First Things First, We Need To Talk About 'Baywatch'

Sami Shah is a busy man. He's a regular contributor to ABC RN and ABC Melbourne. He has two books out this year — the sequel to sci-fi novel Fire Boy and The Islamic Republic Of Australia, an in-depth look at the full spectrum of Islam Down Under. Now he's on the comedy festival circuit with Islamofarcist, after only just finishing an impressive two-show, 16-night run at Perth's Fringe World.

"Basically, you watch your voice a lot. You spend a lot of time like, not yelling. Because you're gonna lose your voice and once that happens then there's an issue." Pro tip: Stay out of Northbridge, "So you don't get in fights with random guys who are drunk."

Shah is bringing Islamofarcist to Brisbane for the first time after winning Queensland’s Tour Ready Award at last year’s Melbourne Comedy Festival. The show is an hour-long exploration of Islam, as a religion and as a part of Australian society, a topic that Shah is distinctly equipped to deconstruct. As a Palestinian immigrant, an Australian citizen, a Muslim-born atheist, Shah possesses a rare combination of qualities: "outsider perspective with insider knowledge". 

"I'm not gonna sugar-coat either side. I'm not gonna tell you that Islam is a feminist religion."

"I'm not gonna sugar-coat either side. I'm not gonna tell you that Islam is a feminist religion, nor will I say that Islam is a terrorist religion, I would have a more informed point of view." Shah would be the first to tell you, however, that there are much more significant things at play here.

"More importantly, [Islamofarcist] is about the intersection of Islam and Baywatch, which not many people realise is a very important topic that requires further exploration, which I hope to provide." Can we get a clue as to where exactly that intersection lies? "Oh, you have to watch the show. There's no way I'm giving that one away. That's the main point." (With a little needling, Shah spills a bean, saying it may have more to do with Pamela Anderson than the Hoff).

Timeless '90s beach dramas aside, there could be a real danger of a stand-up show losing its potency in the year between winning the Tour Ready Award and actually touring it, let alone one with its foundation in such politically urgent themes. Ironically, this has actually worked in Shah's favour. "It's actually more relevant now than it was when I wrote it," says Shah, sounding almost disappointed. "I was worried when I wrote it that it would have like a six-month shelf life at most but that's clearly not a problem at all.

"It's a shame to see some of these countries quite gleefully sliding towards third world country status. But you know, at the same time, fuck 'em."

"Even to the conversation Jacqui Lambie and Yassmin [Abdel-Magied] had on Q&A the other day about Islam," Shah continues, "that Sharia Law is a feminist religion and all that, that's all stuff that I addressed in the show a year ago. So I'm glad I'm kind of rolling it out still so that people can see that and hopefully get better answers than a shouting match on TV allows."

In June last year, Shah spoke on Insight about identifying a country's fault lines, and recognising where Australia's cracks were beginning to show. Later that same month a hairline majority of the UK voted to leave the EU, and earlier this month Trump moved into the White House before, among other things, trying to pass a definitely-not-a-Muslim-ban executive order. After a bewildering eight months, we're curious where he thinks those rumblings are sitting on the Richter scale.

"I think that they've definitely grown in Europe and America," muses Shah. "I think there's a concern here that we will follow suit, that we'll go the Trump way or the Brexit way with our own right wing/hard right kind of people taking over or dominating the conversation. I personally have more faith in Australians. I think they're more vigilant of that kind of extremism taking over completely. We did have Tony Abbott, but his popularity was so low he didn't even last, so I do think there is that potential that while the rest of the world is now swinging far right we might actually stay slightly more centred. At the end of the day, I think it comes down to job growth and economy and things like that. As long as people have good food, well, just food, and jobs and safety and security then they are less likely to swing wildly in the extremes of politics. I think Australia right now has those things going in its favour.

"Even with Pauline Hanson, I mean her rise in WA, for example, has less to do with her radical pronouncements about Islam and more the fact the Labour party and the Liberal party are seen as being bought out by corporations and people just want better representatives."

Having said that, Shah professes that the simplest explanations are rarely accurate and that it can be difficult "to tell what's causing things to happen when they're still happening". 

"I think ten years from now we'll have a better view... I know how bad it can get, so it's a shame to see some of these countries quite gleefully sliding towards third world country status. But you know, at the same time, fuck 'em. They're idiots, you know. If America turns into a shithole then that's what America did. They did that to too many other countries to not have karma bite them in the ass, and frankly, Europe's biggest achievements in the last hundred years have been two world wars and Eurovision. So yeah, maybe a massive influx of refugees might bring some spices to their food and make them a better more tolerable place to live."