This paper will focus on a particular type of comedic performer in early-twentieth-century Cairo: the muqallid, or mimic. Muqallidin, like the locally renowned Ahmad al-Far, performed in streets on religious holidays, in private homes for traditional celebrations, and in the intervals between acts of more serious Arabic plays in the modern theaters of 'Imad al-Din Street and the sha'bi district, Rawd al-Farag. Performances ranged from mimicry of street vendors and famous singers, to the staging of original, colloquial plays. Their bawdy, clever lines were intended to shock bourgeois sensibilities and provoke laughter from audiences that ranged from wealthy patrons to the urban sha'b. Thus, their loose scripts were merely frameworks for improvisations that adapted to the contexts of their performances and the mood of the audience. Muqallidin drew their techniques from older traditions of Aragoz and shadow plays, but they blended with newer conventions of theatrical performance. Drawing on elements such as collective history, humor, and mythology--in addition to contemporary social and political situations--sha'bi performances offered release from the frustrations of lived realities and provoked audience imagination as to what might be. By focusing on Ahmad al-Far, I will argue that muqallidin, by virtue of their imaginative, colloquial humor and sometimes fantastical scenarios, embodied and gave voice to what it meant for the often overlooked sha'b, or the urban, working-class, to be "modern" and "Egyptian."