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Coached by Tom Parry, the comedy collective No Direction Home are bucking stereotypes about refugees and migrants – and thriving online during lockdown
‘Let me tell you something more about my miserable life,” says Usman Khalid, with a miserable face. Then he pauses, and twinkles: “That’s why you’re here, isn’t it?” Well, why would you go to see refugees performing standup comedy? Displacement, migration, sanctuary – these are not hilarious subjects. If we think about them at all, it’s usually with bleeding hearts. Or worse. “The media discourse,” says comedian Tom Parry, “is, ‘Oh these poor refugees, they need our help’, or ‘God, these refugees coming over here [and sponging off us]’… But both responses are dehumanising. Whereas there’s nothing more human than laughing with someone.”
Parry – of the sketch trio, Pappy’s, and award-nominated for his solo work – is coach to No Direction Home, a collective of refugees and migrants learning standup comedy. It’s Refugee Week this week, and the outfit are presenting three gigs, the third with Nish Kumar headlining. Parry gets his mates involved, and those big-name headliners – Romesh Ranganathan fronted their Southbank Centre gala last summer – lead masterclasses for participants, too. The programme is thriving in the age of Zoom, on which Parry now leads three weekly workshops to a burgeoning intake. “None of us,” he says, “can believe how successful it’s been.” Continue reading...