The Owen Sound and North Grey Union Public Library is going to host a comedic Jack-of-all-trades as a part of its memoir writing series.
Ali Hassan will be part of a two-day event on February 2-3 to share his new book, Is There Bacon In Heaven? and to help amateur authors try their hand at telling their own stories.
Hassan was born in Fredericton, New Brunswick, and raised in Montreal.
As the son of Pakistani immigrants, he transitioned from wondering what his place was in this world, to carving out an identity of his own.
“My parents would have described me as a guy who doesn’t know what he wants to do with his life. I do have a variety of experience, and I think that that helps. I’ve been listening to these podcasts lately and so many people who are considered masters in their particular field, and most of them say that nobody really tends to wake up and go ‘This is what I want to do with my life’… If I had to do all these things, some were good, some were great, some were not that interesting at the time, I wouldn’t change it at all. I think that’s what helps you get closer to what you are good at, and what you enjoy doing.”
As a father of four in his early 50s, it led to a lot of people in his life asking why he would write a memoir, considering he’s still young.
“I also get this comment from a lot of people I know, which is ‘You’re too young to write a memoir’, which is a weird way of saying ‘Congrats on writing your memoir’,” says Hassan, adding “This is a guy with bad genetics, and who knows what tomorrow will bring?”
He decided to put his story down on paper because it made more sense to him to do so while he still had a good memory.
That said, Hassan thinks that for people who lead lives that are rich and interesting, there’s always room for a second memoir, pointing to Canadian comedy legend Rick Mercer, who has written multiple books about his own story.
Hassan drew on his upbringing in Montreal, with friends from different cultures and backgrounds. He says that he was often at odds with his mother when it came to culture. In his memoir, he says that he was often referred to as an honorary member of different cultures from his friend group: Trinidadian, Goan, Parsi, and Sikh to name a few. This was particularly because he spent so much time with the parents and grandparents of his friends, learning about their culture’s food.
“I think I was so sheepish about my own actual identity. As a Pakistani-Muslim, [with] my friends… none of them had to pray five times a day. None of them had to go to Sunday school past a certain age. I was 15, and my mother was still committing me to going to Muslim Sunday school. And of course, all of them could all eat bacon. And when they ate it, it looked like it was a gift from God in their hands, that’s the enthusiasm they had. My religion, as much respect as I have for Islam and for religion in general, I found it very, very challenging. And I wasn’t able to practice it the way it was expected of me, so I just kind of leaned in all the way to everyone else’s community.”
His parents did give him their support by telling him to pursue doing something that he loved. His love of food led to a years-long stint as a self-taught cook and caterer, as well as a cooking instructor at grocery stores.
He used his stand-up show Muslim Interrupted, as the basis for his book, saying “This is the best way for me to write. It’s material that I’m most connected with…It was either going to be a memoir or something that was slightly biographical and slightly fictional, and I thought ‘Let me keep this as honest as possible’ sort of like the way I do on stage.”
Through the years, comedy was a big part of who he was as a person, having toured across Canada, participating in Just For Laughs, and acting if various TV shows and movies.
“I can’t go very long without injecting humour into something, whether it’s a conversation, or whether it’s writing. I get bored quite easily. So I think that’s something I can impart to people who are trying to make their own writing or storytelling more compelling. I think comedy is a great way to do that. If something is comedic, it’s a great way to deliver a message…Sometimes you can deliver a pretty powerful message and when it’s cloaked in standup comedy,” says Hassan. “I guess that’s what I’m trying to do… teach people how to inject a little honey into their storytelling, in their writing, and in their messaging in general.”
In his book, he points out the differences between himself and his father, who was a literature professor in Leeds, England before moving to Canada, saying “My father was also a voracious reader, plowing through two books a week, on top of all the other work he did. My eyes would start to ache after reading an Archie’s Double Digest.”
That may have changed now, as Hassan, who hosts Canada Reads, could end up reading around 40 books this year, at a rate of up to two books per week. He also says that around one in every six or seven books he reads is a memoir or autobiographical story.
Is There Bacon In Heaven? is a look back as a kid with immigrant parents desperate to fit in, while simultaneously blending into Canadian culture.
Hassan will be reading part of his memoir to participants of the library’s memoir series workshop on Friday, February 2nd at 7 p.m., and leading a memoir-writing workshop on Saturday, February 3rd at 1 p.m.
Tickets are available through the Owen Sound Memoir Series website.