The director takes us on a hilarious tour from Dubai to Beirut, Riyadh to New York with a gaggle of other stand-up talen | dG1fZGlzWHdTbkNTaDA
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Short filmTranscript
00:00 [AUDIO OUT]
00:05 [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:08 People in the West, man, they always
00:20 try to categorize us, putting us all together.
00:22 I'll have people come up to me, and they're like, oh, man,
00:25 where are you from?
00:27 I go, I'm from Egypt.
00:29 Really?
00:30 I got a friend from India.
00:31 [LAUGHTER]
00:33 [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:36 I don't know!
00:39 I have never heard of comedy in the Middle East.
00:43 We don't even understand basic joke construction.
00:48 So long as our relationship is defined by our differences,
00:53 we will empower those who sow hatred rather than peace.
00:57 Before, it's not allowed to have lots of people saying
01:00 comedy about politics and talking freedom.
01:04 But right now, it's become more free,
01:07 and people start to speak loudly.
01:09 We're not used to seeing the soldiers.
01:10 We're not used to seeing guns on the corners.
01:13 They're like, they're there for your safety.
01:14 OK.
01:15 [LAUGHTER]
01:16 It's good to lighten things up here sometimes.
01:18 Things can get heavy.
01:19 [MUSIC PLAYING]
01:22 I think this area is just learning
01:24 how to laugh because of the intensity of their reality.
01:27 Some parts of the Arab world, you know,
01:29 they've had such an unlucky situation
01:31 that they have developed comedy as a tool of relief.
01:35 [INAUDIBLE]
01:36 [LAUGHTER]
01:39 [LAUGHTER]
01:41 [INAUDIBLE]
01:43 Comedy crosses borders.
01:44 It's the common language of the world.
01:46 The role of the comedian is to kind of speak truth to power
01:49 and point out things that maybe people aren't talking about.
01:52 First time female comic in the Middle East performing.
01:55 [CHEERING]
01:57 Before I came out here, everyone, you know,
01:59 was like, oh, be careful.
02:00 Like, they're oppressive of women over there.
02:02 And I come over here, and it was the opposite.
02:05 [LAUGHTER]
02:07 This is the first comedy show ever in Alexandria, Egypt.
02:10 So we're making history as we speak here.
02:11 [CHEERING]
02:13 Like you say, what's best than to laugh at ourselves?
02:16 We laugh at ourselves.
02:17 The rest of the world will laugh with us.
02:18 We laugh with us.
02:19 [MUSIC PLAYING]
02:21 Want to hear a really bad joke?
02:23 That's good, dude.
02:25 I have a very dirty one.
02:28 (upbeat music)