LOL Comedy Tour in Jeddah

This is Part II of my ongoing posts on the LOL comedy tour which I was asked to cover as photographer by Peter of Smile Productions. Start with the introductions here!

People ask me if I’m suicidal. I’ve always said no, I plan to live a nice peaceful life. But spend a week with me and you’ll know something is way off. My Wednesday started at 8am, when I had to rush into work to submit a report, despite taking the day off. Naturally, I hadn’t packed for my flight either. My uncle has always said: “If it takes a guy longer than 15 min to pack for a weekend, he’s not a man”. And as you are all very aware, I am as manly as can be ::wink::

The result was a morning of running around at work till 11am followed by a a frantic session (< 15 min!) of packing and a mad, high-speed dash to the airport to catch my 1pm flight to Jeddah. Did I mention I stopped by the printing press to grab my new Business cards as well? Suicidal, probably not… but the tendencies are there!

Dashing to the airport. Did I also mention I didn't have enough fuel?

I stepped into the humid Jeddah weather at 3:30pm and grabbed a cab to go meet up with the LOL crew. It wasn’t a proper cab, mind you. It was one of those shifty characters that ambush you just as you step out of security. I was pretty excited to see Maz and Ahmed again, the last time we met was in Egypt a month ago during the Egypt’s First Comedy Rumble Tour (organized by Maha and Benchmark), which I also covered.

The entire group met at the Rosewood at 4pm, an extremely high end hotel on the Jeddah Corniche to discuss our game plan for the tour over a nice lunch. Ahmed and Maz were there with Peter along with the flim crew: Taylor, Todd, Ali and Myself. The comedians, being new to the country, wanted to ask us locals what makes us laugh. And how not to end up in jail! Topics of interest hovered around Bluetooth, Obama and Haraamness. Those of you at the shows know the jokes!

The Rosewood in Jeddah. Opulence at its best!

Ahmed and Maz were extremely tired from their flight in from LA so they would spend the rest of the afternoon in their rooms, resting up for their performances. The rest of us were left to kill time by doing what film crews love doing best. Driving around and shooting some random footage of the city! We would all meet again at 7pm at the venue.

The Show

There’s a saying in Jeddah: “Jeddah Ghair”, “Jeddah is Different”. And that was starkly apparent as the venue started to fill up for the show. Guys and girls lounging about waiting for the show to start. The buzz of hundreds of conversations already beginning to fill the modest courtyard of the Italian Cultural Center. Peter’s crew in Jeddah, Mai and Alaa had done a great job in advertising and selling out tickets to this “private” event.

The Italian Cultural Center in Jeddah

Local Comedians, Rami, Hussein, Thamer and the two Omars were already at the venue when we arrived. As we started setting up our camera equipment, the first of many problems that would plague the event would become apparent. The humidity. Our camera lenses kept fogging up with condensation and, well, walking around in the heat made us…. ‘perspire’. Taylor had the worst of it though, this was his first experience of a Saudi summer!

Taylor faces the might of the Saudi summer

What followed was an hour of absolute hell for the organizers. Being a relatively new industry in the Kingdom, it is difficult to find people with the experience to provide technical and lighting support for large events such as this. Peter was absolutely livid in anger at the set-up we had. The Brit was ready to wring a few necks at one point. the When Maz and Ahmed arrived at the venue, the lighting was too harsh on stage and the sound system was glitchy. After an hour of frantic running around, we acquired a spotlight (from SACO!) and managed to bring up the sound system. After a collective sigh of relief, Peter called up Ahmed onto the stage!

The show started, albeit an hour and a half after we thought it would, to renewed excitement from the audience. Bless you JEDDAH! We messed up, and you guys still stuck with us! <3

A brief mix up with the wireless sound (damn you Abdul!) system was fixed initially using a wired mic. And the rest of the evening went like clockwork! Even better than clockwork in fact! The comedians stole the show! Ahmed, as the host, kept the evening going fluidly. What thoroughly impressed me about the Jeddah show were the local comedians. Coming from modest roots, you guys have really pulled it together!

Omar Hussein impressed (despite an early mic mishap) with his take on being young, single, and in Saudi.

Omar Ramzi, easily with the largest female following in the audience, leveraged his ethnic background as an Irish-Sudani for a hilarious take on life.

Rami proved himself to be a versatile comedian, with material ranging from self deprecation to more conventional cultural jibes.

Thamer was a real surprise. A newbie to the comedy world, he.. I think the word for it is ‘devastated’… the audience with humor that would leave all of us reeling in laughter and shock.

Hessain “Snoonz” completely floored the audience with his take on Godzilla coming to Saudi Arabia.

After a (not so brief) break for snacks, the show restarted to bring on the headliner for the night: Maz Jobrani!

They had a CHOCOLATE FOUNTAIN!! This has secretly been a dream come true for me. One a side note, Lindt, can I have a chocolate shower set up in my bathroom?

Unmistakably with one of the most electric entrances of any comedian I’ve seen, Maz put on a spectacular inaugural stand-up routine for Saudi Arabia.

Aftershow

Ah the decisions you take in life… One would think after arriving back at the Rosewood at 2am, we’d decide to call it a night and get a few hours of sleep in before our flights in the morning. Instead, the LOL crew (minus Maz and Ahmed) ended up in the lobby of the hotel, ordering burgers and …. well , I distinctly remember drinking something fruity… All in all we discussed the pros and cons of the night and upcoming events in Saudi Arabia (The future is bright!).

Part of the crew poses some time around 4am in the lobby of the Rosewood

I remember staggering into my room at 5am where I made my second braindead decision. Completely floored at how amazing the room was (the BATHROOM was bigger than my room at home!) I thought it would be a great idea to hit the jacuzzi instead of sleeping. Sadly I forgot to account for the fact that I’d spent the last 24 hours running around in extremely hot and humid weather. Last thing I remember is getting into the warm water with the jets running as the sudden relaxation put me into a coma…

These rooms were too amazing to sleep in.

It’s not over! Tune in for the next post for the perils of jacuzzi usage and the “Filipino incident” in Riyadh.

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