DUBAI // Walking to the front of the class, Shaima al Sayed said what she presumed everyone else was thinking: "I bet you're all wondering what a girl in an abaya is doing standing here."
Her statement, direct and honest, got the reaction she was looking for - a burst of laughter.
Ms al Sayed, an Emirati, was taking part in a three-day stand-up comedy workshop being hosted by Dubomedy, the Mena region's only comedy school. She was trying out her act for the first time, and most of the jokes revolved around the fact that she wore the veil.
"I saw it as a good opportunity to erase stereotypes about Emirati and Arab women in general because so many people still think that wearing the veil means we can't make our own decisions," she said. "Comedy is an excellent form of communication to redress these assumptions. When you laugh you feel happy and it is not possible to have negative feelings. That's why I wanted to learn."
Ms al Sayed was one of 20 students at the workshop led by Dean Obeidallah, a former member of the Axis of Evil comedy team who will be performing in Dubai tomorrow.
Dubomedy invited him to the workshop to reinforce the foundations of a stand-up comedy infrastructure it has been building since being established three years ago.
"In the rest of the world the performing arts are very well established, but here they are not so much," said Mina Liccione, the comedy school's co-director. "It has to start with education and that's what we were doing when we set up Dubomedy."
The workshop, which began on Sunday, aimed at teaching the finer points of how to set up a joke, deliver a punchline and find a character as a comedian.
Obeidallah will select two students to perform a short sketch prior to his performance at Reel Cinemas in Dubai Mall.
"Every time I do shows around the region I like to lead some kind of workshop because otherwise I would just be a western import," he said. "My Middle Eastern roots mean a lot to me and it is important for me to maintain that connection."
Obeidallah - half Palestinian and half Italian - was born in New York and has worked to promote Middle Eastern comedians in the US. "I feel excited to be part of the growing comedy movement here in the UAE and the region, and I hope the students here benefit from the small contribution I can make," he said.
