Nazeem Hussain had a big 2015. Sold out shows around the world, Helpmann and Logie nominations, a hit TV series and a house in Noble Park meant that his new stand up show would be labouring under serious expectations. He didn’t disappoint. Hussain in the Membrane builds on the Melbourne comedian’s ability to tackle sensitive political and racial issues and mercilessly ridicule their latest iterations.
He joins the long list of former lawyers who gave up the sober certainty and money of the legal profession for comedy and in doing so, gave the rest of us who ponder the same, hope. Shaun Micallif, Jane Turner, Charlie Pickering, Ahn Do and The Chaser team are only a few who have followed the same path and the brains that got them into law have not been wasted in comedy. Like all those on this illustrious list, Hussain isn’t just funny, he’s smart. You have to be, to talk about the things he talks about and not be lynched as leave you leave the venue.
Hussain further probes Islamophobia, taking on Reclaim Australia, the Bendigo Mosque controversy and Twitter trolls, but doesn’t stop there. He happily takes aim at a raft of other stereotypes and blows taboos apart, spreading a vicarious catharsis from the constraints of ever-encroaching political correctness. As well as stomping around on the eggshells of ​polite conversation, Hussain manages to weave in tales of the everyday, including his mother’s penchant for bending the truth, property speculation, and the trials of meat throwing neighbours.
It takes a special skill to provoke and disarm an audience at the same time but Hussain has the rare ability of balancing demagoguery with honesty, intelligence and dark satire. Most of all it takes timing. Not just in delivering a series of well-rehearsed jokes but in speaking to issues that remain raw and unresolved in people’s minds. Further still it requires making ​audiences laugh. Hussain in the Membrane certainly does that but it does something else too. Nazeem Hussain, is the voice you know exists but seldom hear. A voice that makes you think and comforts you too.
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Nazeem Hussain: Hussain in the Membrane
Australian Centre for the Moving Image – Beyond
Melbourne International Comedy Festival
24 March – 17 April
