By Siran Babayan, LA Weekly

Jordan Elgrably: (photo Kevin Scanlon for the LA Weekly)In a town where you're as ethnically pure as your favorite ethnic restaurant, comedian Peter Shahriari talks to the mutt in all of us—you know, born there, raised here; studied this, speak that. Since 2005, Shahriari and his fellow members of the Sultans of Satire—all of Middle Eastern and Mediterranean descent—have been skewering more than kebabs. Using humor to ease the tensions that plague Jews, Muslims and Christians, they tackle the issues that are parting the mono-browed sea.

The comedy act—which has done an eight-month residency at the Laugh Factory and has upcoming shows at the Improv and in this month's Los Angeles Comedy Festival—is the brainchild of Jordan Elgrably, co-founder of the Levantine Cultural Center, a nonprofit artistic watering for all the city's desert people, regardless of where and in which direction they pray.

"Los Angeles is the second-largest Iranian city outside of Tehran," Elgrably says. "There are more Lebanese abroad than there are in Lebanon. This is the diasporic world we live in, and that's one of the things the center is trying to capture."

In its seven years of existence, Levantine has organized literary and arts events, concerts and film screenings. In addition, referrals are available for lecturers to speak on topics ranging from Berber culture to rai music. And you can come in any time and sign up for an Arabic lesson or a doumbek drumming class.

Elgrably himself embodies the center's pan-culturalism.

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