We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Tarek Muhammad . We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Tarek below.
Alright, Tarek thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?
My entire life I was the “funny kid”. Growing up and in school, I even won “funniest student “ in my high school . Telling jokes and entertaining people was always something I loved to do even though I was really an introvert. I never went to parties , or really did much with others but when I had any type of platform , I love to entertain. I love my parents and all they want is to see me and my siblings succeed. In my culture education and choice of career is very important. My parents immigrated here with nothing and worked 7 days a week, 14 hour days just to provide so , they didn’t want that for their kids. Being a comedian wasn’t really an option. I started working at a bank and climbed the corporate ladder for about 13 years. In the back of my mind , I always wanted to do comedy and I didn’t want to live with regrets. Finally, on a random night in October of 2021, I was laying on the couch and started to almost have a panic attack . In my mind I started freaking myself out telling myself “what if I can be the next big thing in comedy” but I’ll never know because I was afraid of a little criticism from my family . So that night I went online and I found an open mic near me. I just went , got on stage and it was a feeling I can’t even explain . I felt like I belonged and it was absolutely incredible. I immediately started building momentum and people were loving me . It’s only been about a year and I’ve now performed in Cleveland (my hometown) numerous times at sold out events, Detroit, Chicago , Indiana and Houston. Next up I’ll be performing in Orlando , Cincinnati, Cleveland again and Dearborn . To be traveling and doing what I love has been a dream come true but my biggest accomplishment was this past August. I was able to join a group of comedians and perform at the 1001 Laughs Comedy Festival in my home country of Palestine. That is an experience that I will truly never forget . The journey will continue.
How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?
I treat people with kindness and respect. Even the people who have negative things to say about me whether it be online or in person , I never “attack back”. Not even for the naysayers but mostly because I don’t want to see someone who is a fan of mine see me act in a negative way . When I perform at these venues I treat the entire staff like family and do everything I can to make sure we put on the best performance for the crowd coming to enjoy .
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
This one is easy : it’s the first time I bombed. As comedians , bad performances , bad sets will happen . You have to try new jokes to see what works and sometimes it just doesn’t work . It was my my third time performing . I was in a club in Cleveland, Ohio . Comedians always want to open with a great joke. Once you hear the crowd laugh it opens up and the energy becomes electric and you just feed off the crowd . I told my first joke and it was crickets. I kept going and I immediately lost the crowd . I’ve seen people get off the stage during the moments but I didn’t want to do that . As uncomfortable as it was I completed my entire 10 minute set . I was so happy I pushed through because it taught me that it really wasn’t that bad . It’s part of the art . It teaches you what may and may not work and it also started to teach me to be quicker on my feet and how to pivot in case a joke doesn’t go great . Since this performance, I’ve had ZERO nerves going into another show . I am always confident in my writing but now know worst case , it will not be so bad and you can learn and move on .
Contact Info:
- Instagram: @tarek_cle
- Other: I mostly use my TikTok which is abu_jude2020