Comedy has long been a way to bring a different lighter lens to heavy topics.

That holds true for Palestinian-American comedian Sammy Obeyed,

who has taken to the stage to spotlight the pain of the war in Gaza.

Amna Nawaz has the story for our arts and culture series, Canvas.

Comedian Sammy Obeyed has built his career tackling the tough stuff, from politics to war.

The night that Israel attacked Iran, there was a spike in pizza sales right next to the Pentagon.

The former high school math teacher even jokes about that.

America's ranked 33rd in math in the world.

Japan had to count that for us.

It's pretty bad.

I think once I started doing math jokes, it just seemed like I could pretty much make any painful subject very funny.

And so I've never had a problem with that.

At Mama Ayesha, a Palestinian restaurant in Washington, D.C.,

obeyed said his work is often fueled by what others aren't saying or won't say.

There is certainly a void in stand up on certain topics, specifically Palestine.

The fact that that void is there is very motivating for me to be like,

oh, if nobody's talking about it, I will.

And I feel that way about any subject that people don't really touch.

The Palestinian-American comedian grew up in Northern California, where his interest in politics took root.

I love being Palestinian because it's the one identity you bring up, and it's instantly controversial.

Growing up, I kind of had to learn

gradually that I was Palestinian because, what do you mean? Like, I don't think I asked what ethnicity

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