On the “City Lights” series “Speaking of Comedy,” Atlanta’s funniest locals share insights on the perks and perils of their profession.
Zain Sharif is an Atlanta-based comedian who loves standup and considers it a relief from the more specialized area where he cut his teeth – ensemble improv work. “Eventually, I was like, ‘I love comedy and I love performing, but how do I do it without these other people?'” recalled Sharif.
But he attests that standup isn’t for the faint of heart, or for those afraid to fail their way to success: “Getting good is painful. It requires a lot of bombing,” he said. “That’s what standup is: just bombing a bunch of times and trying to not be bad. And if you do that long enough, you could be good.”
Taking cues from universally recognized comic legend Ralph Waldo Emerson (“To believe your own thought, to believe that what is true for you in your private heart, is true for all men – that is genius”), Sharif harvests his most personal and particular moments for his best material. “The more I do standup, the more I realize that those little moments in life that you think belong only to you, or are unique to you, are actually the most relatable. And so, the deeper you can go into yourself, the more commonalities you can draw with your fellow human,” Sharif advises.
In a featured clip, he pokes fun at himself, an upbringing he considers “pampered” and his lack of practical skills, while praising his immigrant parents who succeeded in America through hard work and determination. “If there was a plane crash, and 10 of us survived, the leader would stand up. He’d be like, ‘All right, if we’re gonna make it through this, we all gotta stick together. I need to know what skills each of you has….’ I’m just in the back, like, ‘Um, if you show me like a triangle, and you give me two of the angles, I got you on the third.'”
