Shahak Shapira is an Israeli-German comedian with Arab roots performing stand-up in English. It’s a mess.

Being a walking container for some of the world’s most problematic identities hasn’t stopped him from traveling the world and performing for audiences who are nothing like him – just to find out whether they might be anything like him after all.

It did, however, land him in a mental hospital. Not a pleasant experience – but even life’s most depressing stories can make for great comedy if you end them with a punchline.

In “Selective Identity”, Shahak tries  to find those punchlines while talking about roots, never fitting in, depression, the search for a home, heartbreak, war, racism, and many other light-hearted topics – succeeding about 80% of the time.