While most people enjoy his stand-up routine, which dissects his Arab and Muslim heritage and cross-references it with Australian cultural values, Mr Khalafalla tells SBS Arabic24 that his unique brand of comedy has attracted some unwanted attention.
He says he frequently receives abuse on social media and in person, targeting his religion and race.
"I’m exposed to this all the time, you need to build a thicker skin – it’s part of the territory, it’s part of the job," he said.
"To be honest it brings me a little bit of joy to know that someone, somewhere, is that affected by me even though I haven’t actively reached out to them. If anything it just shows my influence."
Khaled Khalafalla performing stand-up comedy routine on stage. Source: Supplied
Mr Khalafalla was born in Saudi Arabia to Egyptian parents and lived there for seven years. His family then moved to New Zealand before moving to Australia, where he had stints living in Townsville, Bendigo and Melbourne.
One of his career highlights was performing for Australian troops in Afghanistan.
He recalls a message he received recently on Facebook, where someone threatened to "bring a heap of right-wing activists" to his upcoming stand-up show in Melbourne to "give away free pork and gravy rolls and beers".
"I got a message from someone on Facebook and he was very upset with me, which is really great for me because he was affected somewhere. And I know when someone doesn’t know who I am but is angry at me, it just lends itself to comedy perfectly," he said.
"So immediately I knew that this would be a perfect launch for my show. I read his message. I read his message [on stage] and it did not fail me. He was threatening essentially, to offend my Muslim sensibilities. But in doing that he showed that he didn’t actually know what my Muslim sensibilities were, and showed how not grounded in reality his understandings of Muslims in Australia are.
A message received through a Facebook message to Khaled's page. Source: Facebook \ Khaled Khalafalla
"Typically I would be scared of something like this but it just so happens that because of the Christchurch attack, there is more fear but there is much more support for people like me and threats that come to people like me then there normally would be. So I feel more safe, even if there seems to be a threat."
He said it was important to make light of such threats.
"It’s free catering; I’m delighted to have free catering because my audience is not just a Muslim audience. If it makes anyone else happy, even if he means it with malicious intent, that’s fine. It will make my audience happier and it will make a better show."
Khaled Khalafalla is entertained Aussie troops in Afghanistan. Source: Facebook
