Not to expose my friends and I, but we may or may not be Hasan Al-Habib’s biggest fans.
Ever since Hasan Al-Habib’s 2025 Fringe show Death to the West (Midlands), I have been eagerly waiting for his next set. Luckily, Habib’s return to the Fringe with his new uproarious show Stuck in the Middle (East) With You. This time, he tells the story of growing up as a child of divorce — to make it more “relatable for white British people.”
The Brummy-Iraqi comedian quickly reminds us on why he’s an audience Fringe favourite, as he smoothly flows through different British accent impressions remarkably and reveals joke-after joke as a perfect continuous narrative. His comedic timing was pin-point each time. One is able to see the strength in his stage presence through his eased ability to control the crowd and what feelings they are meant to experience at each moment — holding the audience in the palm of his hands.
From delving into his familial dynamics between his parents, uncle, and aunt, all the way to his adult life as he studied for his PHD in Oncology, Al-Habib takes us on a journey of his coming-of-age story. The comedian’s anecdotes range from side-splitting to startlingly poignant, as talks about his uncle’s cancer and his aunt’s manipulative tendencies. It was interesting to see how Al-Habib turned a traumatic tale of domestic abuse from his aunt to become a point of humour in his stand-up, as “escaping domestic abuse is similar to a Scottish summer: I don’t know what to pack.”
With the stand-up material including puns like his “petition to remove the ‘ham’ from Birmingham,” and “If you’re really good at spotting Muslims, that skill will easily get you a job in Heathrow Airport,” Al-Habib’s set is one to watch. While some jokes may have felt slightly repetitive, in a way that I feel like I have generally heard these puns about Muslim stereotypes before, the way the comedian delivers them makes me see these quips in a whole new light. And one joke I may or may not have to steal to use amongst my friends is his one-liner about the Islamic hadith being something Muslims have to follow, not dissimilar to a white millennial’s “live, laugh, love,” and a Londoner’s “see it, say it, sort it.”
The overall narrative streams effortlessly, with each segment correlating with another, and occasional callbacks to conversations with his French-Iranian girlfriend to which he mimics her very strong French accent – at one hilarious point, he jumbles up the two accents between his mother and his girlfriend (and whether it was a skit or not, make sure not to read into that!).
After visiting his sister-show 2 Muslim 2 Furious 3, alongside comedian Aisha Amanduri, it was easy to notice that many of his puns happened to travel across the two shows, almost creating a sense of deja vu in me as an audience member. Even so, I guess this is what happens when your comedy forms naturally and your jokes are utterly crowd-pleasing.
Hasan Al-Habib: Stuck in the Middle (East) With You is running until 30th August at Upstairs at Pleasance Courtyard. Buy tickets here.
Photo by Matt Stronge, provided to The Student as press material.
