The Foriegner does not want to tell you about his exile from Iran or his trials with stage four cancer to evoke your sympathy. Instead, he will translate his genius into something digestible. Sohrab is Bumbling Foriegner is an anti-identity clown show because Rumi says you should take every opportunity to kill your self (بمیرید). The Foriegner will eat hot dogs and will not drink his own urine. He also suffers from retrograde ejaculation as a result of his surgeries.

Retrograde ejaculation is a condition where semen instead of coming out, gets released into the bladder. This makes the Foriegner infertile. The Foriegner hopes to get help from the Philly community to reroute the sperm that was retrograded as a result of the illness. Rumi, who was allegedly a homosexual, refers to Sohrab as the one and only spiritual genius who has only dated white American women. Even though Sohrab’s right testicle has been removed, he still chooses to fall in love again and again with those who come to shield him from the authorities. The one good thing about this deportation is that Sohrab can retrieve the semen he had deposited in the sperm bank in Tehran in the basement of a hospital before he started his cancer treatment.

This is the Foriegner’s final performance before deportation.

SOHRAB HAGHVERDI (writer/performer) is an only child from Iran who has specialized in being a foreigner in America. He schemes (in a good way), performs (in a brilliant way), and thinks creatively to perfectly fit in this new American environment. He is an absurdist performer/writer and Lifestyle Clown. He has had memorable moments in the Philly community first as The Boy Who Mailed Himself to America and then as the one and only 9/11MAN. The main questions that motivate him to participate in the world as a theater artist are: “Why is there Being?” and “If I’m not special, then who is? God?” He has recently performed at The Public Theater, Princeton University, and University of Pennsylvania, and has collaborated with theater companies like Lighting Rod Special, Pig Iron, and Swim Pony. He is currently in a collaboration with an ancient artist and poet Jalal al-Din Rumi (1207-1273). www.sohrabh.com

BENJAMIN ROSENTHAL (writer/director) is a performance and visual artist, credit card churner and professional gambler whose recent work The Self Portrait Series was presented clandestinely in the rooms of Hilton Hotels, at The University of Texas (supported by Austin Arts Council), and in NYCs Exponential Festival. He created and performed in The Fluxus Brothers Present: Good Art Bad Art as part of Cannonball Festival and PhysFestNYC. He is a part of the famous performance art duo Ben and Ben’s Brother and is completing his training to be a Buddhist chaplain. www.benandbrother.horse

MASON ROSENTHAL (writer/director) is a performance maker, director, actor, and educator originally from Skokie, Illinois. Over the past 20 years, Mason has devised nearly 100 original performance pieces as an independent artist, a founding member of The Medium Theater Company, and a founding co-director of the award-winning, Philadelphia-based Lightning Rod Special (LRS). LRS’s recent works include Nosejob (FringeArts 2024), SPEECH (FringeArts 2022), The Appointment (The New York Times’ “Best Theater of 2019”), and Underground Railroad Game (2016 Obie Award for Best New American Theater Work). Mason earned a B.F.A. in Drama from NYU’s Atlantic Theater Company Acting School, where he later served as a faculty member for six years. He holds an M.F.A. in Performance as Public Practice from the University of Texas at Austin and has served as Post-M.F.A. faculty at Virginia Tech’s School of Performing Arts and as a faculty fellow with Virginia Tech’s Center for Communicating Science. Mason is one-half of the famous performance art duo Ben and Ben’s Brother. www.masonrosenthal.weebly.com

Special Thanks to Philipe AbiYouness, Al-Bustan Seeds of Culture, and Cannonball.
Photos by Darien Griffin and Ashley E. Smith.

Join us for a weekend full of laughter with some CLOWN-tastic Philly Fringe encores!

 Catch a double night feature Friday, March 21st, with Alex Tatarsky’s Sad Boys in Harpy Land at 7PM following with Sohrab is Bumbling Foriegner by creative team Sohrab Haghverdi, Benjamin Rosenthal, Mason Rosenthal!

And don’t miss the late-night solo show blckgoorue by Sterling Duns, after Sad Boys in Harpy Land, Saturday, March 22nd!