Posted by
NidalM
on
Jun 19th, 2009 |
5 comments
For the 2 of you that haven’t heard, Ahmed Ahmed and Maz Jobrani were in Saudi Arabia this week for a comedy tour in Riyadh and Jeddah. I was called up to tour with them and cover the stage performances and backstage antics. This was the first time an event of this scale has been performed in Saudi Arabia. History was made. And here is your inside scoop, from a photographers perspective.
First, let me introduce you to the people that toured across Saudi Arabia to make you laugh. And we loved every minute of it!
Peter Howarth-Lees

The man who made it all happen. Peter runs
Smile Productions, which has hosted similar events in the past. He’s brought you Ahmed Ahmed and more recently, Jeff Mirza. This crazy Brit has the vision to bring laughter to KSA and the connections and know-how to make it happen.
Maz Jobrani

The headliner of the tour, this is one Irania- sorry – PERSIAN that you simply just HAVE to see on stage. Cool and collected while on tour, but a genius at comedy and improvisation in front of a crowd. This would be the second time I’ve worked with Maz; the first time was in Egypt last month during Egypt’s Comedy Rumble tour.
Ahmed Ahmed

Well known for his Axis of Evil comedy tour last year and the Egypt Comedy Rumble tour where I first met him, Ahmed is a true celebrity in the world of comedy. This was the second time for Ahmed to be performing on stage in Saudi Arabia. And his cool and laid back attitude made sure that we didn’t take ourselves too seriously during the tour. Ahmed has been working on a documentary titled “Smile on Arabia” which will show the Arab world in a new light and seeks to dispel the notion that we’re all ultra-religious hard asses.
Taylor Feltner

All the way from Hollywood, CA, Taylor has been working with Ahmed on his comedy “Smile on Arabia”. I met Taylor in Egypt last month and as coincidence would have it, we’d be working together on the Saudi tour as well. Taylor can get
really quiet when holding his camera. Also, he gets stopped at airports way more than I do. A statistic, that I, as a brown man, am particularly proud of.
Todd Nims

A former Aramco Brat, Todd has been working on several film projects around Saudi Arabia. He was brought in by Peter to cover the show from our side and would also be working on the documentary. I met Todd earlier in May, while covering the Gags to Riches comedy show in Dhahran. Always smiling, you cant help but love this guy!
Ali Kalthami

Always the man with the plan, Ali has been working with Todd on an All-Saudi produced comedy show in Riyadh. Ali was a videographer on the tour, working with Todd and his crew as well as helping facilitate a lot of the frictions of operating a camera in Saudi Arabia with his shiny Al-Arabiya news channel ID!
Abdullah Mohiuddin

Likes long walks on the beach, quiet evenings by candlelight…. ;P Just read the about section, I’m not repeating myself here!
Well, that’s us! Stay tuned for the next posing on the Jeddah event.
Tags:
ahmed ahmed, comedy, LOL, maz, maz jobrani, nidalm, photographer, photography, saudi, saudi arabia
No related posts found
Liked this post? Subscribe to my RSS Feed or add me on Twitter for updates.
Or share it with your friends!