On Monday, Nov. 7 at Valhalla, Cartwright Center-Gunning Addition, students, faculty, and community members gathered for Ultra-American: A Patriot Act starring the renowned American Muslim comedian Azhar Usman. Usman’s one-man show explores and exposes the tensions and paradoxes of being an American-Muslim. Usman has performed his show in over 50 countries on five continents. He has received multitudes of praise for his comedy; he was recently deemed one of the 500 most influential Muslims in the world by Georgetown University.

His show started with a brief introduction by the UW-La Crosse Anti-Islamophobia Working Group followed by an opening act by two young Chicago comedians, who warmed the crowd up before Usman took to the stage. In his performance, Usman touched on many heavy and relevant topics including islamophobia, racism, stereotypes, and current social and political issues. By performing comedically, Usman is able to propose new insights on religion, race, and the culture in America. While the subject matter of Usman’s show is serious, the audience was falling out of their seats with laughter.

Megan Timmers, a UW-L student who attended Ultra-American, commented on the topics Usman covered, “The issues are real.” Timmers felt the show gave honest information about current issues, “We have a lot of preconceived notions as students, we just follow what our parents think, we need to learn how to think for ourselves.”

A talk-back followed the performance; audience members were able to inquire about topics presented in his show as well as Usman’s own personal experiences. After the event concluded, those who wished were able to meet Usman, chat with him, and take a selfie with him.

While Usman’s show was intrinsically comedic, the content seemed to impact the audience. A UW-L student, Marian Haile explained, “I am Muslim, but I was born and raised in America so his show was very relevant to me.” As a student and member of the UW-L Anti-Islamophobia Working Group she argued that, “I think this show was important for our campus and college students because you can’t tell who someone is by their skin color or their religion.” Haile continued to comment on Usman’s show saying it helped “Shed light on American Muslims on campus, a lot of people don’t know who we are. There are a lot of stereotypes and generalizations associated about us, what people don’t understand is we love this country as much as everyone else.”

Usman spoke after the show about what he wanted college students to take away from his performance. Usman replied: “As Uncle Ben said in Spiderman: ‘With great power comes great responsibility.’ This is especially applicable to young Americans, they are living in the most technological and advanced place on earth, and my hope for them is that they’ll use that power for good and not for taking snapchats.”