Comedy Oakland featuring Ahmed Abdelrahman, Samson Koletkar, Jamar Pitts, Bavya Shah, Eric Somers, Tammy Tea
416 13th Street, Oakland
December 31, 2025
By just about any measure, 2025 sucked. My partner and I wanted to bid a not-at-all fond farewell to the lousy year by taking in some yuks in hopes that 2026 won’t be as similar to the annus horribilis we’ve just been through. The sold out audience at Mushin 2.0 in downtown Oakland for a New Year’s Eve line-up of seven comics must’ve sensed that we weren’t in for a much better 12 months to come—they were a fairly frosty group. Although the comedy was good if not great, the crowd was a tough one.
"I don't think French people should date Eskimos."
Opener and Emcee Eric Somers had a routine about how he’s a live-and-let-live guy, “But I do think they’re certain groups that don’t belong together. For instance, I don’t think French people should date Eskimos—because how awkward is that first kiss?” I laughed at his joke about the conflict between the French faire la bise and Eskimo nose nuzzling, but the audience let out nary a chuckle. Ouch, rough stuff! He then went on about fast food: “They can’t call it a ‘Big Mac’ at Carl’s Jr. They call it a ‘Big Carl’ which doesn’t sound like food; it sounds like a sex act!” Once more, barely any audience response. Was I the only one laughing at Somers’s jokes?!
Maybe folks were loosening up after enjoying a few libations, because when Ahmed Abdelrahman came up next he got better laughs from the crowd. His set had mainly to do with being Muslim and jokes about sex. A Sudanese-American Oakland native, Abdelrahman remarked that a requirement in the Muslim religion is to drive for Uber. He told a story of how he’d once picked up a guy in a MAGA cap who said to him, “You’re one of the good ones.” “Sir,” he replied, “That’s not the compliment you think it is.”
He also had a good audience participation routine where he asked if anyone was celebrating Kwanzaa. When a white lady raised her hand Abdelrahman said, “You?! No, I didn’t mean Hanukkah. I mean anyone with your complexion… You from Berkeley?”
The next act, Tammy Tea, had been in a car accident and went onstage on crutches, sitting down for her set. Apart from an okay joke about Filipino nurses washing her body while she was in the hospital (she’s a lesbian), most of her jokes fell flat. And the still chilly audience didn’t help.
Bavya Shah, who is blind, went onstage with a seeing eye dog. A Stanford University student studying Mathematics and Computer Science, Shah said he’s not at all racist because he doesn’t see color. Haha! I loved the corniness! And his thick Hindi accent added to his delivery. Shah also ripped into Cal Berkeley, joking: “How many Stanford University students does it take to screw in a lightbulb? None! Berkeley students do it.”
"What the fuck is pickleball?!"
Native San Franciscan Jamar Pitts followed and was my personal favorite of the night. His best routine was about how white women want to go on the most athletic dates imaginable. “What the fuck is pickleball?!” he asked exasperatedly. “Turns out pickleball is the official sport of gentrification. Have you heard pickleball paddles in your neighborhood? Guess what just happened: rent just went up, bitch.” Pitts’s set made me snort a couple times. He brought the jokes with vigor and confident verve.
"You are so beautiful..."
Samson Koletkar went on last. Koletkar, who also goes by the moniker “Mahatma Moses,” bills himself as “the world’s only Indian-Jewish stand-up comedian.” He was a great storyteller with a dry wit whose lead-ups and timing were excellent. He joked that the Indian/Jewish Venn diagram is “just me!” He also joked about English language idioms and axioms which make him anxious: “‘A stitch in time saves nine’ sounds like a TED talk.”
The crowd broke out of their reserved shell when he said that he’d just heard the Joe Cocker song You Are So Beautiful for the first time. “Why does he say ‘to me’? I think he should’ve stopped at ‘you are so beautiful’… Sounds like she has a really good ‘personality’.” Koletkar concluded the night with a killer bang, melting the audience’s frigidity. I wanted to chat with him after the show, but he was rushing off for two more shows at two other venues before the clock struck midnight.
My partner and I toasted each other before heading out for the last few hours of terrible '25. Here’s hoping 2026 will be survivable. Laughter certainly helps.
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
