{"id":902,"date":"2016-10-28T21:38:30","date_gmt":"2016-10-28T18:38:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/yemeniamerican.com\/en\/?p=902"},"modified":"2017-10-28T21:44:22","modified_gmt":"2017-10-28T18:44:22","slug":"arab-american-comedy-making-america-laugh-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/yemeniamerican.com\/en\/arab-american-comedy-making-america-laugh-again\/","title":{"rendered":"Arab-American comedy: Making America laugh again"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Mohammed Jamjoom<\/strong><\/p>\n

the Yemeni American News<\/strong><\/p>\n

w<\/span>hen the New York Arab-American Comedy Festival was founded in 2003, it was no easy feat, but not for the reasons you might think<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first year was the most difficult and it wasn\u2019t even a race thing or a bigotry thing,\u201d Maysoon Zayid, festival cofounder, told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n

\u201cComedy club owners just didn\u2019t think that Arab Americans would draw a crowd.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zayid, the Palestinian-American comedian and actress, said clubs in New York City simply did not want to take a risk on them.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe found one club that did, which was called New York Comedy Club, and we sold out in like minutes. So now the comedy club supports us because they know that we draw a good crowd.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trevor Noah takes on the world<\/p>\n

Now in its 13th year, the festival, which runs from September 29 to October 1, and features more than 20 comedians, is an overwhelming success, Zayid said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not just like Arabs coming to laugh with Arabs. It\u2019s not comedy that only an Arab person can get, these are amazing professional comedians. And some of these guys and gals have been doing this for a decade with us. So we\u2019re like a family reunion and I think the audience senses the love.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zayid, who gained international prominence in 2014 with her very popular TED talk about, among other things, living with cerebral palsy, is constantly tackling stereotypes through her humour.<\/p>\n

She said the main idea behind the festival was to highlight Arab-American talent – from actors to writers, comedians to filmmakers.<\/p>\n

Still, these are challenging times for Arab Americans, a community that has had to endure a rising tide of xenophobia.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, had also suggested banning Muslims from entering the United States.<\/p>\n

\u201cArab Americans and Muslim Americans, they needed this laugh this year,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo laugh at everything, from the ridiculousness of Trump, to the fact that every Muslim in America is consistently forced to apologise for the random acts of one out of a billion of us.\u201d<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s festival, entitled Make America Laugh Again, is not shying away from the toxic political climate in the US.<\/p>\n

Its logo even features a mascot that bears more than a passing resemblance to Trump, a camel named Jamal D Hump.<\/p>\n

\u201cLast year when we had the festival we were gonna do a Trump camel,\u201d Zayid said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd both Dean Obeidallah, my partner and co-producer in the festival, and I said: \u2018No, let\u2019s not do it. By the time the festival happens, Trump won\u2019t even be relevant.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cSo we couldn\u2019t believe that a year later we were still talking about Trump.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zayid said this year\u2019s batch of performers aren\u2019t just joking about politics; they are also talking about family and sharing far more personal, albeit humorous, experiences and anecdotes.<\/p>\n

She said she is proud not just of them but also of what the festival\u2019s success signifies.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s proof that we\u2019re good,\u201d Zayid said, \u201cthat we get to headline two of the most important clubs in New York City.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said that their success \u201cis proof that we\u2019re not just Arabs trying to be funny – we are professional, hilarious comedians\u201d.<\/p>\n

<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Mohammed Jamjoom the Yemeni American News when the New York Arab-American Comedy Festival was founded in 2003, it was no easy feat, but not for the reasons you might think \u201cThe first year was the most difficult and it wasn\u2019t even a race thing or a bigotry thing,\u201d Maysoon Zayid, festival cofounder, told Al […]","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":903,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-902","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/yemeniamerican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/902","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/yemeniamerican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/yemeniamerican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yemeniamerican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yemeniamerican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=902"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/yemeniamerican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/902\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":905,"href":"https:\/\/yemeniamerican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/902\/revisions\/905"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yemeniamerican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/903"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/yemeniamerican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=902"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yemeniamerican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=902"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yemeniamerican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=902"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}