson. It was different from most places. It's one of the few places with a lot of middle Eastern culture. When my parents first moved here, there was mostly Italian, Irish and Polish and all that, but these days when you drive through, it's like driving through Ramallah. There's a large Palestinian community, which is what I am so it's nice.
Was growing up uneventful in terms of any bias for you being an Arab American or Muslim?
Baha Khalil: It wasn't bad. I grew up in an area that was predominantly Muslim or mainly Arab - with a big Turkish community as well. There was really no bias for me. I was fortunate like that, if anything I was picking on the kids who weren't Muslim (laughter), but you know it was weird when I had a friend who wasn't Muslim, because I had to explain to them why we don't eat pork or fast during Ramadan. My mother was very instrumental in helping my school to adjust to Muslim ways like not serving pork.
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Baha Khalil Quotes