FAHIM ANWAR'S BLOG
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FAHIM ANWAR'S BLOG
NEW FACES
Jeez, I can finally spill the beans now. I will be performing in the 2010 Just For Laughs New Faces Showcase in Montreal. You don't know how long I've had to bottle this up folks. Sorry to all the people I've lied to in the LA comedy scene the past few weeks. The festival threatened to kill my family if word got out. I was skeptical until they handed me a phone where I heard my dad scream, "They mean business!" before getting punched in the face.
It's been quite a journey to get here. This was the 8th year I had auditioned for New Faces. They have tape on me since I was 18. I'm 26 now. Someone needs to make a time lapse of all my audition tapes. Being a New Face at the festival was the first goal I ever set for myself when I got into standup so it's pretty fulfilling. The other goal I had that came later was being on TV in some artistic capacity rather than eating goat balls while being attached to a bungee cord for some reason. I get so caught up in the grind of doing standup that I sometimes forget about the accomplishments and how fortunate I've been. It's really crazy to have hatched this plan as a teen in Seattle and see it unfold before my very eyes: do standup while in college, get a job as an engineer in SoCal upon graduation, work by day do standup by night until opportunities present themselves such that I can do comedy full time...and we're here. -
FAHIM ANWAR'S BLOG
RUSSELL SIMMONS PRESENTS STANDUP AT THE EL REY
So I taped what will be my very first standup appearance on national television. The show: Russell Simmons Presents Standup at The El Rey. It's a mouthful and will air on Comedy Central in June from what I hear. Doing standup on TV has been a dream of mine since I first started. I've had some TV success this past year with my guest starring role on Chuck and becoming a cast member on Disaster Date but recognition for what I entered the game as (standup comic) had eluded me. The gist of the show is Def Jam for Comedy Central. Curious as to why I was chosen because "Def Jam" is not the first thing that comes to mind when people see me. I can kind of see it I suppose though, in that I am very pop-cultury (I'm coining terms here) and have the occasional hip hop reference or two. Russell Simmons was actually present which was kind of a trip. Part of me wanted to ask him how much it cost his brother and Aerosmith to replace the wall they busted down during their performance of Walk This Way but I refrained. During dress rehearsal we were all told to take a seat as Russell sat on stage to address the performers. He spoke of what Def Jam did for the performers of its time and how he hoped this show would do the same for us, how it was a great opportunity, and to not @$%& up. Comforting. Luckily, I did as Russell had suggested and did not @$%& up. The show was hosted by JB Smoove from Curb Your Enthusiasm which is one of my favorite shows. He's so great on there. There's was also a DJ for the show (as all urban shows are one to do). If Russell Simmons were to produce a cooking show it's safe to bet a DJ will be involved in some fashion. "(scratch) Yeahhh Boy. Now that's a stuffed bell pepper!" The man behind the wheels of steel for this was none other than DJ Cassidy. The man wears nothing but Adidas jumpsuits and vaudevillian hat. It's a very comfortable lifestyle. He would not last long on Wall Street. I was surprised at what a cool and down to Earth dude he was. He was honestly a comedy fan for the event as well giving the comedians genuine props after their sets. Always love it when artists have mutual respect for each other's craft.
The taping was cool in that it was a first hand account on how shows like these are produced. It also wasn't bad meeting people you never thought you would have met in your life. Show business is strange...
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FAHIM ANWAR'S BLOG
NACA
NACA nationals is quite the experience. It's where entertainers of all likes converge in one place in hopes of selling their talents to universities across this great nation. Think of it as Vegas meets the bazaar from Aladdin. You'll do a stage show then rush to the marketplace (fancy word for 8th grade science project esque booth space) where you hobnob with the every college kid who had been mentally judging you onstage. It's really quite funny how many grown men's livelihoods are held in the hands of these 18-21 year old kids. PLEASE BOOK ME! I NEED HEALTH INSURANCE AND WOULD LIKE TO RETURN TO EATING SOLID FOODS!
Sometimes I'll get into philosophical and in depth conversations with friends about the art and history of standup comedy but at NACA it's broken down to it's rawest form: entertainment. Nothing is more glaringly obvious when your booth lies between a sumo wrestling suit vendor and a magician pounding nails up his nose. The marketplace is an interesting environment and was a completely foreign concept to me. I am a comedian and I am terrible at self-promotion. Marketplace kind of requires much of the later. At first I would move in on a group of college kids that one of the other diversity standup artists had lured in, I would observe their entire conversation while contributing nothing, then as the conversation was winding down, creepily outstretch my hand with business card in tow. This worked for a while but I luckily, later incorporated actual words and coherent sentences. After the first few marketplaces I really hit my whoring stride, chatting the kids up and managing to dump my materials into their bag ever so discretely. I was gradually becoming the David Blaine of marketplace.
ME: You thought I actually cared about how big your student body is? Muahahaha! Look inside your bag.
STUDENT: Noooooooo waaaaayy!!!!
I then held my breath for 15 minutes for no reason. This got me more bookings than any of my comedy.
The shows themselves were great. Nice venues, throngs of college kids who are just ready for a good time. It was also good fun being in Boston with all the other NBC Diversity finalists soaking it all in together. This was my first time ever being on the East coast and I have to say I'm a fan. I love the history at every corner. All I've ever known is West coast so it was a nice eye opener. I only heard three people with ridiculous Boston accents though. I was secretly hoping for more. Maybe next time I'll try to hang around more firehouses and/or Fenway Park. I'll be sure to let you know how that goes. -
FAHIM ANWAR'S BLOG
MY CHUCK EXPERIENCE
So I have a large guest starring role on the sixth episode of season three of Chuck which sounds utterly ridiculous for me to even say or type. It's still hard to believe even when I've already shot the episode. I first decided to get into standup when I was 17 in Woodinville, Washington. My "plan" went so far as do standup and see where it takes me. 8 years later I'm at a point where it's very interesting to see where standup is in fact taking me. The first tangible achievement I'd have to say was this Chuck episode. Normally, standups make a name for themselves in standup and eventually get a TV credit. It happened backwards for me which is pretty funny. I mean I've been doing standup in LA for 3 years now ever since I moved from Seattle but I was very much under the radar. Not by choice but two things made it hard for me to be a constant fixture of the "LA Comedy Scene." Number one, my day job is working as an aerospace engineer. Two, I live in Long Beach. Somehow I was able to get Chuck though, ha.
My first day on the lot was a lot to take in. I come from a world of cubicle walls and water coolers and now I'm aimlessly wandering the streets of the Warner Bros Lot trying to get to where I need to be. Golf carts and bicycles whizzing by me. Must have been pretty obvious I was the new guy. Constantly referencing a piece of computer paper with your head on a swivel generally gives it away. I got to hair and makeup and learned they wanted to do absolutely nothing to my hair other than put product in it. Was kinda hoping to get a free haircut out of the gig but in the grand scheme of things, I can live. You quickly learn how many people it requires to run a show like Chuck. And there are many people behind the scenes like hair, makeup, ADs, markers, stand ins, to name a few. I was lucky enough to make friends with a lot of them. So much so we've taken our friendship to the facebook level. Yeah, pretty serious.
It came time for my first scene at the Buy More and it was a little nerve wracking. Only because you see how many people are involved in a shoot and flubbing a line makes soooooo many people have to do their job again. My main goal was to not make these people hate me. Luckily, all went smooth enough. For my first scene I had to talk to Kristen Kreuk, of Smallville and Neutrogena fame, before Zach Levi would swoop in to talk to me. There was no actual dialogue but it had to appear as if we were talking. So we had many gibberish conversations. I did learn she lives in Vancouver and other things that I have forgotten by now which sucks for you the reader. Quite a build up for nothing, huh? As each day went on I grew more and more comfortable. The entire cast & crew was super nice and welcoming as well which made it that much easier on me. Sometimes between scenes and setups extras would ask what else I've done, if I've been working a lot then I would feel like a huge douchebag when I told them "Actually, this is my first acting gig ever." I know I'm very fortunate for the role and opportunity but I have put in hard work just on the standup side of things. Everybody's path is different.
One day I came on set and found out I'd be doing kung fu training for 4 hours with the stunt coordinator for the show. Ummm, awesome. We ran through my scene over and over all the while there was a WB visitor tour consisting of a bunch of French vacationers watching our choreographed fight scene unbeknownst to me. After my final kick, I hear thunderous applause, which was instantly embarrassing. I also had a stunt double on the show. I know, this experience is truly ridiculous. Really cool guy, Holland Diaz. He was Toby Maguire's stunt double in Spiderman which basically makes me an A-List actor as well. You're only as good as who your stuntmen have stunted for. He told me a funny story. A lot of people had a problem with "Emo Spiderman." Partly because of his hairstyle. Well what happened was Holland would come in with a hat everyday so his hair would be matted down. They wanted to give Toby a different look and were inspired by Holland's matted down hair. Not sure if he ever wanted me to regurgitate this story. Ohhhh well. Sorry if you get emo spiderman hate mail, bud.
All in all, it was a phenomenal experience that I can hang my hat on no matter what else happens or does not happen in my comedy career. I'm excited to see what it will look like all cut together come Feb. 1st. I'm sure you will all be watching now. You're emotionally invested in me now. You sort of have to. I will be playing the guy who looks exactly like me on the show. If you're not good with faces then look out for the name Manoosh Depak. I have already made 500,000 "Manoosh Is On Fire, We Don't Need No Water..." t-shirts made for the Manoosh fever that will soon sweep the nation. Be sure to tune in Jan. 10th as well when the new season of Chuck kicks off. Shameless promotion, can you blame me?
Contact Jennie Church-Cooper / Principato Young: (310) 274-4027
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