The Chutzpah Festival has a long tradition of bringing in top comedy talent. This year is no exception, with Americans Mark Schiff playing the Norman and Annette Rothstein Theatre on Monday (February 20) and Judy Gold at the York Theatre next Friday (February 24). Add to this Ali Hassan, who joins Gold at the York on a double bill.

One of these things is not like the others, you’re thinking. And you’re right. Hassan is Canadian. He’s also of Pakistani descent, and Muslim.

“I’ll tell you what chutzpah means,” he says on the phone from his home in Toronto. “It means having a Muslim guy at your Jewish arts-and-culture festival. That’s chutzpah!”

Hassan brings an abridged version of his one-man show Muslim Interrupted, which he’s performed all across Canada. The title gives a clue to where he stands with the religion he grew up with.

“I’ve had numerous ups and downs and ins and outs with my faith,” he says. “Part of what I talk about is the inspiration from a number of my Jewish friends who are cultural Jews. In hearing that so many times and looking into it, I realized I am a cultural Muslim.”

The show isn’t some sort of sermon with Hassan telling us what’s what. He chronicles his life and talks about raising his children as nonpractising Muslims. He’ll talk about the questions his daughters grill him with, like “Are we Muslim? How come we don’t pray? Why is there chorizo in the back of the freezer?”

“They go to school with kids who are like, ‘How come you don’t go to the mosque?’ and then they’re like, ‘Uh, we’ll be right back with an answer.’ And then they come to me: ‘How come we don’t go to the mosque?’ ” He stumbles, then says: “ ‘I don’t know what to tell you; I tried to get out of that racket, you know? Papa’s more of a freelance Muslim; he doesn’t really do that kind of stuff.’ ”

In a world with Donald Trump, it ain’t easy being Muslim. Not that it ever was. “Muslims are caught between a rock and a hard place because we suffer the racism from the non-Muslims when it comes our way, and then we also suffer equally from the extremism within our religion,” he says. “As I’m sure you’re aware, no terrorist ever said, ‘Well, let’s wait until all the Muslims clear out of the building and then we’ll go in.’ They don’t care. They have this sick, twisted relationship with God where they think they’re doing something that will be of benefit to us, too. So we lose out on both sides.”

As host of Laugh Out Loud and Canada Reads on CBC Radio, Hassan can be himself without having to take a sociopolitical stance. But these days, he does what he feels he has to do.

“I never wanted to be known as an ethnic comedian or a Muslim comedian or a Pakistani or whatever it was,” he says. “I just wanted to be known as a comedian. I wanted to be a great comedian. That was the goal. Now that things have taken a little bit of a left turn, it’s hard for me not to be known as a Muslim comedian. But I’d rather still be called a comedian.”

Ali Hassan and Judy Gold play the York Theatre next Friday (February 24) as part of the Chutzpah Festival.