Art & Life with Nora Panahi

Today we’d like to introduce you to Nora Panahi.

Nora, please kick things off for us by telling us about yourself and your journey so far.
I started telling jokes on stage in high school at morning meetings. Every Monday morning, I would tell a one-liner or a pun before announcements and every Monday afternoon the dean would pull me aside and tell me that my joke was too inappropriate or didn’t represent the school’s values. When I got to college, I decided I’d try stand-up so I could say what I wanted to say and make people laugh in a more appropriate setting. My freshman year I ended up being the first female winner of BU’s Funniest, a school-wide stand-up competition. Ever since then I’ve gone back and forth between Boston and New York doing shows, have opened for people like Hannibal Buress, and performed at Mohegan Sun!

Can you give our readers some background on your art?
I do stand-up comedy and a little musical comedy as well! I started out writing silly songs and putting them on YouTube but realized I had a lot more I wanted to say and couldn’t figure out how to make it rhyme, so I started doing stand-up. I really love comedy because I think it’s a very personal type of performance, just like music, so I think the two work well together. In my stand-up I try to incorporate as much about my own personal experiences as possible because I think it’s a positive way to communicate feelings of frustration, sadness, rejection, etc., and if people are laughing at what that customer said to me at my job or what reason my ex gave me for dumping me via text while I was at Six Flags, then maybe that means I’m not totally alone in those feelings of frustration, sadness, and rejection.

I also try to talk about my identity as a half-Muslim, half-Buddhist Iranian-American, because not a lot of people know too much about Islam or the Middle East, and what they do know, especially in this day and age, is mostly stereotypes and horror stories. I think presenting topics like Islam and Middle Eastern-ness in the context of humor makes them a little less scary and a little more approachable. If you’re able to laugh at something you’re able to think critically about it because you’re more comfortable. Not all Muslims are terrorists, right? RIGHT?!

What would you recommend to an artist new to the city, or to art, in terms of meeting and connecting with other artists and creatives?
Join a Facebook group. Go to shows. Stick around after and tell people they did a good job. Add “stand-up comic” to your tinder profile and people will assume you’re interesting. Or just be lonely–loneliness can be very funny, or so they tell me. I have a boyfriend.

What’s the best way for someone to check out your work and provide support?
I perform all over Boston at local comedy clubs like ImprovBoston, bars like Terry O’Reilly’s, and even in people’s basements and living rooms. You can support my work by liking my tweets! I have so many tweets! Please like my tweets.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.norapanahi.com
• Instagram: @norapanahiisabitch
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/norapanahicomedy/
• Twitter: @heyychief

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