How to Make White People Laugh

April 11, 2016
This collection of nonfiction essays from Farsad, a stand-up comedian and director/producer of the documentary The Muslims Are Coming!, offers a look at the social issues that plague America today, including racism, sexism, and media bias. Farsad tackles these ideas head-on with clear facts and a wit that will keep the liberal reader engaged. Using her own experiences as an Iranian-American, Farsad offers a glimpse at what life is like as a “third thing,” or a group that doesn’t quite fit into one world or another, from her Palm Springs, Fla., childhood, where she tried to identify as Mexican, to her collegiate years at Cornell, where she identified more with black culture. The comic hits her stride when she focuses on the personal rather than polemic. The insight that Farsad offers regarding modern Iranian life is much more nuanced than her quick takes on more general topics, such as Jainism. Farsad’s fresh and funny voice is perfect for presenting tactics to fight anti-Muslim sentiment in the U.S., and her work is intriguing and enjoyable to read. Agent: Daniel Kirschen, ICM.

April 1, 2016
A memoir/essay collection from a self-described "hyphenated American...an Iranian-Muslim-female-honey-mustard-enthusiast" who is also a comedian, writer, filmmaker, and TED talker. Such range and accomplishment suggest that Farsad might well have a rich and provocative book in her, but this scattershot debut isn't it. Toward the end, Farsad describes her work as "social justice comedy," though some of the most scathingly funny comedy today could fit that label without wearing it. Unlike plenty of books by stand-up comedians, this isn't simply a series of bits or monologues transferred to the page. The author has some serious points to make about stereotypes and icons and about the many like her who are left in the margins amid "the binary discussion of race." Her book takes its title from one of her TED talks, and it's a title that would seem to suggest a black author--a symptom of the disease that afflicts the nation's concept of diversity. Some of the most engaging sections are those that are closest to memoir, in which Farsad discusses growing up as a minority to other minorities, identifying with Mexicans because they were the closest match for the sole Iranian-American. "Just as I considered myself Mexican in high school," she writes, "in college I began shifting my sights to being black." The author came to realize that wherever she found herself fitting, she has also been marginalized by gender, by the assumption that a woman couldn't be funny enough to be a comedian or smart enough to be a writer. Devoting herself to toppling such stereotypes, she finds strongest resistance to her work from those who, like her, are Muslim women. "My material isn't racier than the average comic's, not by a long shot," she writes. "But to that Muslim minority, in the audience, it was shameful." Farsad combines throwaway laughs with some keeper insights. Readers may sense that she has a smarter, funnier book on the way later in her career.

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May 1, 2016
Filmmaker and TED fellow Farsad, an Iranian American Muslim woman and child of immigrants, knows what it's like to grow up other, without icons and pop-culture representatives on TV or in movies with which to identify. A lifetime of observation and a couple of Ivy-League degrees later, Farsad has cultivated what she calls social justice comedy in her stand-up and films, because she thinks nothing competes with humor when it comes to exposing and leveling society's inequities. Having held varied jobs and seen much of the country (she was chased out of at least one backwoods, bare-knuckle boxing ring on her The Muslims Are Coming! comedy tour), Farsad has ideas for bringing diversity to media, academia, and corporations. Her style is casual and irreverent but also earnest; she dedicates her formidable smarts and talents to improving the country she loves dearly, through this cutting yet gentle medium. Lots of funny images and charts break up the text as Farsad explores identity and culture, especially for the many multiculturalists among us, in a relatable way.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)