Dubai
experiences stand-up comedy boom
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For this audience
there is plenty to smile about. Enthusiastic new comedians are managing to make
them laugh and the crowd hasn’t paid a penny or a dirham for the privilege. Small scale standup comedy nights are pretty
new here in Dubai and beside the bar hosting it, nobody here is making any
money.
The comedy scene here
is relatively nascent and there are quite a few talented performers here but
not all of them necessarily get the opportunities. The idea that comedy can actually sustain you
through your rent payments, and through your credit card, your car payments, and
get you food and all the rest of it I don’t see that happening for the foreseeable
future .
Most of the comedians
are expats living in the UAE but for local emirates like Qassab it’s a chance
to get involved in something not too common in his culture.
Going to University or
even High School we get more exposure in the western comedy, which is stand up
comedy started there, then we start here, somehow, then of course we have the
ex-pats coming here, bringing their culture to it but as we grow bigger, for
sure there will be more comedian and I would love to see more locals dressed up
like this, cracking jokes about their social problems, their own problems or even,
you know the county in general.
Wonho is proof that
you can make a living and a reputation from comedy in the region. He performs mainly in Arabic, despite his
Asian heritage and he made his name not through comedy clubs but by uploading
his act onto the internet.
I wouldn’t have a
career if it wasn’t for social media, let’s put it that way. It shows how people are thirsty for, any kind
of material that is good, and I think for any up and coming comic create a show,
it’s easy, it’s inexpensive, free to use, you know put your stuff out there , let
people watch and when you achieve a certain level of success on social media companies
will be more willing to give you money, sponsor
your events , to book your venues, to market your event and have you perform
live in front of people, and the experience that I have had, it’s always a catch
22 but once you get it right then, I think you are all set.
So with technology
making it easier for this regions new comics to reach a wider audience perhaps
more of them, will be soon will be laughing to all the way to the bank
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