Fahim Anwar

April 30, 2026

AI Summary

5 min read

"Did you do nine eleven?"

Fahim Anwar has been doing stand-up comedy long enough to have watched the Comedy Store's golden era unfold without realizing it was happening. He was there when Joe Rogan, Tom Segura, and Bert Kreischer packed the lineup every night. He was there when Louis CK dropped in, when Quentin Tarantino pointed at him from the crowd and said "I want to talk to the cool guy," when Damon Wayans made that signature half-laugh sound during his set. And he was there when Theo Von was still a middling comic working his way up. Now they're friends, and Theo has brought Fahim on tour to play 18,000-seat venues — a scale Fahim describes as "big wave surfing."

But the conversation keeps circling back to a different kind of disorientation: what it means to be an Afghan-American comic who came of age after 9/11, who worked as a mechanical engineer at Boeing while secretly building a stand-up career, who got famous on MTV's Road Rules without making any money, and who now watches the world get stranger by the day.

The engineering of a comedy career

Continue reading the full summary in the app — free to try.

Read Full Summary →

Free • No credit card required

Listen to Audio Summary Open in App

Never miss an episode of This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von

Get every new episode summarized in your inbox — free, ~5 minutes to read.

No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.

What you'll learn

1 (03:11) **Fahim Anwar Joins Theo** - Theo introduces Fahim, a stand-up comedian, actor, dancer, and longtime friend, plugging his new special *Intrusive Thoughts* (available on YouTube) and his weekly show *Fahim Works on Stuff* at the Comedy Store.
2 (17:15) **Defining "Gooning" with AI** - Fahim and Theo use Perplexity AI to look up the slang term "gooning," revealing it refers to marathon masturbation and porn consumption, often involving edging into a trance-like state.
3 (20:10) **Touring Together: Arena Shows and Small-Town Adventures** - Fahim recounts opening for Theo on a Midwest tour, describing the shock of playing 18,000-seat venues after his largest previous crowd of 7,000.
4 (26:48) **Theo's Unique Meet-and-Greet Style** - Fahim observes Theo's tendency to drill down on specific, odd details when talking to fans, such as asking a woman in a wheelchair what *kind* of car she was in when she got flung out during an accident.
5 (33:56) **The Crazy Horse Memorial: History and Pivot Jokes** - Theo and Fahim read about the Crazy Horse Memorial in South Dakota, noting it started in 1948 and is still unfinished, with only the left hand completed by 2024.
6 (38:50) **Life is Sim City: The Impossibility of Perfection** - Fahim offers a philosophy on life, comparing it to the video game *Sim City*: it will never be perfect, but you can get it as close to optimal as possible.
7 (42:26) **Fahim's Creative Process: Chasing the New Idea** - Theo praises Fahim as one of the funniest comedians at the Comedy Store, noting he always brings something new to the table.

+ Full timestamped outline available in the app

Guests on this episode

Theo Von

Show Notes

Fahim Anwar is a stand-up comedian and actor. His new special “Intrusive Thoughts” is out now on YouTube.

Fahim joins Theo to talk about the power of dance, an adventurous weekend they had in Clearlake, Iowa, and what can be done about America’s gooning epidemic.

Fahim Anwar: https://www.instagram.com/fahimanwar/

Fahim’s new special “Intrusive Thoughts”: https://youtu.be/46cxhMQYH74

Fahim Works on Stuff: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLziXdq2x78fH1IHv-bxx5pd9VjwKmZrE9

-------------------------------------------------

Tour Dates! https://theovon.com/tour

New Merch: https://www.theovonstore.com

-------------------------------------------------