With a growing number of options for stand-up comedy in Dubai, and even one way up in Ras al Khaimah, it's about time the capital saw some action. And that's just what happened mid-week, as Abu Dhabi standup comedy pioneers, Yalla Laughs, kicked off a fortnightly gig series in the Barosa pub at Cristal Salam Hotel.
The pub, itself fairly new, had a cosy bar hall reserved for the event. There was plenty of parking (albeit the kind that consumes some AED 1 coins and spits out others) around the hotel when I got there, forcing me to cancel my set's opening joke about parking in Abu Dhabi. I still got in a couple of city-specific jokes, woven into my newer set along with a few older bits.
Yalla Laughs' Erik Thornquist and Jonathan Boulton (top right and top left) -- AUH-based comedians who thus far have had to drive up north for gigs -- took care of preparations this time, while five of us from Dubai drove south to join them for Abu Dhabi's first regular local comedy night.
To our growing relief, the launch event was blessed with a turnout that was not only sizable, but generally receptive as well. Tight emceeing by Erik kept the energy going for me (bottom right) and four other performers, climaxing in a side-splitting headliner set by Salman Qureshi (bottom left).
Dubomedy launched a new mixed comedy event series this weekend, at its now regular venue, Fraiche Cafe and Bistro in JLT. Held as it was in the early evening at a cafe, the first event of this "It's a Funny Story!" series had a significant youth demographic in attendance. Also, a nice raised stage.
The evening began with stand-up, as the lineup of comedians narrated humorous tales that may or may not be entirely true. I only got there in time for the last few, but well in time to see sets from some of my favorite Dubai comedians.
And after the interval, several definitely made-up funny stories were created by Dubomedy's Improv Revolution troupe in primarily short-form WLIIA-style improv games, including a couple of fun games I had not previously seen from the troupe. Mainly thanks to the more experienced actors, it was a generally enjoyable and engaging show.
Dubai Laughing's stand-up comedy club show at 1UP Champions Bar drew in an adventurous bunch of attendees for its second weekly event, this time featuring an international tour stop by English comedian Will Mars. The Edinburgh Festival Fringe star performed his highly-regarded festival show, "As Good As My Audience", to headline the Wednesday night comedy event.
The five local comedians opening the event kept the momentum up from a brilliant bi-cultural icebreaker by Luke Haecker (top right) to a risky closing bit by Osman Rohail (bottom centre) -- the latter of which incidentally segued well into what Mars had in store for us later. The audience was so receptive that the feedback-prone sound system was the only source of disruption. Rodger Talty's calm-yet-assertive emceeing (top left) welded it all together nicely.
The humor in Will Mars' set sits nicely in the cleft between his soft-spoken, affable demeanor, and his edgy, Machiavellian material. Eschewing extreme expressions and gesticulations, he narrated lurid tales and caustic observations with nonchalance, sometimes drawing them out to dangerous lengths. The punchlines, as a result, caught us off-guard, and were worth the waits.It was commendable of him to have engineered a set (sometimes requiring a bit of explanation, which he did provide) that was taken in so enthusiastically by such a diverse, first-time audience, only a minority of whom were from his homeland. And I don't know as to what extent he had been briefed on the speech laws here, but he spent quite a while teasing us with speculation of how much trouble he might get into if he pulled out all the stops. Plowing through and then analyzing the extent of and probable penalties for instances of fait accompli only added to the hilarity of his act.
Due to the flu and other commitments, I was only able to catch the stand-up comedy night of the Dubai Palestinian community's cultural week, "This is Palestine", hosted by Dubomedy's Mina Liccione. Not too tragic, as comedy is quite relevant to my interests.
Maysoon Zayid is an inspiring woman, but I guess I needed to brush up on my Palestinian-dialect Arabic to understand much of her act. I probably should have expected a little 3rabiya at a Palestinian event, though. I did like her bit about flying with her symptoms combined with her father's send-off antics; I guess most of the rest of the funnies were in Arabic.
I had no trouble understanding Amer Zahr, though; he didn't use a whole lot of Arabic, and used gestures or repetition to translate where he did. And his set was a riot; in retrospect, I really should not have come to his show with the wheezes, as I was soon struggling for breath. I loved his Dad jokes and the hilarious account of his trip to rural Palestine, and how he was able to bring back earlier jokes for a smashing finale dash.
Omar Kazim killing
Named aptly for a venue that is built to resemble London's subterranean rapid transit infrastructure (minus, as one comedian put it, the smell of piss), "Mind The Gag" is Dubai Laughing's valiant attempt at running Dubai's first weekly stand-up comedy night -- on Thursday nights, no less. At the far end of the cavernous network of drinking halls comprising the Habtoor Grand's "Underground", six stand-up comedians made opening night, with Omar Kazim blowing the roof off the house with one of his most hilarious performances yet.
Jeffrey "Osang" Soliven, made famous through his X Factor Philippines performance, made Ramee Rose Filipino bar Rocky's Cafe his penultimate stop on his Ramee/Regent Dubai tour. Rocky's, which is conveniently in my 'hood, has a somewhat limited menu of Filipino food, but the resident band Off Limits made it worth a previous visit. After the band's set, Osang started his performance. The stand-up comedy was mostly in Tagalog, so there was very little for me there. I can imagine it was good for Tagalog-speakers, as he had stage presence and charisma. His singing, on the other hand, was very entertaining - not in the least, his Tagalog version of a popular dance fad song.
It's been nearly two months since Dubai-based expat comedians Ray Addison and Salman Qureshi set up Dubai Comedy Workshops and its first 6-week stand-up comedy course, also making themselves one of the first few users of the new Courtyard Playhouse performing arts space. On Saturday, they showcased out their first ever batch of course participants in a graduation special stand-up event.
Salman Qureshi
I expected it to be held at the Playhouse, but it was moved a couple of days before to the 1UP bar in TECOM. Marketing it rather boldly as the "The Michael McIntyre Warm-up Show", they roped in an ensemble of active Dubai-based stand-up comedians to perform between course participants' 5-minute showcase sets; these included Russell Bell, Lamya Tawfik and Rodger Talty, with Dubai old-timer Nitin Mirani throwing in an uproarious finale act. It was also a golden opportunity to see some great new material from Salman, who served as the show's emcee.
Brent Jenkins
As far as the course participants went, there were a lot of good bits to enjoy. I loved Brent Jenkins' new memory lapse arc (although I would expect no less from the experienced stand-up performer he is), and newcomer Janet Lundstram's opening joke was great.
Andreea Zoia
A big hand to model and fellow improvver Andreea Zoia, who not only had the stage presence one would expect of this presenter and emcee, but clever material as well. The WAG (is it in singular if there's only one of each?) also did well; Emma Addison gave us what I think was the best debut set of the night, while Sarah Murphy used a posh accent to deliver probably the most unique set of the night: a send-up of a clueless, FWP-afflicted "Palm Pamela" (a niche adaptation of the Jumeirah Jane, apparently).
I did some exploring last Thursday, and decided to check out Punchline Comedy Club's foray into the Middle East. The club has had a presence in East and Southeast Asia and Australia for many years now, and it looks like a local someone thought to bring this stand-up show to our neighborhood. This is their second show in the Middle East, and their modus operandi shares a few features in common with their more locally-established niche competitor, The Laughter Factory; they have three stand-up performers per show touring different venues across the region, and a ticket that can be entered into a draw for tickets to a show in the next tour. One difference, though, is their dining tie-ins. And their attendee wristbands without adhesive surfaces that give you an unwanted depilation.
The first performer, a Canadian by the name of Paul Myrehaug, was okay. He had a few slow moments, , and his bits about the cougar experience and the well-fed daughter worked only marginally on me. Some risks did pay off; I found the joke about the morning after pill and post-shower sex hilarious, for example. Also, his endgame about the RJ ramp was played well.
The second performer, and Englishman named Rob Deering, claimed to be a "9" on the guitar. This is believable, given how he was able to rapidly segue into and out of sung jokes without missing a beat, and without compromising on his skilled use of the instrument. He used repetition and self-referential humor well; for example, the George Michael bit. His elastic face was also entertaining, and he used layering pedals on his playing, singing and beat-boxing to good effect.
Irishman Andrew Stanley did a good job working the audience up as the host for the night. His jocular jibes targeted at various nationalities in the audience were generally great, and he even took on the lone Emirati woman in the audience. He can definitely think fast on his feet, improvising up a very engaging host set.
Finally, I would like to commend the venue, Jumeirah Creekside Hotel, for having some good interior design. I just had to have a walk-around after the show to get a better look at the place.
