Societal norms were challenged at the Bellevue Legion last Saturday night when Noor Kidwai, a Muslim comic born in Calgary and raised in High River, took to the stage for a Bellecrest comedy show.
According to his official website, much of Kidwai’s comedy is based on being one of the “only brown kids growing up in High River,” and he was certainly one of, if not the only, brown person at the Legion that night.
When Kidwai asked if there were any other Muslims in the audience he was met with silence but he then proceeded to quietly slay the audience with jokes about dating white women, eating pork and growing up in a small farming town.
But Stu Hughes, artistic director of FunnyFest Calgary, was deliberately pushing the audience by bringing Kidwai.
“With [Kidwai] being a Muslim, that’s why I brought him,” said Hughes. “Why not throw something unusual into the mix? Isn’t the spice of life great? It was a buffet, a smorgasbord of laughter tonight.”

Kidwai was the winner of the 2010 FunnyFest Talent Search, beating out 40 other comics across the province. He does stand-up all over Canada and just finished taping his first TV special with the CBC for the "Alberta Comedy Spectacular.”
Headliner Joe King, winner of the 2008 FunnyFest Talent Search, rounded out the evening with a performance that featured wit, timing and language you wouldn’t say in front of your mother.
Hughes, who hosted the show, also delivered a provocatively hilarious set and later commented on the quality of the audience.
“Obviously laughter is one of the greatest gifts and when you have an audience in a small town that came here to laugh, it’s one of the best things to have,” said Hughes. “We didn’t know if what we were going to say was going to offend anyone but the moment we started, what a great audience; mature and respectful and ready to laugh.”