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Monday, August 04, 2008

Sweaty Rocks, Sweaty Audience, Sweaty Baba

Bismillah ar-Rahmaan ar-Raheem,


On Saturday, I found myself in Houston (where its hot and humid) to perform at the Muslim Youth Olympics. I arrived a few hours early and after watching a games, I found myself next door...rock climbing. I have tried rock climbing before but for some reason, I found harder than before (maybe because the rocks felt slippery). I quickly learned the difference between an amateur (me) and a person who does this regularly (basically everyone else). (1) they climb the high wall like spiders while I climb it like an old man (2) they were using chalk to get better grip and I was playing slip and slide trying to climb rocks that feel like I'm touching someone's sweaty hands.

Anyways, a few hours later I was performing in a gym with one of those portable mic & speaker kits. Usually I'm doing my thing on a stage with people around me but today, I was speaking to an audience sitting across the wall. You can tell the crowd wasn't in the mood for a talk (let alone comedy) because they were physically exhausted and more sweatier than the rocks I just climbed.

The interesting element in all of this was the last game went into overtime and I didn't start speaking until 5:20 and my flight was leaving at 6:25 with or without me haha. Also, the event was also about 15 minutes away from the airport and that I was scheduled to speak for for 20 minutes (now guess whose sweating).

While I'm speaking, I see the bro whose giving me a ride to the airport giving me the signal and pacing in the hallway while looking at his watch. He looks more nervous than a person whose lost his passport in a 3rd world country, which starts to make me nervous. I don't ever rambling so much random things in any talk before haha but eventually the talk ended at 5:45 and we found ourselves driving insanely to the airport. Alhamdulillah the plane was 20 minutes late and I made my flight. I text message the organizer and apologized for my awkward performance but apparently they didn't think I was doing bad at all. They invited me back on November 8th.
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9 Comments:

At August 06, 2008 9:23 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Dear Baba Ali

You should come to Birmingham in UK. there is a huge population of muslims there who would love to come and watch you

 
At August 06, 2008 9:47 AM, Blogger Wasaski said...

Alhumdulilah everything worked out well, Allah is the best of planners Muslim Youth Olympics?? hmmm surprisingly never heard of it do they have a website?

 
At August 06, 2008 2:37 PM, Blogger Sumaiya said...

salam, loving the shows and judging by the article its good to see you get out and about enjoying the world. though my friends and i would love for you to perform more shows closer to london,UK. may allah bless you and your work inshallah.

 
At August 07, 2008 9:39 AM, Blogger Baba Ali said...

This comment has been removed by the author.

 
At August 07, 2008 9:39 AM, Blogger Baba Ali said...

I'm in talks right now to be at GPU (UK). I should have an answer by Friday InshAllah.

 
At August 07, 2008 5:07 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Salaams. the GPU(UK) event is on the 25th & 26th October in London inshAllah...i saw it in an advert on islam channel the other day.Its a great event each year and people attend from all over...definetly not one event to be missed!!

 
At August 08, 2008 12:00 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

would you be able to post up the UK performances?

 
At August 08, 2008 1:20 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

hey asalamwalykum
haha, alhamdulillah it all worked out for the best.

 
At September 07, 2008 3:24 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Awww...

This reminds me of a while back when I actually managed to climb to the top, but felt too tired to hit the ball and just slid down! ;_;

Well, I'm glad you enjoyed it? Maybe, if it wasn't so difficult for you that you weren't able to enjoy it...?

Aw, maybe you're getting on in years if a hijabi has better luck with it~ or maybe it's simply not your thing, bro, or you just need practise. xD

Or stick to video-making and parenting.

 

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