Deli Boys might sound like the name of a boy band with fine culinary palate, but it’s actually the name of a hilarious crime show created by Abdullah Saeed and Michelle Nader.
“Immigrant” humor can follow a number of paths – it can lean into predictable cultural stereotypes or examine cultural clashes and mixed identities. It might make audiences cringe, gasp, force a smile, or deeply engage. Deli Boys Showrunner Abdullah Saeed shamelessly dives deep into his Pakistani-American roots and his family history of being immigrant entrepreneurs as his moral duty to television comedy. He used The Godfather meets convenience store crime lord template to tell the story of two sparring brothers who take over the family business after their father passes unexpectedly.
Saaed initially wrote Deli Boys as a spec script in order to secure a TV staffing job. The idea had been workshopped with his friend, but neither imagined it would get produced. Every studio passed on it on the basis that it was too similar to other shows.
Abdullah was in a “Saeed Slump” until his manager suggested he “should write something that’s just from your perspective. Free yourself and showcase your jokes.” And that is exactly what he did. Onyx Collective saw potential in the crime comedy.
“Deli Boys is essentially a show in which you externalize a very internal conversation for any child of immigrants in the United States. The sort of mixed morals of American indulgence versus immigrant grit. Not only was that a world that I could speak to, but also a world that would be a good platform for jokes,” he shares.
Deli Boys is more than the surface comedy of an immigrant generation gap. There are so many layers in the immigrant experience.
Writing About The Insider/ Outsider Experience
Using personal anecdotes in your storytelling can be a double-edged sword for a self-conscious writer with an immigrant background. There could be some self-censorship, or a biased cultural perspective to shade the real story.
Abdullah Saeed. Photo by Jai Lennard
Saeed was born in the USA, grew up in Thailand until he was thirteen years old, and returned to America. “I went to American school. I lived in a largely English-speaking community. I had access to films and television from the United States in Thailand, thanks to my mom,” he shares.
“When I moved to the United States, I felt like I had this outside perspective on the experience of being a Pakistani-American because, obviously I blend in perfectly, but my cultural upbringing was completely different in a Buddhist country.”
Saeed’s breadth of lived-in experience affords him a unique view of social and cultural dynamics between classes, immigrants and non-immigrants. The experience of being first or second generation immigrant fascinates the writer because there is comedy to be mined when people don’t realize they’re living in that dynamic.
He has friends who grew up their whole lives in Philadelphia, New York and New Jersey. “They’re very American except for their experience with their Pakistani communities.”
Ironically, Abdullah reveals, “I never really had a long-term Pakistani community in the US until I joined the Kominas (known for their song Sharia Law In The USA), Sunny Hill and The Kid Prior and got into the Muslim punk scene.”
This insider/ outsider perspective paved the way for Saeed to “write my level of funniness to create this tone that is my voice.”
From Producer to Screenwriter
Abdullah Saeed cut his teeth in the television industry as a producer and presenter on shows like Bong Appétit and Black Market: Dispatched on the Vice Network. He even acted in the TV show High Maintenance.
“It was a perfect path in some ways because I worked in small teams and got to understand the dynamics of a crew. These Vice shoots were stressful environments and you’re often on the road, you’re on a deadline, you’re constantly working, and you have to be in front of the camera.” Saeed believes that it’s his job to influence the vibe on set no matter how he’s feeling.
He transfers his good vibe influencer status to the Deli Boys writers’ room. “I think it’s important for me to be open and vulnerable enough so everyone else feels safe contributing their jokes. They are all comedic minds and I’m trying to draw out their best material.”
Abdullah wrote or co-wrote half the episodes in the season of Deli Boys. In light of the WGA credits system, he insists that writing is a team sport. “It’s about drawing out the best joke. It’s about drawing out that writer’s passion for whatever piece of it they feel drawn to because everyone takes ownership of different characters. Each character is a combination of a story line, a scene, a scene. Each character is kind of a combination of, you know, different people.”
Lucky (Poorna Jagannathan), Raj (Saagar Shaikh) & Mir (Asif Ali) Photo by James Washington/ Disney)
As the creator of the show, he did a pass on each script to ensure the consistency of tone was maintained. The credited writers did most of the heavy lifting and Saeed merely did the polish. “I heavily rewrote the first few and the last few pages of each episode that was not written by me to create the momentum and to ensure each episode links into the next.”
Pitching Deli Boys – The First Few Pages
The basic conceit of Deli Boys is the adventures of two siblings Mir (Asif Ali) and Raj Dar (Saagar Shaikh) taking over the family business after their father Baba (Iqbal Theba) suddenly dies and they realize he was involved in the criminal underworld. How hard can it be, right?
Abdullah Saeed perceives his show as a patriarch story – The Godfather meets Succession. There’s this disconnect between the siblings as each vies to take the helm of the family business.
The screenwriter appreciates that it wasn’t this premise that was going to exclusively hook executives; it was the writing. “I stumbled into the freshness of it by trying to hook the reader within the first five pages or so. Baba dies by Page five. I was trying to hit that shocking moment and set the tone for the show.”
Saeed believes that putting the father’s death up front invites executives to continue reading. The patriarchal death spikes the audience sympathy and interest.
The brothers Mir and Raj are introduced as leading lavish lifestyles due to their father’s extensive business interests. They are clearly incapable of filling his business shoes until they are forced to. Never underestimate these goofy brothers.
Mir and Raj constantly bicker over how to treat their father’s legacy. This recognizable conflict allows them to mature and evolve both individually and as a family.
“Raj is far more enthusiastic at first about being a criminal. He has fewer immediate qualms about the morality issue because he’s kind of simple and thinks it’s really cool. He might be masking some sort of deeper pain as well over the loss of his father.”
Mir is more highly-strung which diametrically opposes Raj’s more relaxed nature. Deli Boys touches on a classic mismatched pairing of the idiocy of two brothers who weren’t built to be gangsters.
Mir and Raj were created by the same parents, so blood will always be thicker than water no matter how much they fight. “They know they can fight because they’re comfortable knowing that they really love each other.” Baba reminds them that there’s no-one closer to them in the world than each other. “Leave the tiff in the tiffin,” he advises.
Knowing that the inextricable bond between Mir and Raj is virtually unbreakable, the writers can challenge their relationship to its breaking point to see if it survives.
Abdullah describes the comedic tone of Deli Boys as “escalating absurdism.” He confesses that he likes to push the comedic boundaries of the show and Michelle Nader and writer Methar Sethi rein him in.
“There are ridiculous, crazy, wild iterations of our stories that get rained in. I think it’s that balance that makes the jokes work.” Ultimately, every joke must be Abdullah-approved, although he balances that out with how a joke lands.
