WILLIAMSBURG – Shafi Hossain works a day job as a chemical engineer. But when the sun goes down, he turns into a stand-up comic and his recent show at the Vino Theater on Thursday, June 27, sold out.

His night-time success is probably well-known to comedy fans and critics. Hossain has over 100,000 Instagram followers and was named one of New York’s funniest Stand-Ups in 2021 by the New York Comedy Festival two years after moving to Williamsburg.TimeOut described Penthouse Comedy Show, produced by Hossain, as one of the best comedy shows in the city.

Born in Bangladesh, Hossain came to the United States for college, where he first began watching stand-up routines with his friends. After graduating from the University of Massachusetts with a degree in Chemical Engineering, Hossain moved to Saratoga Springs. He discovered his desire to do stand-up there after walking past a small club advertising open-mic events. 

“I didn’t know you could just do [comedy],” said Hossain. “Randomly, I was walking, and someone was like, ‘Oh, we do open mic nights.’ I walked in and saw amateurs just sharing ideas. I fell in love with it.” 

After signing up for one show, Hossain says he just kept coming back and never stopped performing. He moved to New York City to pursue comedy more seriously in 2019. 

Hossain does stand-up every night of the week, performing multiple times a night while maintaining a day job as a chemical engineer. His website jokes that he is “the funniest chemical engineer in the world.”

During his hour-long performance at the Vino, Hossain filled the room with energy and never faltered despite the heat. His comedy centers around anecdotes from his life, ranging from relationships to family to religion. 

Among all forms of stand-up, anecdotal comedy can be the most challenging. Topics like relationships can be cliché and dull to audience members who are well acquainted with the scene. Hossain avoids this pitfall and puts a novel spin on any topic. 

One of the best moments of the night was Hossain’s attempt to set up two audience members, something he claims to have successfully done twice in the past. While he is undoubtedly talented at scripted comedy, Hossain truly shines when doing crowd work. By the end, he was on a first-name basis with at least three audience members.

Other great jokes ranged from commentary on the International Centre for Diarrheal Disease Research in Dhaka, Bangladesh, to flirting with girls at bars in Brooklyn. 

Hossain said the comedians that inspire him are “Nate Bargatze, I love him a lot. Whenever I see him, I’m so inspired. There’s a Brooklyn comic I enjoy named David Drake. He’s an unbelievable joke writer.” 

Hossain said his favorite thing about working in comedy is “meeting different people. You meet so many different kinds of people.”