Amman Jordan

Just got back from the 2nd annual Amman Stand-Up Comedy Festival, in where else? Amman Jordan....
It was a magical year again for seven sold out nights of comedy. Two of the nights were done completely in Arabic, I didn't perform in those nights since my Arabic sounds completely like English.

But it shows the increase in Arabic speaking comedy since last year only had one show, this year two shows and all with minimal security. The shows had monster headliners Maysoon Zayed, and the legendary Nabil Sawalha. Anyone who knows the 8circles of Amman knows Nabil right?! Of course you do.

I was proud to attend the event sponsored by the city of Amman, a vision of the municipality led by the Mayor, the main man Mr. Mayor. Maani.
Anyone who knows the 8circles of Amman knows Mayor Maani right? Then you would also know that he loves that big sculpture that sits on the 7th circle. I mean what is that thing?! Can anyone help me with this? Looks like an giant children's book exploded! You can see it in this link below
http://www.panoramio.com/photo/7444842

In India

Yeah that's right,..India! Was doing shows in Bangalore, or as I like to call it "Bangalulu", and Bombay (Mumbai) doing some comeddy shows. And I've made a decision while I was here that I am going to call the city "Bombay" until enough Indians tell me not to. Why? Because it seems people here are still calling it Bombay with no plans of calling it anything else. Just trying to fit in.
The shows were great and I didn't get a bad stomach or anything, thank you Gnesha, Chrishna, Vishnu, Jesus, or whichever god took care of me here,...namaste.
I did witness some Brits,Americans, and others here walking around trying to find there spirituality, opening there chakras,centering there chi, and acting like general douche bags.
I saw a bollywood movie called "Love Aaj Kal," (which means "Love today and tomorrow" or "love these days") It was starring my new favorite actor Saef Ali Khan. I do prefer the Saef Ali Khan with the beard and the turban,..the Seek he played from the movie. He made me want to be a Seek so now I'm at the gym and working on a beard myself. It was a great movie with great dancing and music, I am nominating it for whatever award here is equal to the Oscars.

Fresh air in L.A. ??

I've been back a week from Dubai and was happy to feel some cold air in my face when I got home to L.A.
I heard while I was there visiting Dubai that the air quality is usually bad and there isn't much oxygen to breath. It gets humid there by that gulf water and I think my body needed fresh cold air after breathing the sandy thin air along the Persian/Arabian gulf.
Well who would've thought that coming back to Los Angeles would be such a breath of fresh air.
That said, I am still looking forward to the summer and visiting family in Virginia, Utah, Washington state, and Palestine. Although I am looking more forward to being in the western U.S. near some mountains where I can pretend to go fishing and be a boy scout. The Arab Bedouins are great boy scouts, they know everything like how to tie a knot, how to start a fire, how to slaughter a lamb without offending Allah,...etc,..

The Party's Over

There were 4 Saturday nights, 5 headliners, 11 open mic nights, and a Friday amateur show with 12 comics that fell on "Friday the 13th." The amateurs delivered their first time out putting on a great show for a big audience of around 150 people that were laughing and supporting there endeavor. The closing night was on Valentines day, I don't know if the cosmos planned this for us but we all felt something special was happening and I was just proud to see that the group did so well.

The group of twelve on the thirteenth promoted and drew a crowd and made the weeks spent working with them come together in a way that made us all feel worthy of the time we spent laboring the way it did. I was sick for three days this week and didn't attend two of the workshops but that didn't stop the group from meeting and helping each other punch up their acts and brush up for there showcase. I got sick Monday night and was in bed for the next 3 days. It wasn't until Friday that I felt good enough to show up and MC their show where these comics got an incredible response with big laughs from the large audience. For most, it was the biggest audience they have ever stood in front of, an achievement for all.

Last night was closing night and the last Saturday show of the Comedy Cafe. I was the only comic on the bill and I worried that it would be difficult since I'd have be the opener, middler, and headline all by myself. Luckily the amateurs were strong enough that I could grab two of them to do some stage time to warm up the crowd before I went on to do my hour.

The first was Abs Ali (Abdullah), a local Emirate about 18 years old who was really good. He did some jokes that only he could do about Emirate hair styles, Arab dads cussing in traffic, plus a few other general complaints about the world that were funny. He did 7 minutes then brought up an Indian comedian named Nitin Mitrani. This guy has the ability to do at least 30 minutes solid and I was impressed. He did his thing for only 17 minutes then brought me on and I was happy that I was able to sustain my energy for just over an hour. It wasn't my best of all time, I improvised a bit and messed around, but I was happy that I was able to close with a bit about relationships proper for Valentines Day where the last words out of my mouth were "I love you."

We'll do it again soon inshallah,.......

---ak

Dubai

Still here in Dubai with exactly 14 days to go before heading home to L.A. Sometimes a long trip can go by really fast and I would say this is one of those, unless these last 14 days begin to drag out.

I've been running an open mic, 3 nights a week on Mondays-Wednesdays and its turned more into a workshop sort of thing then a real open mic. The participants are really anxious to perform and begin writing a lot, but its hard to know what will happen if they go in front of an audience. One thing is true about comedians and the crowd that gathers at an open mic, we are all a bunch of lost souls limping around the world looking for an outlet. Here in Dubai there are around 7 regular people that attend every night trying to piece together an act on stage that will reflect their personalities, or at least the best part of it. They have a long ways to go from showing their best. I would say it's a lot of work to do what I'm doing. I've become their teacher, coach and comedy mentor. They look at me after every joke to see if I'm laughing, I just keep taking notes so I can at least remember what to say. It's fun to help them but I hope they will have other opportunities after I split town or this will just be a singular experience for them and that makes me feel bad and adds more pressure to get them to work faster.

A few phrases they say in Arabic fit this one...
"Allah Maak," and "Allah Waalam"(God be with you, and Only God knows)
Or as we say in America, God speed and peace out.

--ak

Dubai Shopping Festival Comedy Shows

I just hosted the second Saturday night headliner show here in Dubai at the temporary set up called "The Comedy Cafe." It was a sold out show which topped last week's opening weekend where we drew in around 150. Last night we had more then 200 people and had to turn away 50.

I'm the house MC for 4 weeks, the first week had Dean Obeidallah and this last show had Sugar Sammy headlining. Sugar is a Montreal based comic who's real name isn't Sugar as far as I know. All I know about him after working with him twice is that he's Indian, Canadian, funny and we had a good time.

I'm looking most forward to next week the most because its the only show that has 3 comics, the way a show should be. We will have a couple buddies of mine from L.A. coming out that I love, Mike Batayeh and Peter the Persian. I have worked with both a lot but don't know Peter's actual name, pretty sure its not "the Persian."

I'm sure it will sell out again,...inshallah,.....

--ak

I'm in Dubai

I've never seen a city like Dubai, it looks like a future city with mix of Boca Raton, Fl. It's like Vegas if the theme was Miami. I'll show some pictures soon.

I'm here for 4 weekends until Feb.18th, hosting a comedy club on the beach. I hope I can come back to Los Angeles for some time at home, one of these days. I think I'm more comfortable in a hotel room then I am at home? I like it home but there are lots of distractions, I've got a dart board, golf clubs, front porch, back patio, etc...

I'm gonna miss the Super Bowl but I'll watch it out here on delay or 3am.