Ultra American: A Patriot Act Written and Performed by Azhar Usman in Chicago

Famed comedian, Azhar Usman, takes to the stage with this brutally honest, unflinching one-man show. Ultra American: A Patriot Act explores the tensions and paradoxes surrounding the double consciousness of American Muslims living in an ever-polarizing world.

Performances:

• 09/20/2016  7:30 – 9:00 PM
• 09/21/2016  7:30 – 9:00 PM
• 09/22/2016  7:30 – 9:00 PM

An Artistic Statement from Azhar Usman

Ultra American: A Patriot Act is the result of many years of wondering and wandering all over the planet, trying to make sense of my own existence in a seemingly insane world–a world full of contradictions, paradoxes, and fundamental incongruences.

For the past four decades, I have been negotiating a set of competing identities inside myself: Indian, American, Muslim. What does it mean to be an Indian? An American? A Muslim? In the modern world, no less, where even the questions seem problematic, because I never felt like any of those labels really fit, not as nouns anyway. Perhaps as adjectives. To be Indian is, in a sense, different than calling oneself “an Indian.” Just as being American is a universe away from calling oneself “an American.”

Ultra American: A Patriot Act is a modest attempt to push back, to explore the above-stated, macro/global themes through micro/local examples, in an attempt to make sense of it all. Armed with nothing but personal stories, reflections, jokes, and funny one-liners, it is the most ambitious creative project of my career.

It is a tall order, no doubt. But alas, what choice does an artist have other than to toss a pebble into the ocean, hoping and praying that perhaps it can cause a ripple that will reach the other side of the world? It is a task that should properly be considered next to impossible. But as my standup idol and mentor, Dave Chappelle, taught me: “Next to impossible is the precursor to dope.”