By Anand Holla
As the Qatar Summer Festival 2015 courses through in full steam, Doha braces itself for a night full of belly laughs, towards the end of the fest. A standup comedy gig of massive proportions is to hit the city on August 29 at 8pm at Qatar National Convention Centre (QNCC).
As part of the Summer Festival, six standup comedians from around the Gulf will be live in action for Doha Comedy Day, hosted by Qatar Tourism Authority (QTA). The comedians are Bader Saleh, Ibrahim Khairallah, and Fahad al-Butairi from Saudi Arabia; Ali al-Sayed from the United Arab Emirates, and Ahmed al-Shimari from Kuwait. Of course, Qatar’s very own Hamad al-Amari aka The Qatari Guy, will join the gang in invoking waves of laughter.
As a YouTube show host, Saudi Arabian comedian Saleh has been making the locals laugh for four years now, thanks to his popular YouTube channel “Eysh Elly”, which means “What is” in Arabic. His humour took off for its play on funny YouTube videos and in his own words, his show is a lot “like the YouTube police, commenting on and criticising the silly videos on YouTube.” Saleh credits Jeddah’s “multi-racial humour”, which is a big part of his personality. Eysh Elly’s fame prompted Saleh to set off on standup comedy tours in Saudi and abroad. His channel currently has 2,60,3052 subscribers.
Khairallah is among Saudi Arabia’s most popular standup comics. Khairallah, too, started off with YouTube, writing sketches in English for a bunch of foreign comedians. Four years ago, when he appeared on TV with the Arabs Got Talent contest, Khairallah became familiar to scores in the region. Along with funnyman Fahad al-Butairi, Khairallah co-writes the La Yekthar Show (Put a Lid on it) that has grabbed millions of views on YouTube. From picking on Arabic dialects to differences between Saudi Arabians and Kuwaitis, Khairallah’s comedy traverses the cultural and social milieu.
Al-Butairi, who is regarded as one of the top comedians of Saudi Arabia, began performing standup when he studied at the University of Texas at Austin – he graduated from there in 2007. Among other issues, his first material dealt with his identity as a Saudi foreign student studying in post-9/11 America. Al-Butairi is said to be the first Saudi standup comedian to appear live in his country at a public show in 2009.
While he kicked off spinning funnies by doing open mic nights at the Cap City Comedy Club in Austin, his standup comedy debut in the Arab World came with opening for Ahmed Ahmed and Maz Jobrani in Bahrain, alongside a host of other local comedians as part of the Axis of Evil Comedy Tour. Al-Butairi has 1.84mn Twitter followers and has shared the stage with comics like Gabriel Iglesias, Sebastian Maniscalco, Bobby Lee, Erik Griffin, Dean Edwards, Angelo Tsarouchas, Aron Kader and Dean Obeidallah.
Often referred to as Dubai’s first local professional comedian, Ali al-Sayed is considered an “all-rounder” in the entertainment industry. In his words, he is “a comedian, master of ceremonies, producer, comedy coach, presenter … with a few extra tricks (or rather, jokes) up his sleeve.” Eight years since his standup debut, al-Sayed has earned a lot of acclaim, including being chosen as one of the ‘funniest people of the year’ by Rolling Stone and coined ‘UAE’s King and Queen of Comedy’ along with his wife, by Ahlan!
Last August, al-Sayed wowed Doha as part of United Nations of Comedy (UNOC) show. He had then told Community about how his standup career began. “It was an accident. I used to work in events putting together exhibitions and conferences so they hired me to do the gala dinner for one of their events. My first ever performance was the ‘The 800 dentists’”.
“We are delighted to welcome some of Gulf’s standup comedy pioneers to Doha, to inject humour and joy into the last few days of the Qatar Summer Festival,” Mashal Shahbik, Manager of Festivals and Events at QTA, had earlier said. Tickets for the show are available at the Doha Exhibition Centre, where an Entertainment City has been set up for the duration of the Summer Festival.
The tickets can also be bought at Virgin Megastores branches and on the stores’ online ticketing portal. Ticket prices range between QR145 (silver), QR195 (gold) and QR295 (platinum).
LAUGHTER INC: The poster for Doha Comedy Day.
