Considering that his show was called No Politics No Religion One Love, Nemr's hour had a surprising amount of material about politics and religion. Over the course of his performance, he talked about the Trump administration's Muslim ban, ISIS suicide bombings, and even the gruesomeness of Lebanese civil war and how it resulted in rampant discrimination during his childhood. The only reason that the title of his show still held true was because the Lebanese-American comedian never set out to be sardonic: he always just tried to find the humanity and humour in things, no matter whether it was everyday life or the horror of war.
Ali Hassan opened the show by talking about how his son touched himself too much and inexplicably had a thick Pakistani accent as a toddler, plus he joked about how he volunteered to judge at Toronto Ribfest despite being Muslim. He was a fitting opener for Nemr because they were friends with similar sensibilities, but Hassan's material was average in comparison to Nemr's.
Though Nemr's political comedy was amazing, he sometimes dipped into hacky territory with his other material. His bits about how women and men sound during sex and how men are dumber than women were predictable, plus he lazily put on an accent for certain lines of his jokes solely to punch them up, not because it made sense to do so in the context of the material.
Nonetheless, the Just For Laughs Ethnic Show alum was overwhelmingly enjoyable. His joke about how every Arab name has a grandiose meaning was as original as it was funny, especially because his crowd work proved his premise perfectly — the first person he talked to had a name that translated to "Justice Consulate." Likewise, Nemr's story about struggling to speak French in a strict immersion class also mined language for hilarity brilliantly, and his perfectly paced material about the elaborate nature of Lebanese meals also found funniness in culture.
Ali Hassan opened the show by talking about how his son touched himself too much and inexplicably had a thick Pakistani accent as a toddler, plus he joked about how he volunteered to judge at Toronto Ribfest despite being Muslim. He was a fitting opener for Nemr because they were friends with similar sensibilities, but Hassan's material was average in comparison to Nemr's.
Though Nemr's political comedy was amazing, he sometimes dipped into hacky territory with his other material. His bits about how women and men sound during sex and how men are dumber than women were predictable, plus he lazily put on an accent for certain lines of his jokes solely to punch them up, not because it made sense to do so in the context of the material.
Nonetheless, the Just For Laughs Ethnic Show alum was overwhelmingly enjoyable. His joke about how every Arab name has a grandiose meaning was as original as it was funny, especially because his crowd work proved his premise perfectly — the first person he talked to had a name that translated to "Justice Consulate." Likewise, Nemr's story about struggling to speak French in a strict immersion class also mined language for hilarity brilliantly, and his perfectly paced material about the elaborate nature of Lebanese meals also found funniness in culture.