Noam Shuster Eliassi is an activist-comedian who writes and performs in Arabic, English and Hebrew (with a touch of Farsi), frequently touching upon her experience growing up in “Oasis of Peace” (Neve Shalom/Wahat al-Salam), a mixed community where Palestinians and Jews live together by choice. Her satirical videos have gone viral throughout the Arab world. In 2019, Noam became the first Jewish performer to play the Palestine Comedy Festival. Noam’s one-woman show “Coexistence, My Ass!” was developed at Harvard and received a four-star review at the 2023 Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
Comedian Noam Shuster Eliassi creates a personal and political one-woman show about the struggle for equality in Israel/Palestine. When the elusive coexistence she’s spent her life working toward starts sounding like a bad joke, she challenges her audiences with hard truths that are no laughing matter.
Coexistence, My Ass! in title, conception, and content brings a bold frankness and lens of great clarity to address perhaps the most critical issue of our time. Director Amber Fares makes her Sundance debut with this urgent documentary made over several years. With a narrative backbone of Noam Shuster Eliassi’s brilliant stand-up set developed at Harvard University and filmed before a live audience, the film documents not only the shifting perspective of Eliassi — a UN diplomat turned comedian — but also the unfolding realities in the region and the resulting seismically dynamic discourse surrounding it. Audiences will come away with a laugh, a tear, and an openness that feels all together like both a salve and a kick in the ass
Coexistence my Ass - the film
click here to see the movie
Reckoning with Laughter
a 24 minute short version of coexistence my ass
check it out
