Punchy humour challenges cliche
Comedian Nazeem Hussain has taken advantage of his mother's trip to Sri Lanka to finally move out of home.
Hussain's mother, Mumtaz Hamid, gained some exposure through her affectionate and proud interview segments that aired on last week's episode of ABC's Australian Story, which explored the success of Fear of a Brown Planet, Hussain's Muslim-Australian comedy duo with Aamer Rahman, who performed their final show at Perth's Fringe World festival in February.
While Hussain found it hard to watch his story being told on the screen, his abroad mother wanted feedback on how she was portrayed.
"A lot of people love my mum, she asked me how the show went on the phone," he says.
"I said it was great, and then she said 'well what have people been saying about me?' I read her some tweets and she said 'oh that's beautiful'."
The episode showed that the 28-year-old was still living with his mother but Hussain reveals that he took the opportunity to move out while she's been away.
"She's back in a couple of weeks and then we'll have to have the conversation about what has happened while she's been away, this is being published in WA so she probably won't see it," he sighs.
What she will see is the new season of Legally Brown, Hussain's SBS show that blends stand-up comedy in front of a studio audience along with hidden-camera stunts, social experiments and scripted sketches.
All of Hussain's characters return for season two and they've all upped the ante.
Bangladesh's number one spiritual guru Imran Farook is now on a mission to guide Hollywood's B-grade celebrities but the comedian admits it was hard work enlightening the lives of former Bold and the Beautiful star Ronn Moss, Melissa Rivers and Weird Al Yankovic in a limited timeframe.
Hussain says he had less than a week to visit a dozen Hollywood homes in his guru garb to film his segment Spirit Time.
"We had the costume in the hand luggage, so I got changed on the way at a petrol station carpark and went straight to Gary Busey's house, which was in this gated community," he recalls.
"His house was just messy as hell, it was full of crap, his garage was the cleanest place to film in. We literally landed in LA, went straight to his garage, did an interview with him and the local crew there had no idea what to expect; it was one of the weirdest introductions to America."
Also returning is Uncle Sam, who last year campaigned on the streets in an attempt to become the prime minister of the Islamic Republic of Australia.
This year the character tries many new ventures, including the staging of a burqa-heavy fashion show in Sydney's Pitt Street Mall.
Passers-by are quick to yell at the extroverted Muslim leader and Hussain says there have been some close calls but luckily director Morgan Jones is quick to advise him of any danger through an earpiece.
"To be honest, in real life I am always very conscious of danger but something happens when we're doing this show, I'm less aware of danger," he says.
"I think if it wasn't for other people saying back off now I probably would get punched in the face, like I did on (Foxtel comedy) Balls of Steel, which was the first and only time I've been punched ever. We were filming somewhere, some guy punched me in the face just because I asked him if he was drunk."
