Heavenly Baba is a one‑hour comedic memoir exploring Ismael Loutfi’s relationship with his deeply religious immigrant father — affectionately known as “Baba.” Through sharp stand‑up and multimedia elements, Loutfi examines the complexities of growing up Muslim in America at a time of heightened emotions around Islam in the West.

Ismael's father was not a regular Muslim, however. His eccentricities and righteous outbursts all but guaranteed that Ismael would grow up isolated and odd-- destined to seek connection with strangers through live performance. Both hilarious and deeply human, the show pulses with restless energy and unexpected emotional turns, shifting seamlessly between laugh-out-loud absurdity and startling tenderness. Through vivid storytelling and inventive visuals, Loutfi invites audiences into a world shaped by devotion, contradiction, and generational love. What begins as riotous comedy gradually reveals itself as a nuanced meditation on identity and belonging.

Both hilarious and deeply human, Heavenly Baba leaves audiences exhilarated — and unexpectedly moved. After three years of building the show, along with a highly successful run at Edinburgh's Fringe Fest, Ismael is excited to present Heavenly Baba Off Broadway, seeing it as a culmination of a lifetime of searching for an outlet, a connection, a way to speak as that strange little Muslim boy whose father drove a car with the words “ISLAM ALWAYS DOT COM” painted on the back windshield for every redblooded American to see.