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For the past 10 years, Ahmed Khalaf has given everything to comedy. Whether that meant dropping out of college to pursue comedy full-time, or road-dogging all over the country to hone his craft, Khalaf has maintained a sunny disposition towards comedy no matter what has been thrown his way.

“I’m a guy who enjoys laughing and having fun, and I really love stand-up,” he says. “Like, from the bottom of my heart.”

But when he broke his leg last year during open mic night at ACME (not in like a corny metaphorical ‘good luck, kid!’ sort of way. He literally snapped his leg), his desire to push forward in his career became far more urgent.

“I was so envious of people who could walk and stand,” he laughs. “Think about it: I’m a guy who loves writing and performing. I gave up 10 years of my life for this. And then it was taken away for like, three months. So when I came back, I came back with such a fervor. I was like, 'I’m fucking going all in. First chance I get, I’m doing an album.'”

Despite having a distinct, well-refined voice and point of view (“When you break your leg and you’re black in this country, shit just feels racist,” he says in one of his bits explaining the aftermath of his fall. “They put a boot on my leg and told me to stay indoors. That’s house arrest. I’m not stupid.”), Khalaf says he plans to mix it up on his debut recording.

“You know when a musician puts out an album with so many different types of songs? That’s what I want. I want to do all the fun versions of comedy. I want to do quick one-liners, the witticisms, grungy stories, weird observational jokes. All of it. Like a smorgasbord.”

Though he can dabble in darker territory with some of his material (you’ll never look at Burger King the same way once he describes his childhood trauma around the Home of the Whopper), Khalaf is a comic who genuinely feels like he’s having fun on stage, and his joy is contagious. While some comics take a perverted sense of pride in sharing their disdain for their own artform, Khalaf embraces every aspect of comedy and accepts them for the role they play in his journey.

“Maybe it’s a boat burning mentality,” he says. “I’m not looking for a way out. I’m not afraid of bombing. It’s all part of the game. I have wholly accepted that I want to be a stand-up comedian.”

And while others would see his album recording a potential sign of Khalaf’s desire to move on to a new market or take on different challenges in his career, he insists that he wholly wants to be a stand-up comedian from Minnesota.

“I’ve always heard the phrase, ‘You walk through the doors that are open,’” he explains. “For me, I love Minneapolis. I love the city. I love the vibes. I love my neighborhood. I like my neighbors. I like Jimmy Johns. I just like being a Midwest dude.”