By Kayhan Life Staff
Later this month, Arsalan Akhavan, an Iranian-American actor and comedian based in London, is taking his new stand-up act “The Good Iranian” to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in Scotland — one of Europe’s most watched stage and comedy events.
In “The Good Iranian,” the comedian humorously combines stories from his childhood with myths from the poet Ferdowsi’s 10th-century Shahnameh, or Book of Kings.
Akhavan previewed the show last weekend at the atmospheric Iranian-run Bergamot Boutique Café in west London. Drawing laughter and cheer from the audience, he interspersed memories of growing up in Atlanta, Georgia, with episodes from the Shahnameh, involving three characters: King Jamshid; Zahhak, his evil successor; and Kaveh Ahangar, or Kaveh the Blacksmith, who leads an uprising against Zahhak.
For the mythological episodes, Akhavan – steered by the young British-Iranian stage director Sepy Baghaei – used props and costumes which he pulled out of a trunk.
“The Good Iranian” opened with Akhavan reminiscing about his childhood as a shy and quiet little boy who disliked tahdig (the delicious crust that comes with cooked rice) because it got stuck in his braces.
He discovered Iran when his mother took him on a memorable trip there; video projections showed young Arsalan delivering a running commentary as he visited the Golestan Palace (the Shah’s onetime residence) and his grandparents’ former home, where he was given a copy of his father’s childhood report card.
He was 13 when his parents got divorced; his mother and sister moved to Paris, and he stayed behind in Atlanta, where he continued performing in school and beyond. “My confidence and swagger grew,” he said.
Life as an Iranian-American was good — until the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, when Iran became identified as being part of the “axis of evil,” and young Arsalan felt singled out.
“Evil? Me?” said the comedian as he looked back on that time, recalling how his “brown skin stuck out like a sore thumb.”
Moving to LA to pursue a career in show business – “I was motivated by fame” — he joined a top talent agency, and worked his way up to becoming an executive with his own email address. Yet there was “a gap between my true self and the self projected to others,” he said.
Reunited with his mother Zahra Faridany-Akhavan, a scholar on the Shahnameh, he asked her to tell him about it – and discovered an extraordinary reservoir of ancient myths and narratives which the West was completely oblivious to.
“Nobody seemed to care that an entire nation of stories was being ignored,” he explained. The Shahnameh became a way for him to reconnect with his mother, with Iran, and with comedy.
In an interview with Kayhan Life after the performance, Akhavan said he got the idea for the show when he came across the story of Zahhak. As someone who “loved vaudeville and loved slapstick humor,” he found that despite the story of Zahhak being “so dark and so scary,” there was comedic potential in it.
He had the idea of putting Zahhak in a vaudeville sketch, and asked himself: “Could someone do the Shahnameh as a comedy?”
One evening at a performance in London, that’s exactly what he did. Replacing an absent comedian at the last minute, he delivered a 10-minute improvisation on the theme of Zahhak and Kaveh. He was spotted by Baghaei, the young director, and together they put together the show that is now heading for the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
“The Good Iranian” runs from Aug. 11 to 25 at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
