Curry and comedy

>> Local caterer and comic’s ethnicity gets laughs from audiences and frowns from Customs

by CHRIS BARRY

Name: Ali Hassan

Age: 34

Occupation: Chef/Stand-up comic

Bio: This saucy South Shore stud had paid a small fortune back in ’99 to study computer technology at a Toronto institution only to discover, upon finding a job in the field in Chicago, that no matter how much he was getting paid, IT work “really blew.” Passionate about food preparation for as long as he can remember, upon his emancipation from techland Ali became food “obsessed,” reading everything he could on the subject, watching food shows, consulting other chefs, all with an eye to someday returning to Montreal and opening a catering business, something he did last November with the launch of Cash and Curry. Partnered up with the famed and flamboyant Nantha of defunct yet much-mourned Plateau eatery Nantha’s Kitchen (and current Mirror employee), when Ali isn’t busy cooking up a storm for his new business or working as a cooking instructor, he’s making the local stand-up comedy scene which, apparently, “has been going pretty good” for him.

What Ali’s creating at Cash and Curry: “Malaysian curries, fried noodles, lentil soups, samosas, spring rolls, Thai-influenced dishes, that sort of thing, ranging in price between, say, $7 and $20 a head.” To order one of Ali’s delicacies, call (514)-284-5696 or go to www.cashandcurry.ca.

His inspiration to pursue stand-up comedy: “It was just one of those things on my list of things to do before I died. Eventually, what I really want to do is create a cooking show that employs both humour and food, a show that doesn’t take itself too seriously.”

Does he identify himself primarily as an East Asian comic, doing bits like, “The funny thing about being a sardar is…” or, “So the other day I was transporting fertilizer in an unmarked van on the lower level of the George Washington Bridge when…” and so on and so forth? “Basically, my humour is best described as part ethnic, part food and part porn. It’s definitely got an ethnic twist to it, but I’m getting more and more jokes about food in there now.”

Something that kind of sucks about sharing a name with “Chemical Ali,” the Butcher of Kurdistan himself, as a Canadian- born Muslim of Pakistani descent in a post-9/11 Patriot Act kind of world: The incessant racial profiling he endures when travelling and accompanying fear of perhaps being thrown in a bag at the airport by CIA-types and waking up on a waterboard in sunny Syria the next morning. “Travelling with my name sucks tits. I’ve missed flights because they always have to do these big lengthy checks on me whenever I travel. Always, even if they’ve already done a big check on me the last time I travelled a few weeks earlier. There’s always drama for me at the airport now, always problems. I can almost empathize but at the same time the whole process is pathetic, it’s so misguided.”

Last book read: The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri.

Musical preferences: Jojoflores, DJ Champion.

Words of wisdom: “Blessed are those who find out what they’re supposed to do in this world and go out and do it 100 per cent.”

Comments: Dimwit@openface.ca