Shlovan Saleh: What makes a comedian laugh?

 By Jiyan Behrozy


Shlovan Saleh, is a Kurdish-American comedian born in 1992 in Suleimani, living in Lincoln, Nebraska in the US.  
 
He broke out with an Instagram video he shared about two years ago, and now has close to 200,000 followers who daily view his video clips, in which he shows a typical Kurdish diaspora family's life in a comic perspective.
 
Rudaw caught up with Saleh in this exclusive interview.
 
Rudaw: How did you get the idea and the inspiration to make video clips not longer than 15 seconds, and become such a success with so many followers?
 
Shlovan Saleh: In the beginning I did not think it would have such a big impact, I did it only for fun. But then I saw that several hundred had "liked" the clip, and that many had tagged their friends. That was when I understood that people liked the concept and I just continued. I'm a huge fan of comedy myself and I knew that there were no Vine (a social media video platform) videos in Kurdish, but in all other languages.
 
If you read the comments, most are positive, but you have to endure some negativity too. How do you deal with them and what are they most dissatisfied with?

I get some negative comments and it's mostly from people who live in Kurdistan, but that was more from the beginning. As time went by people accepted our videos because they knew we don't make fun of our people, but rather to make them smile especially during hard times. Many of them texted later on and apologized. Our number one goal is to make people happy!
 
Although many now know who you are, it seems you are still down to earth and living a completely normal life with your parents with an ordinary job. Have you been offered anything given your fame?

No, I haven't gotten a dollar out of it. If I make two people smile it's like a million dollars. I spend my own money to make the vines. Sometimes I need to go to different places to get the full message of the clip, or buy mustaches, hair, clothes and things like that. But it's not much that I'm spending myself. The whole thing makes me happy as well. Once they invited me to a fundraising event in Sweden. I was the host, they paid the tickets and that was it. Also I got offered to be a sponsor for a protein brand.
 
You haven't been in Kurdistan since 2004. You will go back in a week. What are your plans and expectations? 

It feels great to go back to my homeland, I can't wait! I badly wanna raise some money or bring food to the front line, inspire people somehow. Mostly to not throw a lot of food out because there are so many people who need it these days. It's just a thought, we'll see what I will be able to do and what the possibilities are!
 
Have any other media reached out to you up until now?
 
No they haven't. TV channels haven't, they seem to be very busy giving television time to non-Kurdish talents. They’d rather look past us who have made 300 clips in Kurdish, and instead spend a lot of time on singers in Arabic or English. I think it's important to be aware of the Kurdish language as well.
 
Given that distance is itself a wide phenomenon among Kurds, how do you draw the line in your jokes so people do not be too offended?

There aren’t many lines. If I feel like doing something I just do it. All I care about is not being disrespectful or way too sexual in vines. I want to make something new and that stands out, that's what people like. I make fun of Kurdish parents and their social issues, Kurds vs Americans in daily life, having a girl- or boyfriend in Kurdish culture and other things we haven't been able to make fun of.
 
Do you want to continue in the format you are working in right now, or would you like to develop something more than Instagram and vines?

I wanna keep on doing what I'm doing right now. But I would love to take it to another step later on, maybe a full length Kurdish comedy movie.
 
Does Shlovan Saleh, the funny bodybuilder living in America with a passion for Kurdish classical music, have a girlfriend?

Haha! No, I don't have a girlfriend at the moment. I don't have time right now and I'm very busy!
 
You make everyone else laugh, what makes you laugh?
 
Honestly, nobody makes me laugh as much as I make myself laugh! I like comedy stuff in general. Hama Dambl is my favorite Kurdish comedian.