Dubai stand-up as cultural symbiosis – that’s a laugh

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So a Saudi, a Qatari and a Bahraini walk into a bar….

It doesn’t sound quite right does it? To an English ear anyway, used to ribald tales of Englishmen, Scotsmen and Irishmen. That’s because the Arabian Gulf region, whatever else it may have going for it, is not exactly world-renowned in the comedic arts.

Well, so I thought anyway, until I recently accepted a kind invitation to spend an evening of fun and laughs with Gail Clough, founder of Dubai’s Laughter Factory, a stand-up comedy business that has been tickling ribs in the UAE since 1996.

She explained how, back then, before Dubai became the sybaritic melting pot it is today, “there wasn’t that much to do in the evening,” so she decided to relieve the tedium of all-day poolside lifestyles and night-time drinks parties with some good, old-fashioned mirth.

Since then, Laughter Factory has evolved alongside the emirate, from its roots as a mainly Anglo-expat affair into a prime example of the Dubai “salad bowl” of nationalities. On the night I went, there was only one recognisable Brit on the line-up, alongside Canadian, Asian, Egyptian and Romanian comics.

The audience too – about 100 people crammed tight into a small auditorium in the Movenpick hotel on JBR – was a near-perfect cross-section of the Dubai demographic: mainly millennials and a few Gen Zedders (they do know how to laugh, after all).

Not for the first time at a social gathering, I was probably the oldest person in the house.

There was very little “woke” on display on the night I went along

I’d always assumed comedy to be a very culture-specific activity – what makes an Irish person guffaw is rarely the same as what prompts a French giggle. Germans and Americans, of course, have no sense of humour at all, while the rest of the world is covered by the term “inscrutable” in the comics’ taxonomy.

In the West, the comedy industry has been riven by a debate about “wokeness” that has become pretty divisive in recent years. For a long time, the staples of the stand-up routine – ethnicity and gender – ruled the roost: wife and mother-in-law jokes grating side-by-side with cracks about racial stereotypes.

These were often very funny, but increasingly you were made to feel guilty about laughing out loud. One friend of mine – by no means a snowflake – walked out of a gig at the Opera when the right-wing comedian went one crack too far with a racial “joke”.

The pendulum has swung the other way, at least in the West, and now the stand-up repertoire contains barely a “take my wife” line, with comics instead directing their satire towards governments and politicians, mainly on the right of the political spectrum.

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Gail explained how that works to her advantage in the Dubai comedy scene.  

“There are jokes they can tell here that they couldn’t in Manchester, for example, because of the ‘woke’ angle.” The attitude of the authorities towards content is pretty laissez-faire, she said.

There was very little “woke” on display on the night I went along. From the vampish innuendo of Noha, the Egyptian, to the downright explicit chat of Denisa Alexe, the Romanian, it was all pretty much out there – but darn funny for all that.

The Canadian Allyson June Smith had a great line about signing over your airmiles in a pre-nup agreement, while the Brit and star of the show, Stephen Grant, delivered some hilarious observations about the drive to sustainability in Dubai hotels.

I apologise for not being able to share examples of the routines in this family-oriented website, but take it from me – it was a real laugh.

Less amusing is the economics of the comedy industry in the UAE for a boutique outfit like Laughter Factory, as Gail explained later. The comics don’t get paid a king’s ransom, but venue costs, permit fees and artists’ expenses all make it difficult to compete against bigger promoters who have corporate backing and access to bigger venues and audiences.

She will keep cracking on with it by offering something truly unique – a real comedic cultural symbiosis.

Next up is the first genuine Emirati comic – an Abu Dhabi artist called Abz Ali who wants to showcase his domestic patter on the big stage. That promises to be a must-laugh. I do hope he tries the one about the Saudi, the Qatari and the Bahraini.

Frank Kane is Editor-at-Large of AGBI and an award-winning business journalist. He acts as a consultant to the Ministry of Energy of Saudi Arabia